The win for Texas A&M marks its first NCAA national championship in program history and the Aggies become the second school all-time to win the title out of the Southeastern Conference.
Kentucky had a set point in set one at 24-23, but the Aggies closed the set on a 3-0 run with a UK hitting error and a TAMU stuff to close the set, 26-24 and TAMU never trailed again the entire rest of the match. The Wildcats finish their historic season 30-3 overall with Sunday’s loss snapping a 27-match win streak. UK won the SEC regular season with a perfect league record and defeated Texas in five sets to win the SEC Tournament Championship back in November.
Sunday marked the final match in the Blue and White for Eva Hudson, who as the lone senior on the team, closes her career. Hudson was the 2025 SEC Player of the Year, an AVCA First Team All-American and finalist for AVCA National Player of the Year. She finished Sunday’s match with 13 kills on 45 swings and four digs. Hudson was named to the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team with Texas A&M’s Ifenna Cos-Okpalla named the MOP of the tournament.
This was Kentucky’s second time in the NCAA National Championship match in program history, with the first coming back in 2020 in Omaha, when the Wildcats beat Texas 3-1 to secure the program and the conference’s first-ever NCAA title. This was also UK’s second appearance in the NCAA Final Four with 2020 being the first in program history.
For Texas A&M, the Aggies were led by Logan Lednicky who registered 11 kills on 32 swings with Kyndal Stowers having 10 to put two TAMU players into double figures Sunday afternoon. TAMU as a team sided out at 70 percent or better in all three sets, something no opponent Kentucky played all season did in a single set, much less three in one set. Texas A&M finishes its season with a 29-4 record and was 14-1 in the SEC.
Set 1
Kentucky was in front for a majority of the opening set with its lead as large as six points as late as 18-12, but the Aggies came back to take the set in a deuce frame, 26-24 as UK’s passing fell apart down the stretch of the set. Kentucky scored the first three points of the frame and took a 6-1 lead through seven points that pushed the Aggies into an early timeout down by five. A&M could not close the gap for the large spread of the set with a kill from Kennedy Washington on a slide making things 18-12 as TAMU called its second and final timeout. Out of the stoppage, an Aggie sideout led to a 5-0 Aggie run and Texas A&M pulled even with the Wildcats at 20-20. UK got a kill from Eva Hudson at 23-23 to hand the Wildcats a set point, but that attempt was thwarted by the Aggies and TAMU proceeded to close the set on a 3-0 run to take the opening set, 26-24. Kentucky hit .171 in the set with Texas A&M hitting .205. Hudson, Brooklyn DeLeye and Lizzie Carr led the way for UK with four kills each as Kennedy Washington also had a pair for UK. Kassie O’Brien logged 15 assists on 16 of UK’s kills with Hudson’s four digs leading the way for the Wildcat defense.
Set 2
Texas A&M dominated the second set from start to finish, taking the 2-0 lead with a 25-15 second set win. Kentucky hit negative in a set for the first time all season as the Wildcats had just 10 kills to 11 errors in the frame to hit -.021. TAMU’s lead was as many as 10 at 20-10 and the teams exchanged points to the finish line as the Wildcats only scored back-to-back points in the set one time. The loss in the set marked just the second time this season that UK was held to 15 points or fewer with the other being in Thursday night’s semifinal match vs. Wisconsin when the Badgers beat UK 25-12 in the opening set. With the 2-0 lead, it marked the fourth time this season that UK had lost the first two sets in a match with UK’s matches vs. Pitt, Texas and Oklahoma being the other three and UK holding a 2-1 record in those matches.
Set 3
Texas A&M won five of the first six points and ran away from the Wildcats in the third set. The Aggies sided out at 70 percent in the third set and won the match on their second Championship Point to close things out, 25-20.
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