Opponent Game 1: Sam Houston
Time Game 1: 1:00
Opponent Game 2: Houston
Time Game 2: 6:30
Date: March 28th - Saturday
Location: Reed Arena - College Station, Texas
Streaming: None
Stats: None


Game Preview
Welcome back fans of the 2025 NCAA Volleyball National Champion Texas A&M Aggies!! It's time for spring volleyball and time to support our national champions and get to see the new look Aggie Volleyball team. It all starts with two matches on Saturday at home against Sam Houston and Houston at 1:00 and 6:30.

The term new look Aggies may be an understatement. The 2025 team we all saw had 9 seniors: Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, Logan Lednicky, Maddie Waak, Morgan Perkins, Ava Underwood, Tatum Thomas, Emily Hellmuth, Taylor Humphrey, and Lexi Guinn. In a bittersweet moment, watching the confetti fall as they took down Kentucky in the national championship was the last time we saw those amazing ladies compete in the maroon and white. Their names are etched into Aggie history and they'll always be champions and always will be Aggies.

Onto 2026, Jamie Morrison and staff will bring in 9 new athletes, 5 freshman and 4 transfers. Knowing they'd have to reload a monster and historic senior group, the Aggies added a talented transfer class. Leading the way was the addition of 3rd team all American Natalie Ring from Marquette. The powerful hitter will be expected to have a huge role for the Aggies and along with Kyndal Stowers may give the Aggies the best outside hitting duo in the country. After losing Cos-Okpalla and Perkins, the Aggies added two amazing middle blockers in Boise State's Eliza Sharp and Ohio State's Kaia Castle. Standing at 6'3 and 6'4, the young duo will bring lots of size and skill into the middle position. Then the Aggies added a veteran setter in Lily Nicholson who's had starting stints at TCU and Florida State to come in and battle for the starting setting spot.

The Aggies also added 5 new freshman, 4 who enrolled this January. The Aggies added two liberos / defensive specialists in Gabi Rodriguez and Jenna Thedford, they added an outside hitter in Sara Bowcutt, an opposite hitter in Brooke Lacewell, and a middle blocker in Lolufe Adedeji who will not be enrolled until the summer. I'm really excited to see this talented class on the court.

Returning for the Ags is a small group but some huge pieces. Leading the way is outside hitter Kyndal Stowers, the NCAA tournament MVP. Stowers will be leaned on for her play and stepping up into a leadership role. Another big piece we have returning is defensive specialist Addi Applegate who will look to fill Ava Underwood's role. Taryn Morris is a returner at the opposite position after seeing some time as a freshman behind all American Logan Lednicky. Megan Fitch returns as a versatile 6 rotation outside hitter and a great server. Last year's backup setter Kirra Musgrove returns as well and will battle transfer Nicholson and Margot Manning returning from a season long injury in 2025 for the starting position. Also returning is outside hitter Amare Hernandez and middle blocker Djurdja Stanojevic.

The beauty of spring matches is seeing lots of different lineups and lots of new faces. I really hope fans will be able to make it to Reed this weekend and support our new team. There are a lot of question marks going into this new season, but things we won't have to question are this teams effort, championship mindset, and the ability of our staff to get the best out of them. Things I'm really curious about is who will win the Libero jersey between Applegate, Rodriguez, and Thedford? Who will win the setter position or will we run a multiple setter formation? How will our middle blocker transfers Castle and Sharp fare? How will our new girls gel together?

Lots of questions we'll see some glimpses into this spring, but ultimately everything will be answered in the fall. All I know is that I am glad Aggie Volleyball is back in Reed Arena and the last time I checked we are the national champions (and will be until December). Then we'll just go win it again go support your Ags this weekend! It'll be a fun day of volleyball! BTHO the spring!


Texas A&M Spring Roster: https://12thman.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster

Texas A&M Spring Schedule: https://12thman.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule

Remember we are a volleyball school

Based on what you wrote, the opposite hitter position seems the most questionable/competitive. Is there a chance we could bring in another transfer in the May 1 transfer window, or is JM happy with what we've got?

https://instagr.am/p/DWXLNErj-c6

I wish they would just throw a simple camera feed on facebook or something. Everyone will play in the two games so great chance to see them all!

Morrison's TexAgs interview said they didn't scout the other teams so while we are playing other teams, the focus will be on us.

Would love to see Amare H really step up this year!

8 points into the second set and Rodriguez is absolutely as good as advertised

Musgrove is not at all afraid to call her own number

Alright here are my thoughts, though take them with a grain of salt because I'm still pretty new to volleyball:

-I said it further up the thread, but Rodriguez looks as good as advertised. She'll definitely be challenging Applegate for the libero jersey.
-Thedford certainly looked good but has some work to do if she's going to challenge Rodriguez and Applegate this season
-Ring unsurprisingly looked to be the best pin hitter that got PT today (Stowers was, I believe, the only player not to make an appearance)
-Fitch and Morris definitely looked like players that got minutes on a championship team
-Hernandez can absolutely crush the ball on a serve
-Manning only got reps as a serving specialist, which I assume means the setter battle is between Musgrove and Nicholson.
-Musgrove is tall, legit got her confused her for Sharp at one point.
-Beyond that I don't feel like I know enough about volleyball to say which setter had the better day
-Lot of slides from the middles, which is new and exciting
-Castle had a couple of big blocks
-Stanojevic played every set and I believe was always the middle that served
-Sharp looked good as well, had a few good kills

Overall hard to draw any big conclusions from one game, especially when the theoretical best player on the team, Stowers, saw no action

Yeah, definitely a good number of slides today. Set a bit to Morris and Lacewell when they were in the back row but I don't remember seeing us set any pipes (again Stowers not playing might affect that).

Editing to answer your Nicholson question as well because I'm at my daily post limit lol

Don't feel super qualified to judge setter play because I'm still pretty new to the sport and since I was in person I lacked different angles and instant replay, but I don't think either setter was like, clearly head and shoulders above the other

We made it out today and I brought my daughter who is just learning volleyball. Such a great experience and impressed with our team. Got to see Coach Morris and we got a wave in and he smiled/waved. I'm thinking I need to buy some tickets for the fall. We had a blast today at the Sam Houston game. Thanks Taylorswift13 for giving me info about it earlier this week it was easy as pie getting in.



My personal opinion(not an expert just observations):
Setters I thought had nice touch for the most part. I like number 12 (Lily?), really consistent.
Liberos looked really good and had some difficult digs off serves that looked undiggable(word check? )
Outside hitters had some absolute soul crushing shots
I don't think I ever saw stowers play, we were hoping we would get to see her play a little.
My two cents.

Glad you all enjoyed it and appreciate the insight!! Get those fall tickets, they are absolutely a bargain for the product you'll see on the court! Either in late august or early September there's an Aggie Invitational with 3 other teams so you can see the Aggies get 3 games in on a weekend! I think we might get a big home game non conference, then of course many great games in conference play

sleuthofbears said:

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8 points into the second set and Rodriguez is absolutely as good as advertised

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She had some serves that were absolute fire.