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Texas A&M volleyball wins national championship with sweep of Kentucky

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Logan Lednicky had 11 kills, Maddie Waak had 29 assists and Texas A&M won its first NCAA volleyball championship, sweeping Kentucky 3-0 on Sunday.

The Aggies (29-4) accomplished the rare feat of defeating three No. 1 seeds. They defeated Nebraska and Pittsburgh earlier in the tournament. They did not drop a set in the Final Four.

At 24-18 in the third set, Kentucky held off a couple of match points before the Aggies took advantage of a free ball and Cos-Okpalla delivered the championship point, crushing a set from Waak out of the middle.

Kyndal Stowers finished with 10 kills and hit .304. Cos-Okpalla added eight kills, hitting .235 and Lednicky hit .250.

Eva Hudson had a match-high 13 kills for Kentucky and Kassie O’Brien had 34 assists.

The Aggies hit .257 as a team, compared to Kentucky’s .148.

Set scores were 26-24, 25-15, 25-20.

The Aggies trailed throughout the first set until they tied it at 20-all and also saved a set point to tie it at 24. The Aggies took their first lead at 25-24 on an attack error by Kentucky’s Brooklyn DeLeye, her fifth of the set. Stowers finished off the 26-24 first-set win for the Aggies with a tip off the Kentucky block.

After taking that 25-24 lead, the Aggies did not trail at any point in the rest of the match.

Kentucky (30-3) continued to struggle at the net in the second set. The Wildcats had nine errors in the first set and six more while falling behind 19-9 in the second. The Aggies continued to dominate, winning 25-15 after outhitting their SEC rival .253—.077.

Stowers and Lednicky had eight kills each in the first two sets, with Stowers hitting .368 and Lednicky .240.

Texas A&M led 13-10 in the third set before a kill by Lednicky started a 6-1 scoring run for a commanding 19-11 lead, six points from the national championship.

The Cactus Bowl is back, returning to Arizona State’s campus in December

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — The Cactus Bowl is back and it's returning to Arizona State's campus. Fiesta Sports Foundation, which operates the Fiesta and Cactus bowls, announced the return on Wednesday, ending a nine-year run at Chase Field, home of baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks. The game will be played Dec. 26 at Arizona State's Mountain America Stadium. The bowl moved to Chase Field while Arizona State's stadium underwent renovations and had numerous title sponsors, most recently being known as the Rate Bowl from 2024-25.
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