Dec. 15, 2025, 8:42 a.m. CT

After dropping the fourth set, 37-35, in what was a back-and-forth battle between two of the most talented squads in college volleyball, the momentum was quickly snatched away from the Texas A&M Aggies.

The ‘Why not us?’ mantra has been a theme for head coach Jamie Morrison’s team in his third year at the helm in Bryan-College Station, Texas. When it mattered the most, the gritty and determined Aggies left everything on the court and found a way to close out the fifth set with a 3-2 win over the No. 1 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers to advance to the school’s first-ever Final Four.

Success is a team effort in college athletics, especially on the national volleyball stage. It takes everyone involved with the program, even those behind the scenes, to accomplish historic feats and be consistently great. Texas A&M‘s first win over a top-ranked opponent in 25 years also takes experienced and talented leaders like Logan Lednicky and Ifenna Cos-Okpalla, who moved to third in all-time kills and second in all-time blocks in College Station, respectively.

Here is what Morrison, Cos-Okpalla and Lednicky said following Texas A&M’s historic upset in Lincoln over the weekend:

Morrison’s opening statement

“I’m proud of these young women. I had a moment afterwards when I got really emotional just because of the amount of work that goes in and it’s not just the 30 people that you see here. It’s not just the players. It’s not just the staff. It’s a lot of work put in by a lot of people, but to these young women, the resilience, grit that they showed in that first set and then to come back in that fifth,” Morrison said. “I got to tip my cap to Nebraska and I’m looking forward to going back and watching that match because I think it might have been one of the most entertaining matches in the history of the sport.”

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!Lednicky’s emotions following the win

“Over the moon, like quite literally no words to describe this feeling,” Lednicky said. “We’ve talked about it time and time again, the amount of work that has gone into this.”

Lednicky on the environment in Lincoln

“Just embracing it. That was awesome. The amount of fans in there, at one point, I feel like I could barely hear myself think with how loud it was like ringing in my ears,” Lednicky said. “Since we were kids, this has been a dream to take this program far.”

Cos-Okpalla discusses what the message was entering the final set

“Response is everything, whether we’re down a couple points, down a set or two. Obviously, we responded pretty well on Friday. Just coming into this match, we knew who we were playing, but we just focused on us,” Cos-Okpalla said.

Morrison on what he learned about the team from last year’s NCAA Tournament run

“I said this when I was here the last time, we’re really good at volleyball,” Morrison said. “That’s not a surprise. It’s the most wins that this program’s ever had, that’s not an accident. That’s the hard work that’s been put in. That’s the decisions by people to invest in what it is they’re doing. These people that have been here the entire time, people that decided to come here, our administration for investing in what’s going on.”

Lednicky explains the emotions going into the fifth set

“It felt like we had just emptied the tank and I think we were all exhausted after that. You feel like you’ve given everything to try to take the game and come up a little short. That’s so tough emotionally, but I think we all honestly took a lot of deep breaths before we went out there and we had more to give. We all 100% have more to give and just recollected ourselves,” Lednicky said.

Morrison’s thoughts on the fifth frame

“I think that was a really well-played set of volleyball. I think both teams were executing at a really high level. Both teams were emotionally stable. Both teams ran out of subs and we’re both really good volleyball teams and we’re able to kind of go out there and play like almost international volleyball where we’re out of subs,” Morrison said.

Cos-Okpalla on what it means to be competing in the Final Four

“When I was being recruited, I literally said that I wanted to go to a school that wasn’t already well-developed. I wanted to be somewhere that could be developed into one of the top programs in the country,” Cos-Okpalla said. “It’s just insane. A testatment to all the hard work that we individually have put in, we as a team have put in, the staff has put into us, our strength and conditioning, our scholastic advisers, the 12th Man. Everybody brought it out today.”

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