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Elizabeth Merrill
Kansas City, MO. – As she has been known to do recently during this incredible run by the Texas A&M volleyball team, All-America hitter Logan Lednicki picked up 5-foot-7-inch teammate Ava Underwood and hoisted her into the air Thursday night.
“We’re going to the national championship!” he told Underwood.
“I know,” Underwood replied.
The Aggies won another marathon set in the postseason and defeated No. 1 seed Pittsburgh, 29–27, 25–21, 25–20, in the Final Four of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament at T-Mobile Center. The win sets up a tough SEC showdown against Kentucky in Sunday’s championship game.
A week earlier, Texas A&M was on the verge of elimination and suffered a reverse sweep of second-seeded Louisville in the Sweet 16. The Aggies then ended Nebraska’s undefeated season with a five-set sweep in Lincoln on Sunday, which included a 37-35 fourth-set blowout. Lednicki then called the Aggies “the most serious team in volleyball.” It was hard to dispute the label Thursday, when they calmly endured an 8-0 run in the second game against Pitt.
The Aggies have become a fan favorite during the NCAA Tournament, a Cinderella story of sorts, an overachieving team that got fired up at the right time and are riding a wave of momentum. But coach Jamie Morrison is adamant his team has reached the title match on the back of fleeting and volatile momentum.
He says this is by design.
“I think volleyball is a game of speed if — this is not a sound bite — your mind is weak,” Morrison said Thursday night. “The thing I talk about a lot in our program is that I care less about mistakes and more about reactions.
“We talk a lot about mental strength and mental toughness and the skills involved in that… We started this season talking about who you are as a human being, then in the middle of the season we talked about who you are as a competitor. When you get to these big moments, you’ve got four points, it’s a game of momentum because you start to lose track of who you are.”
The most relevant topic to the Aggies’ success is where they are.
Four seniors – Lednicki, Underwood, Ifena Kos-Okpala and Lexi Guinn – went 5-13 in SEC play as freshmen in 2022. Lednicki and Underwood were A&M legacies who dreamed of wearing the maroon and gold, and turning A&M into a volleyball powerhouse. It wasn’t until 2023 that that dream came into focus. When Morrison arrived.
Underwood said, “When he took the job, there was no question in my mind that I would stay. I knew he was the guy that could make this place a great place for volleyball and for people to go, and that was something I wanted to be a part of. It didn’t take much convincing for me.”
“He has a lot of buzzwords, but I think the biggest thing is just being yourself. He’s not going to make a lot of copies of the same type of competitor. He really embraces all of us for the differences that we have, and I think that’s what makes our team so special.”
By 2024, Morrison had the Aggies in the Sweet 16. They ran into second-seeded Wisconsin and came within two points of winning, losing in five sets. Morrison, who was named the 2025 Division I AVCA Coach of the Year on Thursday, said this year’s team is taking advantage of that experience. Underwood takes it a step further.
“Honestly, I think losing in the tournament last year was a defining moment for us,” Underwood said.
A few weeks later, the Aggies added Kendall Stowers to their roster. The sophomore at Baylor was medically retired after being concussed four times over an eight-month period. Stowers has been one of the Aggies’ most impactful players, and she led the team with 16 kills and .433 hitting on Thursday.
She has been absolutely fit. When Stowers hit a kill to give the Aggies a 13-11 lead in the third game Thursday, she glanced sideways and flashed a knowing smile at her teammates. Texas A&M had taken control.
“I think we came together as a team,” Stowers said of their rally in the second game that set the tone for the match. “A similar incident happened when we were playing Nebraska. We were way ahead, and they went on a run. Fourth set, that went on forever. We said, ‘Hey, we’re not doing that again.
“‘They’re on the run right now, we’re going to recognize that, give them props for what they’re doing, but we’re going to respond and we’re not going to let that happen.'”
It was an uncharacteristically short postseason night for the Aggies. In the third game, Koss-Okpala hit a ball through the Panthers’ defense and sealed the victory. After the ball was dropped and the crowd erupted, Kos-Okpala casually walked back to the center of the court, and joined her teammates, who were bouncing around in a circle.
The pro-A&M crowd held up large head cutouts of their favorite players and high-fived Lednicki’s children and a few more teammates into the air.
Neither he nor the rest of the Aggies were surprised. They were building on this side.
“Honestly, I think [the postseason mentality] That’s what it’s been like,” Lednicki said. “I know it’s probably like beating a dead horse, but all you keep hearing is, ‘Why not us?’ In fact, why not us?
“In many of these moments we are considered the underdogs because we haven’t been here before. But we know we have all the right things.
“So why not us?”
