Texas A&M vs Pittsburg 12-18-2025 WVB Semifinal #1
Dear Readers~
We have reached Semifinal #1 of the 2025 NCAA Division 1 National Championships of Women's Indoor Volleyball. This means this is the third to last game of the season I will cover. Today's game has the Pittsburg Panthers from Pennsylvania taking on the Texas A&M Aggies from Texas. Both semifinal games and the championships took place at the T Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Today's game took place on December 18th at 5:30pm Central Time. In the regional finals, Pittsburg beat Purdue 3-1 while A&M beat Nebraska 3-2. Who do you think will come out on top in today's game: the only team to beat Nebraska in all of 2025 or one of the best teams all season? With A&M having a record of 28-4 and Pittsburg with a record of 30-4, who do you think will get their 5th and final loss as well as who will win and go on to play in the national championships a few days later? Let's find out in today's game.
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 (or earlier in the tournament), 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 3 sets, 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 Kansas City, Missouri as we see who can win their semifinal game and move on to the national championships to play either Kentucky or Wisconsin in the finals at the T Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri just a few days after this game.
This is the point in the season where every point matters because if you lose the game, your season is over just one game away from the national championships but if you win, you have a shot at the national title. The first set was tough as it ended 29-27 in favor of A&M, giving them a 1-0 lead over Pittsburg. The second set had a little more of a gap in the scoring as it ended 25-21, in favor of A&M again, giving them a 2-0 lead and letting Pittsburg know it's now or never to step up. The third set had the biggest gap in scoring as it ended 25-20. This third set would end in favor of A&M again and giving them the 3 sets they needed to win and beating one of the best teams in the nation 3-0 after beating Nebraska 3-2 just the previous weekend to get to this point. Pittsburg would end the game with 54 points but not enough as A&M would end the game with 64 points and moving on to the finals a few days later.
When it comes to the five stats, let's see how each team did. The five stats we'll be looking at include kills, aces, blocks, assists, and digs. The leader in kills is undisputed as this player got an impressive 22 kills in the three-set match. This player is Pittsburg's Olivia Babcock, one of the most well-known players this season. After her are A&M's Kyndal Stowers and Logan Lednicky, with 16 and 14 respectively. The leader in aces is A&M's Maddie Waak, with 3, and is the only player to have multiple aces. A&M's Logan Lednicky and Tatum Thomas along with Pittsburg's Brooke Mosher and Izzy Masten all had one ace each for their teams. The leader in blocks is the previously mentioned Olivia Babcock, of Pittsburg. Babcock had 6 blocks. She was followed shortly by A&M's Ifenna Cos-Okpella, with 5, and Pittsburg's Bre Kelley, with 4. The leader in assists brings us back to A&M's Maddie Waak as she had 48 assists while Pittsburg was led by Brooke Mosher, who had 31. The leader in digs is the just mentioned Brooke Mosher, of Pittsburg, with 10, followed by A&M's Ava Underwood and Kyndal Stowers, with 8 and 6 respectively. What athlete do you think showed up the most out of these 5 stats? A&M had 3 different players each show up in 3 of the 5 stats. These are made up of Outside Hitter Kyndal Stowers, Setter Maddie Waak, and Opposite Logan Lednicky. Meanwhile, Pittsburg has 2 different players who also showed up in 3 of the 5 stats we talked about. These two include Right Side Olivia Babcock and Setter Brooke Mosher. Stowers would end the game with 16 kills, 2 blocks, and 6 digs. Waak would end the game with 3 aces, 48 assists, and 8 digs. Lednicky would end the game with 14 kills, 1 ace, and 2 blocks. Babcock would end the game with 22 kills, 6 blocks, and 2 assists. Mosher would end the game with 1 ace, 31 assists, and 10 digs. With both Waak and Mosher showing up on this list goes to show just how hard you have to work to be a good setter.
With Pittsburg's season over, they would end with a record of 30-5 and coming off of a 9 game win streak, since their last loss was to Stanford on November 14th. With Babcock and Mosher making a great duo, who knows what will happen as Mosher is a redshirt senior and Babcock is a senior. How do you think Pittsburg will do next year without this powerful duo? Only time will tell. As for A&M, they move on to the national finals with a season record of 28-4 after taking down so many teams that looked likely to win but it appears A&M is unstoppable. Let's see what will unfold for A&M in their next, and final, game of the 2025 season.
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