Morrison speaks A&M’s historic upset of No. 4 Florida into existence

“The growth I'm seeing from our team and the ability to get in there and grind. I see us picking one of these top-25 teams off. I actually see us picking a lot of these top-25 teams off.”

Perhaps seeing into the future, Texas A&M head coach Jamie Morrison’s Tuesday morning prophecy on TexAgs Radio became a Wednesday evening reality.

Morrison’s Aggies indeed “picked off” a top-25 foe — the fourth-ranked Florida Gators — in a five-set thriller on Wednesday evening (24-26, 25-23, 21-25, 26-24, 15-13).

Forget top-25 opponents. Wednesday marked the program’s first win vs. a top-five foe in 24 years, dating back to when A&M topped No. 3 Hawai’i in the third round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament, 3-1.

Additionally, the historic win earned Morrison his first top-25 win at the collegiate level and A&M’s first-ever triumph in Gainesville.

“It was an amazing crowd here and an amazing place. That was a special win,” Morrison told ESPN postgame. “I told our team we were close, and I told them we were capable of special things if we kept doing what we were doing.”

Hannah Harrison, TexAgs

The Aggies’ win over the Gators was Morrison’s first top-25 victory coaching at the collegiate level.

After leading the way a majority of her freshman year, Logan Lednicky is seemingly keeping that energy alive in her second season at Texas A&M.

After a dominant record-breaking performance in the loss against No. 16 Arkansas on Sunday, all eyes were on Lednicky.

She did not disappoint on Wednesday, registering 22 kills, six blocks and a total of 25 points in the victorious effort.

Ifenna Cos-Okpalla also had an impressive showing, tallying 12 kills, seven blocks and two digs on the night with an astonishing .750 hitting percentage. She did not commit a single error throughout the five-set fight.

Brooke Jeffery tallied 12 kills and one dig, playing four out of the five sets. In the fourth set, Jeffery was responsible for several important kills that shifted momentum to A&M’s side of the net as the Aggies went on to win that stanza, 26-24.

Still, it was arguably A&M’s defense that helped the Aggies prevail in their toughest matchup of the season to date.

Ava Underwood and Caroline Meuth commanded the back row and shut down Florida's offense with an incredible show of athleticism and defensive-minded skills.

The heartbeat of the back row, Underwood showed pure grit and determination in the all-out defensive performance with 16 digs, six assists and three service aces. 

Meuth, who plays all six rotations, has started every set for A&M this season and tallied 19 digs, 12 kills, two blocks and two assists.

Statistically, A&M was dominant in every category with the exception of aces and blocks, trailing the Gators by only two aces and half a block, respectively.

Florida — who was without All-American setter Alexis Stucky — was unable to find any comfort throughout the match and seemingly played catch-up with the A&M all night.

"Pay attention to the little things that got us to this point, those little things that make us us,” Morrison said. “I thought we were getting after them with the serve, getting scrappy on defense, and just playing our game which got us that win."

For a program that hasn’t seen the postseason since 2019, the Aggies are already building a postseason resume in Morrison’s debut campaign.

Now 10-3 and 2-1 in the conference, the Aggies will conclude Week 5 with a Sunday afternoon match against Missouri at Reed Arena.

Entering the week, A&M received just three votes in the latest AVCA poll. Entering Wednesday, A&M’s RPI sat 30th in the nation.

Both of those figures figure to spike.

Perhaps, the Aggies will soon become a top-25 club others are looking to “pick off.”

Perhaps, Morrison could once again peak into the future to let us know.