Kentucky and Texas A&M to Contest NCAA Volleyball Title in Kansas City
SEC Teams Meet for National Championship in Kansas City
No. 2 Kentucky and No. 6 Texas A&M are scheduled to play for the NCAA women's volleyball national championship on Sunday afternoon at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, at 3:30 p.m. ET.
This is the first time in the history of the Southeastern Conference that two SEC programs will face each other in the national volleyball championship match. The contest will conclude the 2025 NCAA volleyball season and will guarantee that an SEC team wins the national title.
SEC Milestone and Recent Championship History
Craig Skinner's Kentucky program won the SEC's first national championship in women's volleyball in 2020, a title that was decided in spring 2021 because of COVID-19. Texas won national championships in 2022 and 2023. Texas joined the SEC in 2024.
Sunday's match will ensure that four teams currently in the SEC have captured the national championship in the past six years, including Kentucky and Texas. The SEC had three teams—Kentucky, Texas and Texas A&M—ranked in the top 10 in the final regular-season poll before this year's tournament.
Coaches and Conference Leadership Comments
Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner acknowledged what he described as a shift in the league's standing, crediting SEC coaches for helping position the conference as an elite volleyball league. Skinner, who was an assistant coach when Nebraska won the national title in 2000, began coaching at Kentucky in 2005 and said he used the goal of winning the SEC's first national volleyball championship as a recruiting message.
Tiffany Daniels, the SEC's associate commissioner and senior woman administrator, said nonconference scheduling, institutional investment, and strong coaching hires contributed to the conference's rise in women's volleyball. Daniels said that when Greg Sankey became SEC commissioner in 2015, he identified volleyball as the only conference sport at that time without a national title and met with coaches to ask what the conference could do to help win a championship. Daniels said coaches responded by thinking strategically, and she described current success as the result of that work.
Return of SEC Volleyball Tournament
The SEC held a volleyball tournament this fall for the first time in about two decades. Texas A&M head coach Jamie Morrison said he was initially unsure about the idea of a conference tournament. Morrison said commissioner Greg Sankey pushed for the event to create something around which to build commercialization of the sport. Morrison said the tournament produced high-level matches between strong teams in pressure situations.
Paths to the National Championship Match
Kentucky and Texas A&M both reached the national championship match through comeback victories. Kentucky rallied from a one-set deficit to defeat Wisconsin in five sets in the national semifinals. Texas A&M came back from two sets down against Louisville in the regional semifinals, then eliminated Nebraska in a fifth set in the regional final.
Earlier in the season, Kentucky defeated Texas A&M in four sets on Oct. 8 in College Station, with set scores of 21-25, 25-22, 25-15 and 27-25.
Player Performances and Tournament Statistics
Texas A&M aims to become the third SEC program, alongside Kentucky and Texas, to win a national championship in women's volleyball.
Kentucky features Purdue transfer Eva Hudson, averaging 4.59 kills per set, and Brooklyn DeLeye, averaging 4.62 kills per set. Texas A&M's attack is led by Logan Lednicky, averaging 4.11 kills per set, and Kyndal Stowers, averaging 3.50 kills per set. Collectively, those four pin hitters have totaled 351 kills during the NCAA tournament.
Hudson recorded 29 kills with a .455 hitting percentage in Kentucky's semifinal win over Wisconsin, finishing the match with the final kill. Stowers and Lednicky combined for 30 kills in Texas A&M's sweep of Pitt in the semifinals, which sent the Aggies to their first national championship match.
Hudson identified Kentucky middle blocker Lizzie Carr and outside hitter Asia Thigpen as key contributors, stating that the team is highly effective when Carr is playing well. Hudson also noted that Thigpen, who is 5-foot-11, is sometimes overlooked because of her height.
Texas A&M's roster includes nine seniors, including middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla. Senior Ava Underwood said she wants to end her collegiate career as a winner and described the team's daily mindset as striving to be the “grittiest” team on the court.
Coaching Impact at Texas A&M
In his third season as head coach at Texas A&M, Jamie Morrison has guided the Aggies to their first final four appearance and their first national championship match. After the semifinal win over Pitt, Morrison credited the senior class with helping to build a foundation he believes will last beyond this season.
Attendance and Atmosphere in Kansas City
The NCAA reported that Thursday night's semifinal session at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City drew 18,322 spectators, which the organization described as a sellout. Kristin Fasbender, the NCAA's director of championships and alliances, said empty seats observed in the lower bowl early in the evening were mostly sections allotted to teams and were later filled as fans arrived for the second match.
The NCAA stated that last year's national championship match in Louisville, Kentucky, set an NCAA postseason attendance record with 21,860 fans at the KFC Yum! Center.
Morrison said he noticed the presence of many Nebraska fans in Kansas City during the semifinals and commented on their continued support of the sport.