Seeing the coaches and players of other sports supporting whoever is playing is special. Love it when Elko mentions other sports in his pressers. We need to be great in EVERYTHING!
Photo by Will Huffman, TexAgs
Jamie Morrison
Stowers, Cos-Okpalla
Match #21: No. 9 Texas A&M 3, No. 2 Texas 2
S1: A&M, 25-19; S2: A&M, 25-23; S3: TEX, 25-17; S4: TEX, 25-19; S5: A&M, 15-13
Records: Texas A&M (18-3, 10-1), Texas (18-1, 10-1)
Box Score
Reed Arena provided a real treat on Halloween night.
No. 9 Texas A&M delivered No. 2 Texas its first nightmare of the season, toppling the Longhorns in a five-set thriller. Friday’s Lone Star Showdown win handed Texas its first road loss since Nov. 8, 2023.
“‘Hell yes’ is the first thing that comes to mind,” A&M head coach Jamie Morrison said. “I’m just proud of everything that I talked about with my team. They didn’t back down at any point in the match.”
The Aggies and Longhorns are now tied atop the SEC standings at 10-1 as A&M continues its dominant conference run, improving to 18-3 overall. The Ags now own the head-to-head tiebreak over their archrival as they strive to win the SEC for the first time since 2015.
“‘Hell yes’ is the first thing that comes to mind. I’m just proud of everything that I talked about with my team. They didn’t back down at any point in the match.”
Friday’s historic match also marked a new program attendance record with 9,801 — fitting for A&M’s highest-ranked win since 1995.
“The energy was electric,” Ifenna Cos-Okpalla said. “There was no way we would’ve won without the 12th Man.”
A&M’s balanced and versatile system demonstrated why they’re one of the top teams in the nation.
Kyndal Stowers had a terrifying performance, hitting .400 to lead the Ags with a season-high 22 kills, plus four blocks and an ace.
“I got in a flow-state where everything was working,” Stowers said.
“Kyndal is a huge part of our offense,” Cos-Okpalla added. “We are who we are because she is on this team.”
Texas was haunted by the Aggie defense as they outblocked the Longhorns 14-4.
“The Silencer” Cos-Okpalla led the Aggies’ defensive charge, finishing with nine blocks. She also contributed 15 kills, leading the team in hitting percentage at .609.
Will Huffman, TexAgs
With a team-high 22 kills, only Torrey Stafford (24) had more kills than Texas A&M’s Kyndal Stowers on Friday night.
Morgan Perkins and the All-American Logan Lednicky joined the dominant defense, adding four and six blocks, respectively, while Lednicky also had 12 kills for the 12th Man.
A&M’s puppet-master setter Maddie Waak orchestrated a systematic offense with 46 assists and an ace, exposing holes in Texas’ defense.
The Aggies also minimized their errors, which has been a plaguing issue all season. By the fifth frame, they nearly perfected it, committing just two.
A&M played like a top-10 team in the opening set, maintaining a balanced offense until breaking through for a 10-8 lead. Up 15-10, the Aggies had a remarkable zero errors compared to the Longhorns’ five. After a timeout at 17-16, the Ags caught fire. A Lednicky-Cos-Okpalla monster block ended the set, 25-19.
The second stanza started a little slower, with the Longhorns getting a quick 6-2 lead before an Aggie timeout. A&M responded with a 7-1 run to take the lead. It became a close battle until the Longhorns broke away with a 21-17 lead.
Will Huffman, TexAgs
Ifenna Cos-Okpalla now has 484 career blocks after coming away with nine vs. Texas
But the Ags refused to let them get away.
Representing the program’s future, youngsters Megan Fitch and Taryn Morris assisted on a 5-0 run that gave A&M the lead 23-22 before a perfect pass to Stowers finished the set, 25-23.
In the third, an Aggie ace from Waak got things started, but then the Ags began to play inconsistently. A&M tried to create a spark, but the Longhorns played too precisely. With the home team held to a .133 hitting percentage, Texas stole the set, 25-17.
Longhorn momentum carried into the fourth frame. The errors crept in for the Aggies as four early service errors gave Texas a consistent lead. A 6-0 Longhorn run made it 21-14 until they took the fourth, 25-19.
“At the end of the fourth set, I told them to remind themselves of who we want to be,” Morrison said. “We needed to go back to the aggressiveness of the first set, and I thought we did just that.”
The finale was a thriller.
A Texas ace tied it 6-6 shortly before taking their first lead of the frame. After switching sides, two power Stowers kills retook the lead, 9-8.
As Texas tried to claw back, a kill from Cos-Okpalla and a Stowers ace made it 14-12.
Cos-Okpalla ended the incredible match with a monstrous kill, 15-13.
The victory sent a bone-chilling message to the rest of the country.
“A lot of people fear Texas’ logo, and I don’t think that’s the case anymore,” Morrison said. “We proved we can beat them on a national stage. This is huge for our program.”
The Maroon & White continue their top-25 weekend on Sunday with a 2 p.m. CT showdown against No. 16 Tennessee in Knoxville.
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