25 for '25: Looking back on the year that was for Texas A&M Athletics
25. Bucky McMillan’s arrival - April 7, 2025
The hire was announced three days prior with an introductory event held on the floor at Reed Arena on a Monday afternoon. The 41-year-old came to Aggieland after five seasons at Samford — where he won three Southern Conference crowns — and has brought an exciting, fast-paced brand of basketball with him. As McMillan explained, the pillars of “Bucky Ball” are hardworking, unselfish and fearless. Aggie hoops are currently 10-3 with SEC play set to begin in January.
24. Cashius Howell’s “Sack Trick” - Sept. 6, 2025
Unfortunately for Utah State’s Bryson Barnes, he became a footnote during a 44-22 A&M victory at Kyle Field in Week 2. Early in the second quarter, Howell — a 6-foot-2, 248-pound beast off the edge — singlehandedly wrecked a Utah State drive but dropping Barnes on three consecutive plays. Howell became the first collegiate football player to complete the feat since 2015 and finished the regular season with an SEC-leading 11.5 sacks en route to being an All-SEC first-teamer, All-American and finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Lombari Award.
23. Shanghai Masters Final - Oct. 12, 2025
Perhaps the most improbable sporting event on the planet. Two Aggies — Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech — in a championship match on the ATP Tour. And they are also cousins. Vacherot was a qualifier. Rinderknech was unseeded. Just to reach the final, Vacherot defeated names like Holger Rune and Novak Djokovic, while Rinderknech took down Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev. In the end, Vacherot was victorious (4-6, 6-3, 6-3), and both Aggies saw their rankings skyrocket.
22. Women’s Cross Country wins West Regional - Nov. 14, 2025
For the just second time in program history, the women’s team won the South Central Regional at Agri Park in Fayetteville. Running their best race of the season, the Aggies clinched a berth in the national meet for just the third time ever. A&M had a pair of top-10 finishers in the 6K as Joyce Kemboi finished fourth and Debora Cherono placed seventh with times of 19:55.4 and 20:03.1, respectively. The result also helped Wendel McRaven win USTFCCCA’s South Central Region Women’s Coach of the Year.
21. Men’s Golf wins Gopher Invite & Steelwood Collegiate - Sept. 7-8 & Oct. 25-26, 2025
In 2025, Brian Korton & Co. finished as the runner-up at the SEC Championship and placed second in the Auburn Regional, earning a berth in the NCAA Championship last May. Returning to Carslbad is again the goal, and with a pair of fall victories, the Aggies appear strong once more. Aaron Pounds paced A&M in Gopher country as he finished tied for the individual lead at 8-under, and A&M won their trip to Alabama by two strokes. Their season resumes with an early February trip to the SeaBest Invitational.
20. Women’s Golf wins FOUR (4) fall events - Aug 29-31, Sept. 8-10, Oct. 19-20 & Oct. 28, 2025
Sticking on the links, Gerrod Chadwell again appears to have a team that could make a run at the national title. After missing the NCAA Championships a year ago, the Ags were victorious at the Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach, the Folds of Honor Collegiate, the Jim West Challenge in San Marcos and The Bear Brawl in Waco. That’s two wins to begin the fall slate and two to wrap it up. Ranked No. 6 in the nation, A&M is led by junior Cayetana Fernández García-Poggio and sophomore Vanessa Borovilos. They’ll return to action with a February visit to the Terese Hession Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.
19. Rubén Dominguez goes off vs. Manhattan - Nov. 21, 2025
He simply couldn’t miss. The Spanish sniper was an incredible 10-for-14 from 3-point range in a 109-68 thrashing of Manhattan. Dominguez’s TEN triples set a single-game school record as the entire team combined to connect on 18 long-distance shots…setting another program record. We were promised record-breaking performances with the arrival of Bucky Ball, and in just the sixth game, the Aggies delivered.
18. G Guerrieri announces his retirement - Oct. 28, 2025
A program-builder and Texas A&M legend officially stepped away this fall, and he absolutely deserves his flowers. After 33 years as the first head coach in school history, Guerrieri retired after A&M’s 2025 campaign. Since starting the program in 1993, he won 507 matches as the Aggie gaffer and led the Maroon & White to 18 conference titles and 28 NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 2014 Women’s College Cup. A five-time conference Coach of the Year, an induction into the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame certainly awaits.
17. Women’s basketball knocks off No. 11 Kentucky - Jan. 23, 2025
Joni Taylor & Co. delivered a suffocating defensive performance at Reed Arena to snap a nine-game winning streak of the top-15 Wildcats. Aicha Coulibaly poured in 21 points as A&M held Kentucky to a 31.3 shooting percentage from the floor and forced 10 turnovers. The Aggies trailed 46-42 after 30 minutes but used a 13-3 fourth-quarter run to pull off the upset. The Cats were 2-for-15 in the final frame as A&M’s perfect 6-for-6 at the free-throw line helped them clinch the victory.
16. Track & Field wins SEC Indoor title - Feb. 27 - March 1, 2025
Conference titles are still a huge deal, and admittedly, this should be higher on the list…but rest assured, there is more to come from Pat Henry & Co. as the men offered a glimpse of what was to come at the Fasken Indoor Track & Field. With 107.5 points and nine medals — including five gold — A&M finally broke through vs. Arkansas with a final-race thriller in Aggieland. The 4x400m relay, anchored by Kimar Farquarson, clinched the program’s first indoor championship with a time of 3:03.09. A&M also claimed gold in the 400m (Auhmad Robinson, 45.07), 800m (Sam Whitmarsh, 1:47.69), distance medley (9:23.92) and heptathlon (Blake Harris, 5800). Again, just a sign of things to come…
16. Women’s Tennis makes another run to national final - May 18, 2025
Behind the best player in program history, Mark Weaver oversaw a title defense that reached the final match of the season. While the Aggies ultimately fell to No. 1 Georgia in Waco, A&M defeated Quinnipiac, UCSB, UCLA, Tennessee and Michigan to set up a clash of the titans with the Bulldogs at the Hurd Tennis Center. After winning the 2024 national championship, the Maroon & White finished 2025 with a 30-4 overall record as the nation’s runner-up. It was also the final match in the historic career of All-American Mary Stoiana, who won 138 individual college matches during her tenure in Aggieland.
15. Sorrell’s homer wins rubber match with No. 2 LSU - May 4, 2025
Trailing 4-2 and down to their final four outs, the Aggies pulled off a comeback that — at least for the moment — changed the narrative surrounding a rather rough spring at Blue Bell Park. A 48 mph infield single by Jace LaViolette and a 74 mph duck snort from Wyatt Henseler set the stage for Caden Sorrell, and the All-American launched an opposite-field missile 403 feet off the left-field scoreboard. Weston Moss’ 1-2-3 ninth sealed a most unlikely series victory to keep A&M’s postseason hopes alive…again, at least for the moment.
14. Soccer claims victory in the Lone Star Showdown - Oct. 2, 2025
Happiness at Ellis Field was hard to come by in 2025, but a Thursday night Lone Star Showdown provided a noticeable spike in Aggie pride. Scoreless in their first four SEC matches and on a six-game winless streak, Trinity Buchanan’s 68th-minute goal beat Kendell Williams and led to a 1-0 A&M victory. Beyond that, the game-winner was a brilliant display of skill as Buchanan flicked the ball in the net with a one-time, right-footed shot off a Bella Yakel assist. A&M keeper Maysen Veronda made just one save to record the clean sheet in front of a very happy 2,612.
13. Senior Day at Reed Arena vs. top-ranked Auburn - March 4, 2025
Texas A&M men’s basketball had never beaten the nation’s No. 1 team…until the final regular-season home game of 2024-2025. Behind 24 offensive rebounds and 19 points from Zhuric Phelps, the Aggies tamed the top-ranked Tigers on a Tuesday night in Aggieland. A historic night got even more memorable when a new addition joined Acie Law IV and Danielle Adams in Reed’s rafters as a banner honoring Wade Taylor IV’s No. 4 was unveiled postgame. Four days later, Taylor became the program’s all-time leading scorer by surpassing Bernard King (1,990). “Four” finished his Aggie career with 2,058 points.
12. Softball becomes the consensus No. 1-ranked team - April 15, 2025
Since the creation of the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll, the Aggies had never summited the top-25. Trisha Ford & Co. changed that in mid-April. Moving up two spots from No. 3 was well warranted after the Maroon & White swept No. 6 LSU at Davis Diamond for the program’s first sweep vs. a top-10 team since 2018. At the time, A&M was 37-5 overall and in first place in the SEC standings at 11-3. They ultimately won two of their final three regular-season series to finish a half game behind Oklahoma for the league regular-season title.
11. Volleyball’s reverse sweep of Louisville - Dec. 12, 2025
The birth of “Why Not Us” came in A&M’s Sweet 16 match with No. 2 seed Louisville in Lincoln. Down 2-0 and two points from elimination in the third set, the Aggies rallied back as Kyndal Stowers broke a 23-23 tie with back-to-back points and forced a fourth frame. Stowers then clinched victory in both the fourth and fifth to send A&M to its first Elite Eight since 2001 by displaying every ounce of grit and resilience required to pull off the comeback. Postgame, Logan Lednicky explained how she spotted a piece of paper near the bench that said, “Something great is about to happen.”
10. An unlikely doubleheader sweep in Knoxville - April 5, 2025
Less than 24 hours before, Liam Doyle and Dylan Loy no-hit the Aggies as No. 1 Tennessee run-ruled them in the series opener. Sitting at 1-9 in conference play, things seemed incredibly bleak until an 11-homer power surge on a Rocky Top Saturday. Beyond Terrence Kiel II’s home-run robbery of Andrew Fischer in the first game of the twin bill, Caden Sorrell went yard three times on the day as Ben Royo, Wyatt Henseler and Bear Harrison each enjoyed multi-homer days. After a 9-3 win forced a rubber match, the Ags launched seven bombs at Lindsey Nelson Stadium to run-rule the finale in eight innings, 17-6. That weekend was A&M’s first road-series victory vs. a top-ranked team.
9. Softball run-rules Horns at SEC Tournament - May 9, 2025
There are blowouts, and then there is what A&M did to a top-five Texas team in the SEC Tournament semifinals. The Aggies scored six in the bottom of the first as KK Dement’s three-run blast served as a warning of what was still to come. Up 6-0, A&M was far from finished. The Ags added five more in the second with Dement adding a two-run shot before Amari Harper’s three-run bomb swelled the lead to 14-0. Down a pair of touchdowns, all the Horns could muster was a pair in the fourth, but the outcome was no longer in doubt as the 14-2 drubbing was mercifully called after five innings. The next day, weather in Athens canceled the A&M-Oklahoma title game, as the Aggies were named co-Champions of the SEC Tournament.
8. Kaeden Kent’s walk-off grand slam - April 12, 2025
From down 10 runs to storming all the way back in the largest come-from-behind win in Olsen Field history. South Carolina took a 12-2 lead with a run-scoring triple in the sixth, but the Aggies chipped away with a run in the bottom half and two more in both the seventh and eighth. Still, climbing out of a five-run hole with only three outs remaining seemed unlikely…but not impossible. Kaeden Kent began the ninth with a leadoff single, and Hayden Schott got the Ags in proximity with a pinch-hit grand slam. A Jace LaViolette single and a pair of two-out walks got the line back to Kent, who delivered as magical a moment as Blue Bell Park has ever seen. The walk-off salami outlasted the wind down the right field line and finished a sweep with an improbable and unforgettable 15-12 victory.
7. Draining Death Valley - Oct. 25, 2025
Aggies no longer have to endure misleading stats about 1994 as the losing skid in Baton Rouge came to an emphatic end in late October with a 49-25 drubbing of then-No. 20 LSU that sent shockwaves across the Pelican State. Trailing 18-14 at halftime, A&M ripped off 35 unanswered points in the second half as Tiger Stadium emptied and left the few purple and gold stragglers screaming “geaux home” at Brian Kelly. The Ags racked up 426 total yards of offense, including 224 on the ground, as Marcel Reed threw for 202 and ran for 110 more en route to AP National Player of the Week honors. KC Concepcion returned a third-quarter punt 79 yards to the house, and Cashius Howell had a pair of sacks as LSU signal callers were dumped seven times.
6. Postseason honors arrive for Aggie volleyball - Dec. 17-18, 2025
Pummelling opponents on their way to the Final Four, A&M took the volleyball world by storm, and the national pundits rewarded them during the postseason. Jamie Morrison, who was named the AVCA’s National Coach of the Year (a program first), directed a unit that featured four (4) All-Americans, which represents a program record. Ifenna Cos-Okpalla became A&M’s fourth first-team All-American, and Logan Lednicky earned a second consecutive second-team nod. Kyndal Stowers, an Aggie newcomer, picked up second-team honors, while setter Maddie Waak, who led the country in assists per set at the time, was featured as a third-team All-American. The honors were well-deserved and then validated later that week in Kansas City...but more on that in a bit.
5. Track & Field wins 2025 National Championship - June 13, 2025
Never doubt Pat Henry, even entering the final race of 2025. The Aggies needed a lot of help in the 4x400m, and whatever the Maroon & White prayers were, they were answered. The quartet of Hossam Hatib, Cutler Zamzow, Kimar Farquharson and Auhmad Robinson placed second behind USF with a time of 3:00.73, while the USC Trojans placed eighth, meaning that both teams tied with 41 points to share the national title. Beyond the team title, Aleksandr Solovev (pole vault) and Sam Whitmarsh (800m) won individual championships. The title — A&M’s first men’s outdoor title since 2013 — represents Henry’s 10th in Aggieland and 37th overall.
4. “The Comeback” - Nov. 15, 2025
Down 27 points at the break, A&M needed less than 20 minutes to erase the deficit and complete the largest comeback in school history with a 31-30 victory over South Carolina at Kyle Field. It was all Aggies after Shane Beamer waltzed into the visiting locker room with a 30-3 lead. Marcel Reed led touchdown drives on each of A&M’s first four second-half drives, converting a crucial fourth-and-12 with his legs on the initial possession. Scoring throws to Izaiah Williams, Ashton Bethel-Roman (in diving fashion) and Nate Boerkircher followed as Reed threw for 439 yards in the win. EJ Smith gave A&M the lead on a 4-yard rush to complete a 99-yard drive with 10:47 to play as the Aggie defense held the Gamecocks to just 76 yards in the second half. Surviving that scare, A&M improved to 10-0 for the first time since 1992 and turned a miserable morning into an amazing afternoon.
3. Lincoln stunner - Dec. 14, 2025
Top-seeded Nebraska hadn’t lost at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in over 1,000 days, and the undefeated Cornhuskers had swept 28 of their 33 matches entering a Sunday afternoon Elite Eight match in Lincoln. Jamie Morrison & Co. weren’t scared of Big Red and delivered big blow after big blow en route to claiming the first two sets. However, the Huskers battled back and won a ridiculous 37-35 fourth set to force a race to 15. With a ticket to the Final Four on the line, the Aggies won that sprint, as Logan Lednicky’s match-clinching kill sealed a 15-13 fifth-set victory. Kyndal Stowers finished with a career-best 25 kills, and Lednicky was one of her pace with 24. The relentlessness and fearlessness displayed alongside their unwavering grit led the Aggies to the monumental upset of the nation’s No. 1 seed, but A&M never viewed itself as an underdog. Instead, the Huskers were just the first giant in the Aggies’ path to an ultimate prize, and upon his arrival back at Reed Arena that evening, Morrison took the opportunity to remind the 12th Man that a regional title was not the end goal.
2. Reed-to-Boerkircher clinches win in South Bend - Sept. 13, 2025
With Touchdown Jesus looking on, A&M faced a 40-34 deficit and one final gasp — fourth-and-goal at the Notre Dame 11-yard line with just 19 seconds to play. Marcel Reed took the snap, scanned, pumped a fake and lofted a prayer towards the north end zone of Notre Dame Stadium...where Nate Boerkircher was there to reel it in and seal a 41-40 triumph in South Bend. A&M’s first road win vs. a ranked opponent since 2014 vaulted the Ags into the nation’s top 10, where they stayed until the end of the regular season. With 81 total points and 917 combined yards of offense (including 207 receiving for Mario Craver), A&M and Notre Dame delivered one of the best games of the college football season, and for the first time in what felt like far too long, the Maroon & White came out on top thanks to the magical Reed-to-Boerkircher connection that will live on in Aggie lore for a long, long time.
1. Volleyball summits the mountaintop - Dec. 21, 2025
December was dominated by Jamie Morrison & Co. as their postseason run featured victories on Dec. 5, Dec. 6, Dec. 12, Dec. 14 and Dec. 18 to get them the final match of the college volleyball season. After sweeping Pittsburgh on a Thursday, the Aggies earned a Dec. 21 date with Kentucky, and revenge was dished out in quick order. A slow start turned into a 26-24 A&M victory in the opening set, and from then on, dominance reigned once more. A 25-15 win in the second pushed the Aggies to the precipice, and with their third championship point, Ifenna Cos-Okpalla planted the Aggie flag right there inside Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center. By becoming the first team to ever sweep back-to-back matches at the Final Four, Morrison led A&M to its first national championship in just his third season at the helm. With many all-time greats playing their final match in Maroon & White, the Aggies left a lasting legacy as nine seniors leave Aggieland as legends.
