Texas A&M vs Kentucky 12-21-2025 WVB National Championships
Dear Readers~
It's time. We've been building all season to this game right here. The 2025 NCAA Division 1 National Finals from the T Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. This game took place on Sunday, December 21st at 3:30pm Central Time. Just to get here, you have to win an insane 5 games in a row. If you lost any of those 5 games, your season was over and you had no chance for the championship. We started with a total of 64 teams and now only two remain: the Kentucky Wildcats of Lexington and the Texas A&M Aggies of College Station. Who do you think will come out on top and be the national champions? Let's get into today's game to find out.
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 finals 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 (sorry A&M) 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 the final game of 2025 and become the national champions of the 2025 season.
With this game deciding who becomes the national champions, the pressure was on the entire game. The first set ended at 26-24, in favor of A&M, and giving them a 1-0 lead over Kentucky. The second set ended at 25-15, and the biggest gap of any set, and ended in favor of A&M again, giving them a 2-0 lead over Kentucky. This means A&M is now ahead 2-0 over Kentucky. The third set ended at 25-20 and ended in favor of A&M once again. This means the game ended at 3-0 inf favor of A&M and made them the 2025 NCAA Division 1 Women's Indoor Volleyball National Champions there in Kansas City after A&M played a 3-set semifinal while Kentucky played a 5 set semifinal. When the game was concluded, A&M would have 50 points while Kentucky would only have 46.
Now let's look into the five stats to see who came out on top. The five stats include kills, aces, blocks, assists, and digs. The leader in kills goes to Kentucky's Eva Hudson, with 13, followed shortly by A&M's Logan Lednicky and Kyndal Stowers, with 11 and 10 respectively, while Kentucky's Brooke Deleye was next with 9. The leader in aces goes to A&M's Kyndal Stowers and Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, each with 2, while Kentucky's only ace came from Molly Tuozzo. The leader in blocks goes to A&M's Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, with 4, followed by A&M's Morgan Perkins and Maddie Waak, along with Kentucky's Lizzie Carr, who all had 3. The leader in assists goes to Kentucky's Kassie O'Brien, with 34, while A&M was led by Maddie Waak, with 29. The leader in digs goes to Kentucky's Molly Tuozzo, with 11, followed by A&M's Ava Underwood, with 10, and Kentucky's Brooklyn DeLeye, with 8. Now let's see which athlete showed up the most. Out of the 5 stats, multiple athletes from Kentucky and two from A&M showed up in 3 of the 5 stats but not one player showed up in 4 or even all 5. From A&M we have Opposite Logan Lednicky and Middle Blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla. For Kentucky, we have Libero Molly Tuozzo, Setter Kassie O'Brien, and Outside Hitter Brooklyn DeLeye. Lednicky ended the game with 11 kills, 1 assist, and 7 digs. Cos-Okpalla ended the game with 8 kills, 2 aces, and 4 blocks. Tuozzo ended the game with 1 ace, 2 assists, and 11 digs. O'Brien ended the game with 2 blocks, 34 assists, and 6 digs. DeLeye ended the game with 9 kills, 1 assist, and 8 digs. If you were curious, A&M's setter, Maddie Waak, ended the game with 29 assists and 3 blocks.
With this being the end of the season, Kentucky would end their season at 30-3, only losing to Nebraska in August, Pittsburg in September, and now A&M in December. A tough loss, but still an impressive season none the less. As for A&M, they would end the season at 29-4, losing to SMU and TCU in September (in back-to-back games), Kentucky in October, and Texas in November. You could say this got A&M the revenge against Kentucky they had been wanting and also made them national champions in the process.
This concludes not only today's game but also the 2025 NCAA Division 1 Women's Indoor Volleyball season. Next time I'll talk about a professional season, so stay tuned for that. Here shortly we'll get into the NCAA Beach Volleyball season, so stay tuned for that season and schedule as it comes out. Until next time, Miller out
~J. Miller
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