TCU @ Texas A&M 12-6-2025 WVB Second Round

Dear Readers~

    The 2025 NCAA Division 1 Indoor Volleyball national championships are underway. Last time the first-round game was covered so this time the second-round game will have its turn. For the second-round game I chose #3 Texas A&M hosting #6 TCU in College Station, Texas at the Reed Arena. The game took place on December 6th at 7pm Central Time. A few teams from this quadrant of the bracket include Kansas, Miami, Louisville, and of course, the top team in the nation, Nebraska (some refer to this as the "Nebraska Quadrant"). I did cover a previous match up back in September between TCU and A&M if you remember that game but I did cover A&M a little more recently when they were the first team to beat Texas (who is in a different quadrant for the tournament) but this will only be the second time I've covered TCU this season.

    Let's take a look at how the teams did in the first round that brough them here. TCU beat SFA (Stephen F Austin) 3-0 while A&M beat Campbell 3-0 in their first round to move on to the second round. A surprising number of first round games ended 3-0 actually. Going into the tournament, A&M ended the regular season at 22-4 with a loss to Texas and then got to 23-4 after concluding the first round with a win. TCU ended their regular season at 20-10 with a win against Houston then got it to 21-10 after winning their first round. Which Texas team do you think will come out on top: host A&M or TCU?

    Before we get into today's game, let's see who's coaching these teams starting off with host A&M. They are coached by Jamie Morrison as Head Coach, Lindsey Walton as Associate Head Coach, Jen Woods as the other Associate Head Coach, Jeff Fiorenza as the General Manager and Assistant Coach, Joe Skinner as Director of Analytics, Kaitlyn Corbett as Director of Operations, Tom Blugstad as the Strength and Conditioning Coach, Taylor Tedesky as Athletic Trainer, and Scott Battley as Director of Sports Science Service. Now let's see who's on the coaching staff for TCU.  TCU's Head Coach is Jason Williams, Morgan Thomas is the Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator, Brett Anema is the Assistant Coach, Keith Smith is the other Assistant Coach, China Perkins is the Director of Operations, Justin Girodat is the Graduate Assistant, and Brendon Park is the other Graduate Assistant.

     If you've been following along this season, I'm sure you have an idea of how the sport works in the NCAA and the national championships are no different but for those who haven't seen my coverage of some of the earlier games in the season, let's explain. The NCAA indoor games are played anywhere from 3 to 5 sets. If you win 3 sets, you've won the game but if you lose 3 sets, you've lost the game, and this is the point in the season where if you lose, your season is over. The game can last anywhere from 3 to 5 sets, depending on how long it takes one team to win three sets. The first four sets are played first to 25 (which happens very often unless you're Nebraska or Kentucky for example) while the fifth set (if needed) is played first to 15. The thing is each set requires a lead of 2 points or more for the set to conclude. With most sets playing to 25, each team is given two timeouts for each set, just like how a timeout works in basketball. Just like in basketball, the NCAA lets teams switch out players up to 15 times each set but with 6 players on the court for each team, the changes need to be smart and strategic. With our explanation over, let's get into today's game from the middle of the Texas Triangle (a triangle made up of the cities of Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio) as we see who can win their second-round game and move on to the third round to play Louisville in the Nebraskan capital of Lincoln.

    With each game from here on out being such a big deal (since if you lose a game, your season is over) each team is aware of how important this part of the season is for them. Every set of the game was close, to the point that only one set didn't end with a two point lead. The first set ended at 25-23 in favor of TCU, giving them a 1-0 lead over A&M. A&M would go on to redeem themselves in the second set as they would win it 25-22, having the biggest gap come the conclusion of the sets from this game and giving each team a set going into the third set. The third set ended 25-23, like the first. This set would end in favor of A&M and give them a 2-1 lead over TCU going into the fourth set. The fourth set would end at 29-27, proving how important the 2 point rule can be in a game. The winner of this fourth set would be A&M giving them the 3-1 win they needed to beat TCU and move on to the third round. A&M would end the game with 83 points while TCU would end with only 77, still impressive but not quite enough to beat A&M.

    Now that we know which team came out on top, let's see who's the top athlete of the game and who led in the 5 stats we'll be covering. These 5 stats include kills, aces, blocks, assists and digs. The first stat is kills and the leader is TCU's Evan Hendrix, with 26, while A&M's Logan Lednicky and Kyndal Stowers weren't too far behind with 21 and 19 respectively. The leader in aces was A&M's Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, with 4, while TCU's Lauren Murphy had 2. A&M's Maddie Waak and Kyndal Stowers along with TCU's Ella Foti and Alice Volpe all had one ace each. The leader in blocks goes to TCU's Sarah Sylvester, with 7, while her teammates Alexis Roberson and Lauren Murphy along with A&M's Ifenna Cos-Okpalla and Morgan Perkins each had 5 blocks of their own. A&M's Logan Lednicky would end the game with the next highest, with 3 blocks of her own. The leader in assists goes to A&M's Maddie Waak, with 50, while TCU was led by Ella Foti, with 31, and Rosemary Archer, with 13. The leader in digs goes to the previously mentioned Alice Volpe, of TCU, with 14, while Kyndal Stowers and Logan Lednicky led A&M with 13 and 12 digs respectively. The athlete that's showed up the most is a tie with one player from TCU and three from A&M. For TCU we have Outside Hitter Lauren Murphy who showed up in three of the five stats with 13 kills, 2 aces, and 5 blocks. For A&M we have Opposite Logan Lednicky, Setter Maddie Waak, and Outside Hitter Kyndal Stowers. Lednicky ended the game with 21 kills, 3 blocks, and 12 digs. Waak ended the game with 1 ace, 50 assists, and 10 digs. Stowers ended the game with 19 kills, 1 ace, and 13 digs.

    With this being the end of TCU's season, they would end the 2025 season at 21-11. As for A&M, they would go on to beat Louisville in the third round with a final score of 3-2 to play a team in the quarterfinals I can't name at this moment. That is because this team (and game) will be covered in the next one so stay tuned for that here shortly.

A&M showing us their Matchday post they posted on their Instagram for the second-round matchup against TCU. Give them a follow over on Instagram to see what their off season is like: @aggievolleyball

TCU showing us their matchday Instagram post for their second-round game against A&M. Give them a follow over on their page to see what they're up to this off season: @tcuvolleyball

A&M showing their 3-1 victory over TCU to move them to the third round to take on Louisville

TCU giving their followers a big thank you for the 2025 season

A&M showing us the number of attendees who watched the second-round game there in College Station

NCAA letting us know A&M moves on to the third round to take on Louisville in Lincoln, Nebraska

The victory over TCU moves A&M into the round of 16

    This concludes the second round of the 2025 NCAA Division 1 National Championships as the teams work their way to the semifinals and finals that took place at the T Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri on December 18th and 21st. Next time will cover the third-round game of Nebraska hosting Kansas in Lincoln. With Nebraska being so dominant this season, will they beat Kansas and move on to play A&M or will they croak and give Kansas the win to move on to play A&M? Come the spring I will be covering NCAA Beach Volleyball but if you prefer the indoor game, I can cover the men's indoor season as well so let me know what you'd like to read about and until next time, Miller out

~J. Miller