#2 Texas @ #9 Texas A&M 10-31-2025 WVB
Dear Readers~
This week's game took place on October 31st at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas. This game had #9 Texas A&M (which I will call A&M for this game's coverage) hosting the #2 team of Texas. Going into the game, Texas was sitting at 18-0 for the season (one of only two undefeated teams going into the final day of October, the other being #1 Nebraska) while A&M was 17-3 (with a 5-game win streak and only losing to Kentucky, TCU, and SMU). This is the only time they will play each other in the regular season so let's get into today's game to see who came out on top. will Texas continue being undefeated and A&M getting its fourth loss of the season or will A&M be the first team to beat Texas in the 2025 season? Let's get into today's game to find out.
For those who have seen my coverage of the NCAA beach games back in the spring and my previous indoor games covering this 2025 season, I have been explaining 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 (if you're Nebraska lately), or 3 of the 4/5 sets that are played (more so if you're a school like Wisconsin). As for the scoring, the beach game is 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 for indoor or a third set for the beach 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 College Station, Texas as this state rivalry gets underway.
The first set was quite the start as it ended 25-19 in favor of A&M. The second set wasn't much better as it ended 25-23, also in favor of A&M. This means A&M is only one set away from giving Texas their first loss of the season. The third set would end at 25-17, in favor of Texas, with A&M still in the lead at 2-1. The fourth set would end at 25-19 again, but this time in favor of Texas. With each team having won two sets, a fifth set was needed. This set would end at 15-13, the closest set since the second set. This final set would end in favor of A&M and give Texas their first loss of the 2025 season and make Nebraska the only undefeated team remaining.
With the game over, let's see who some of the top athletes from each team are. The 5 stats we'll look into include kills, aces, blocks, assists, and digs. With this being a 5-set game and each set being very close, all 5 stats will have high numbers as a result. The leader in kills goes to Torrey Stafford of Texas, with 24, followed very closely with A&M's Kyndall Stowers, with 22, and lastly, Texas' Abby Vander Wal, with 19. The leader in aces goes to Texas' Torrey Stafford again, with 2, while Texas' Emma Halter and Anja Kujundzlc along with A&M's Logan Lednicky, Maddie Waak, and Tatum Thomas all had one ace each. The leader in blocks goes to A&M's Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, with 9, Logan Lednicky, with 6, and Morgan Perkins, with 5. The leaders for Texas include Nya Bunton, with 3, Cari Spears, with 2, and Torrey Stafford, with 1. The leader for assists goes to Ella Swindle, of Texas, with 49, while Maddie Waak led A&M with 46 assists of her own. The leader in digs goes to A&M's Logan Lednicky, with 17, while Texas was led by Emma Halter, with 16 of her own. Now let's see which athletes showed up the most for each team. For Texas we have Outside Hitter Torrey Stafford with 24 kills, 2 aces, 1 block, and 11 digs. For A&M we have Opposite Logan Lednicky with 12 kills, 1 ace, 6 blocks, and 17 digs. Did either of these athletes being at the top surprise you?
With today's game concluded, let's see who each team will play next. Texas will be in the SEC Tournament this weekend at the Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia as they play either Missouri, Ole Miss, or LSU. A&M will have their next game this same weekend at the same venue as Texas but will be playing either Georgia, Mississippi State, or Vanderbilt (since this tournament hasn't happened yet) as both Texas and A&M are automatically in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament. If you would like one of these SEC games covered, let me know or if there's another conference that you'd prefer, let me know as well.
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