#8 Texas A&M @ #15 TCU 9-10-2025 WVB

Dear Readers~

    Welcome to the next NCAA Division 1 indoor volleyball game. In this game we have #8 Texas A&M (which I will simply call A&M for today) traveling to Fort Worth as they take on #15 TCU at the Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena for the matchup that took place on Wednesday, September 10th. For those who don't know, in the previous week, A&M was ranked #11 while TCU was ranked #24, so as you can see, both made quite the jump in their rankings. TCU actually made the biggest jump up at a total of 9 spots out of any of the teams that stayed in the top 25 the previous two weeks. Going into the game, TCU was sitting at a record of 3-1 while A&M was sitting at a score of 5-1. With A&M coming off of a loss to SMU (Southern Methodist University) while TCU is coming off of their 3 straight wins (two of which to UCLA, both in Fort Worth during the previous week) and a loss to Pittsburg in their first game of the season, let's get into this game and see how these teams do.

     For those who have seen my coverage of the NCAA beach games back in the spring, I explained the difference between the beach and indoor games. For those who don't know, the way indoor works is you have to win 3 sets, whether it be all 3, or 3 of the 4/5 sets that are played. As for the scoring, for the beach, it's played first to 21 while indoor is played first to 25 and both require a lead of two points or more for the set to conclude. If a fifth set is needed, the teams play first to 15 instead of 25 but the lead of two points or more is still enforced. Unlike the beach game, you can switch players in and out (the NCAA only gives you 15 per set so you have to use them wisely with 6 players on the court), like in basketball for example, but with beach you can't switch them out and you only get one timeout for each set per team as to where NCAA indoor gets two timeouts per set for each team since they generally play longer sets. Enough about the beach game, let's get into this indoor game from Forth Worth, home to the I-35W interstate.

    This game was quite intense, so I hope you enjoy the summary of the game. The first set ended 26-24 in favor of A&M. The second set ended 25-22 in favor of TCU. The third set ended 25-19 in favor of A&M, along with the biggest score gap of any of the sets, and puts A&M only one successful set away from victory. The fourth set ended 25-21 in favor of TCU and tied it up a 2 sets for each team and caused the fifth set. Remember that the fifth set is first to 15, not 25, but a lead of 2 points or more is required. This set ended 15-12 in favor of TCU and gave them the 3-2 victory over A&M that was needed to hand A&M their second straight loss of the season after coming off of 5 straight wins. This brings A&M's record to 5-2 while TCU has a record of 4-1. With #15 taking down #8, this game was just one of the many upsets that college volleyball witnessed during this specific week.

    Now that we know how the game ended score wise, let's see who some of the top athletes from each team are. We will learn not only about some of the players from each team, but also the five different stats that will be covered. These five stats include kills, aces, blocks, assists, and digs. Up first we have kills. The leader goes to A&M's Emily Hellmuth, with 20, while her teammate Kyndal Stowers and TCU's Samara Coleman both came up second with 19. As for aces, the leader goes to TCU's Lauren Murphy, with 3, Samara Coleman, with 2, and Ella Foti, with 1. As for A&M, Morgan Perkins, Tatum Thomas, and Kyndal Stowers all had 1 ace each. The leader in blocks goes to TCU's Sarah Sylvester, with 11, followed by A&M's Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, with 8. The leader in assists goes to A&M's Maddie Waak, with 56, while TCU's Ella Foti (26) and Rosemary Archer (23) come in second and third. The leaeder in digs goes to TCU's Alice Volpe, with 18. Second place gives us TCU's Evan Hendrix and A&M's Kyndal Showers, each with 16, while third place gives us A&M's Logan Lednicky and Maddie Waak, each with 15.

    With this game covered, let's see who these two will play next. TCU's next game is against Kansas on October 1st at 6:30pm Central time in Fort Worth (for those who don't know, I'm from Kansas) while A&M will play their next match against South Carolina at 6pm Central time on October 1st, in Columbia, South Carolina. Which team will you be watching since they play at the same time?

The NCAA never lets us down with the weekly rankings list. Pictured above is Nebraska's Laney Choboy. To keep up with how the season is going for all teams, give the NCAA a follow over on their Instagram: @ncaavolleyball

TCU's instagram post for their game against Texas A&M. Give them a follow over on their Instagram to see how their season goes: @tcuvolleyball

Texas A&M giving us their match day post on their Instagram. Give them a follow on that platform to see how their season goes: @aggievolleyball

NCAA showing us the results on their Instagram. Who were you cheering for?

    This concludes the latest game of the 2025 Division 1 NCAA indoor women's volleyball. Despite both being in Texas, this was the only time these two will play each other in the  2025 regular season. Do you think they will play each other in the championship bracket or will we have to wait for the 2026 season to see them play each other again? Stick around to find out. If there's a certain school or matchup you'd like to see, let me know and until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller