What to watch when Texas A&M & Kentucky meet for volleyball title in KC on Sunday
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Texas A&M and Kentucky meet in NCAA women’s volleyball final; both SEC teams.
- A&M posts program-best 28-4 season and upset two No.1 seeds en route to final.
- Kentucky reaches first final since 2021; Topeka natives DeLeye, Tillman add local ties.
Two historic seasons will come to opposing ends inside T-Mobile Center on Sunday when Texas A&M and Kentucky face off for the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball national championship.
It’s a title match that will feature two Southeastern Conference schools for the first time.
Both teams play with confidence, swagger and a determination that has resonated with fans around the country. They have watched in large numbers, making this year’s tourney one of the most closely followed in the history of the event.
The Aggies (28-4) are currently having their best season yet. And they’re still collecting big wins, including — and most recently — knocking off consecutive No. 1 seeds amid the longest postseason run in program history.
Texas A&M, led by third-year head coach Jamie Morrison, swept 1-seed Pittsburgh in Thursday’s first semifinal in front of a sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Center.
SEC champion Kentucky, meanwhile, is overseen by head coach Craig Skinner, who is in his third decade of running the program in Lexington, Ky. UK (30-2) has reached the national championship match for the first time since winning a pandemic-amended tournament in spring 2021.
The Wildcats edged out 3-seed Wisconsin on Thursday in a five-set battle that saw them fall behind the Badgers in nearly every statistical category.
Two Topeka natives are suited up (in different roles) for Kentucky: Brooklyn DeLeye is an All-American outside hitter and Amaya Tillman is a Wildcats assistant coach.
The SEC effect
Conference rivals A&M and Kentucky last played on Oct. 8, with Kentucky taking a 3-1 win after dropping the first set.
But both squads have developed since then. Each coach praised the newly restored SEC volleyball tournament for preparing his team well for the road ahead.
“Fifteen years ago, I would’ve said, ‘No way,’” Skinner said, “because there’s just so much going on, and there’s so many other leagues that were better than us.
“The SEC is known for putting on championships, and we’re the only sport in the league that didn’t have a championship. And so there’s a lot of different minds and thoughts going into it, and culminating in what I thought was a spectacle for volleyball, and I believe did a tremendous job of putting a spotlight on our athletes.”
“It prepared us amazingly,” Morrison said of the SEC tournament. “All of a sudden we got really good volleyball against really good teams in pressure situations. I’ve said it— the more you do that, the better off you are.
“We’re one of the most prepared teams in the country. Again, Kentucky is the same way because they had the same path. I think it’s really good for our conference. I’m proud, also.”
Storylines to watch
Texas A&M Aggies
The Aggies have seen a meteoric rise in their program since Morrison took over.
Before his hire, A&M had made it to two quarterfinals. That was the extent of the program’s postseason history. And now the former international coach has produced the Aggies’ best season ever in just his third year at the helm.
College athletics’ jarring world of Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal has actually helped Morrison build his roster. Sophomore outside hitter Kyndal Stowers is a prime example.
A top recruit, Stowers joined the Aggies this season after being medically retired at Baylor due to multiple concussions during her freshman year in 2023. She now leads a dynamic Aggies attack and is coming off a 16-kill performance in the semifinals.
The sister of standout Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers, she has described her season as nothing short of surreal. After all, not long ago she believed she was done with volleyball.
“A year ago today I was sitting on my couch watching the Final Four being played. Now, here I am playing in it. That is so insane to me,” Stowers said Thursday. “I really don’t have any words for it, other than I feel like that just proves how faithful the Lord is. I couldn’t have done that myself — one, put myself in that position; two, come back and now have this amazing season, go beat Nebraska in their house, now go play in the Final Four.”
All-American senior Logan Lednicky, who was on Team USA this past summer, leads the Aggies in kills and is a multiple-time first-team all-SEC selection. Lednicky, who followed the footsteps of family members who had previously gone to college in College Station, recorded 14 kills against Pitt.
Texas A&M’s most impactful baller is arguably middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, a first-team All-American who leads the nation in blocks. She has a focused demeanor on the court but is prone to subtle celebrations, like shoulder-shrugs after a block or a kill.
It’s all part of Cos-Okpalla’s game, an approach that energizes her teammates. She collected five block-assists and eight kills in Thursday’s semis. And senior All-American setter Maddie Waak set up her teammates with 48 assists.
The Aggies’ run has helped them gain new fans through their stories, frenetic play and animated celebrations. Regarding the latter, Morrison coaches his players to be themselves.
“It’s pretty much every day we’ve heard it, just be us. Not only just us as a team, us as individuals,” Cos-Okpalla said. “That’s what makes us us, or makes me me or Kendal Kendal or Logan Logan. We all bring something different to the team.”
Kentucky Wildcats
The Wildcats’ All-American core of senior Eva Hudson, DeLeye, junior Molly Tuozzo and AVCA Freshman of the Year Kassie O’Brien helped will UK past a 25-12 third-set loss to Wisconsin on Thursday.
Hudson, the SEC Player of the Year and an AVCA Player of the Year finalist, has been the offensive anchor. DeLeye, who struggled throughout the match but made clutch plays in the fourth and fifth sets, has a multi-faceted skill-set that teammates say gives them a lift.
The Topeka native and Washburn Rural alumna marvelled at her team’s performance after Thursday’s match in KC, at which she had multiple friends and family in attendance.
“It’s nothing like it,” DeLeye said after the match. “I’ve had everybody texting me throughout the time (in KC). I just have felt so loved over this week. It’s just so cool that I get to represent just a place like Topeka. I would not be anywhere, the person I am today, without each and every one of those people.”
Skinner applied that thinking to his team and took it a step further.
“We don’t have Brooklyn, we don’t win last night,” he said Friday. “I don’t really care what the stats say. ... Brooklyn was as focused in set five as she was in set one. Props to her.”
The Topeka connection
Tillman, a Shawnee Heights alumna, is in her first season as an assistant coach on Skinner’s staff.
She enjoyed an All-American career as a middle blocker for Louisville (2019-22) and knew DeLeye only vaguely. But they’ve since bonded over their hometown connection.
When they saw the Final Four would be in Kansas City, they shared a mutual excitement while understanding the long road it would take to get here.
“We didn’t want to talk about it too much, just because it’s been a thing on the team to not hype it up too much and just take one game at a time,” Tillman said. “But we did talk about it, like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re gonna go home. Like, hopefully we can go home.’”
After a thrilling semifinal, Kentucky’s players said they were focused on clearing their minds for Sunday’s big match and the challenge of facing a team they’ve already beaten. They drew smiley faces on their hands to remind themselves to play with joy. And Skinner showed them pictures of themselves from earlier in the season to remind them of why being joyful is important.
For the two Topeka natives, winning a national championship so close to home would be incredible.
“Just to put (area code) 785 on the map, and in Kansas City, it just makes it even more special,” Tillman said. “I know it means a lot to have family and friends able to come, and I’m sure Brooklyn has said the same.
“And just what a small world college athletics is, and college volleyball is, for us to be from the same hometown and then end up at the same places ... and we’re not even playing together.”
