2025 NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

December 18, 2025

Jamie Morrison

Kyndal Stowers

Ifenna Cos-Okpalla

Logan Lednicky

T-Mobile Center

Texas A&M Aggies

Semifinal Press Conference

Texas A&M - 3

Pittsburgh - 0

THE MODERATOR: Let's get this show on the road. Congratulations, Texas A&M.

We'll start with a coach opening statement.

JAMIE MORRISON: Yeah, first off, thank you for the congratulations (smiling).

I'm proud of our team. I'm proud of our team just because we talk a lot about staying present and enjoying moments. I thought in all of those moments we enjoyed every single second of it. Every single time we were pushed, we talk a lot about responses, and we had a response. That's all you can ask for in these moments.

Again, like I said this from the very beginning, last year we came up two points short, we kind of reap the benefits of doing those things. I'm proud.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Kyndal, what is going through your mind right now, especially leading the team in kills?

KYNDAL STOWERS: Every time someone asks me this question, genuinely I have no idea. Pure gratitude. This is crazy. This is an absolute crazy experience.

We have had faith in ourselves all year. From the first game of the season we knew we were capable of this. Now living it, it's like wow. This is insane. It's really cool.

Q. Logan, you said last week that you guys are the grittiest team in volleyball. How did you get to be this way?

LOGAN LEDNICKY: I mean, I think it's a testament to the work we put in in the practice gym and just generally in all of our careers. It's been a long time coming for us, a lot of work put into this moment.

We know we have the right group of girls to go out and win this thing now. So obviously a great match today. I think we got pushed in all the right places. We were down a little. They'd go on a run; we'd go on a run. We just know how to dig in in the right times.

Q. Logan, how has the mentality of this team changed or not throughout this tournament run?

LOGAN LEDNICKY: Honestly, I think it's been the same. I know it's probably like beating a dead horse, but y'all keep hearing why not us. Literally why not us. We are considered the underdog in a lot of these moments just 'cause we haven't been here before. But we know we have all the right pieces.

So why not us (smiling)?

Q. Logan, Ifenna, last two points of the game to win it all, talk me through that.

LOGAN LEDNICKY: Well, honestly I don't really know (laughter). You talk about like a flow state, you kind of just reach that point throughout a match where we're all grooving on all cylinders. However many kills... We said this before, Maddie's offense is so spread it makes our job so easy. Once I got that kill, like, I think they thought it was coming to me. I knew it was going to Ifenna because they were going to load on me.

Yeah, that was amazing. Great little back-to-back combo right there.

IFENNA COS-OKPALLA: Anybody would load on her, yeah. Just saw that open space.

LOGAN LEDNICKY: Kyndal is also there on the outside. It's fun.

IFENNA COS-OKPALLA: Perfect offense, I would say (smiling).

Q. Y'all were grooving, the swag was there. Ifenna, you with the shrug and looks. Where do you see all that confidence coming from, the audacity to do it on this stage?

IFENNA COS-OKPALLA: Yeah, I think Jamie is always talking, he instills it in us. It's pretty much every day we've heard it, just be us. Not only just us as a team, us as individuals. That's what makes us us, or makes me me or Kendal Kendal or Logan Logan. We all bring something different to the team.

I think we just mesh so well together. We are pretty much bonded, I would say. When I'm doing my thing, they know it's supposed to fire people up. When Logan is cheering, yelling, it fires people up. Everybody just has their own way of celebrating, being themselves. Everybody just bounces off of it.

Q. Logan, yesterday I asked you about playing against Olivia. What was it like?

LOGAN LEDNICKY: Yeah, obviously it's like tough coming out on this side and seeing the tears and all that stuff because I love her to death and I want nothing but the best.

We kind of had a moment after the game, Love you so much. No matter what happens on the court, we're still the same friends. Like it doesn't matter.

But literally, like I said yesterday, it's so much fun. We had a little banter moment when that free ball that I think was in, but whatever, dropped right there. We were kind of going back and forth.

I think that's what I love about the sport of volleyball. It's such a tight-knit community and you have friends on other teams. You can mess around. Me and Stucky did that when we played in Florida. I love that so much. We continue to have the same relationship off the court and can kind of, I don't know, go back and forth like that. It's a lot of fun.

Q. Obviously it's a game of runs. You have to respond. In the second set, Pitt went on an 8-0 run. What was the key to overcoming that?

KYNDAL STOWERS: I think we just came together as a team. A very similar thing happened when we were playing Nebraska. We were up by quite a bit, and they went on a run. The fourth set, that went forever. We're like, Hey, we're not doing that again.

They're going on a run right now, we're going to recognize that, props to them for what they're doing, but we're going to respond and we're not going to let that keep happening.

Q. Logan, can you talk about what Maddie Waak did tonight.

LOGAN LEDNICKY: I have no words. She's just unreal.

We were all talking when the All-American stuff, finally getting what she deserves. The recognition she deserves. I mean, I've been with her for pretty much my whole volleyball career. Now, like, the world is getting to see how good she really is, how great a volleyball IQ she has.

Yeah, she's literally incredible.

THE MODERATOR: Logan, Kyndal, Ifenna, thanks for your time.

We'll continue with questions for coach.

Q. You've talked about growing this program, the sport. How much has this run done for the growth of the program?

JAMIE MORRISON: Yeah, it's a tough question to answer. Time will tell.

I can tell what I think will happen. I think, I don't know, there was a small flame going of interest in our sport. It wasn't small, it was a pretty big one. I think we just threw a whole 13 gallons of gasoline on it. Again, why I came to Texas A&M, the 12th man is a special fan base.

Again, as we're going on this further and further, they're getting addicted, I'm going to keep saying this like a broken record, to the game that I love. I think that will continue to happen.

From a national standpoint, a recruiting standpoint, we can develop talent, we have resources, we have everything it takes to win a national championship. Everything that we've done has been built on a base of people that were here from the very beginning. I think it's just the beginning of what our program's going to do.

Q. Just because Texas A&M is such a tight-knit athletics community, have you heard from other coaches in other sports, Coach Elko?

JAMIE MORRISON: Yeah, it's, the first question, very tight-knit. I think we have a group text amongst all of our head coaches. I'm sure it's blowing up right now.

Mike and I go back and forth by text message, too. Our pitching coach lives across the street from me.

One of the things that's special, and Trev's in the audience, I'll give him credit for this, is the people we've hired, the people we brought in, part of it has been you need to be a part of the community. I'm very, very happy to do that.

I think the thing I missed the most when I was with the National Team was we were on an island in Anaheim and we didn't have other sports to bounce things off of. I didn't have other head coaches to go have a conversation with, have a cup of coffee and say, Hey, I'm struggling with this. It's different when you're in that chair. It's very tight-knit.

The NIL piece, yeah, one, we're supported now. Our administration has stepped up and made sure we're going to be a national contender for a lot of years. But I gave this speech during my Coach of the Year thing, the athletics is changing. We have to dig our heels in in some way, shape, or form, and still keep the humanity about it. This is about raising young women, sending them off into the world to do amazing things.

It will be a balance. At some point, again, we're barreling towards basketball and football of what's going on here. It's going to be the haves and have not's, and I don't necessarily like it or don't like it. It is the world that we live in. I think there's some coaches that are burying their heads.

For us, we're going to teach people how to take that money, invest it, and make sure they're leaving college with something they can go do, change lives.

I've had conversations with these girls, one of them was just, You changed my life, and thank you.

Again, I'll say this. These girls came here for nothing. Really, they came here because they love the school, they love the institution, they wanted to be developed. That's going to be an additional piece of it going forward.

Q. There's this cliche that volleyball is a game of momentum. When do you think your team's momentum started?

JAMIE MORRISON: Yeah, I think volleyball is a game of momentum if, this isn't a sound byte, you have a weak mind. The thing I talk a lot about in our program is I care less about mistakes and I care more about responses.

I say that over and over again, because, again, when a team goes on a 4-0 run, I don't care about the mistake that got us there. I care about what we're going to do next. We talk a lot about mental strength and mental fortitude, and the skills that go into that.

Alisha Glass works with our team every other week. It's just literally putting a framework around this. Just like we teach passing, setting, all of these things, we teach how to take a breath.

We started this season talking about who you are as a human being, then in the middle of the season we talked about who you are as a competitor. When you get in these big moments, you get sways of four points, then it's a game of momentum because you start losing track of who you are.

When I say I'm proud of these girls, again, on a stage with literally the brightest lights I've ever seen up here. They're able to be themselves, they're able to be happy, joyful. Ifenna is able to Ifenna. She's talked about it, they're all able to be themselves. That's the thing I'm most proud of.

Q. I know you just won, I want you to catch your breath, but we have a championship game on Sunday. How is your team going to prepare for that?

JAMIE MORRISON: Yeah, the same way we always do. We'll talk to our sports science department, understand how much we're supposed to do. We'll try to keep us fresh. Obviously come out here and scout. It just depends on which team we play.

But I think the thing we've done, and we've done a really, really good throughout this playoff -- our tournament run. I'm used to pro. Sorry. Throughout this tournament run, is really kind of pick apart the opponent and not necessarily try to be good at everything, but what is going to be our biggest return on investment, of, hey, we can work on this for 30 minutes or this for 10 minutes. Here's these things we need to do in order to go beat this team.

It really depends on what happens in this next match.

Q. Two 1 seeds in this tournament from your conference that you had battles with. How did that prepare you for what you've been through the last five days?

JAMIE MORRISON: I think a lot. I got asked this question in Nebraska about the SEC tournament. When we were talking about it, again, we always had mixed emotions about this thing. Playing three matches in three days is a hard thing. At the end of the day it gave us a playoff experience before everybody else. It gave us an advantage in that.

The thing I've said to our team the entire time, I'm really thankful that every opponent that we've had has pushed us in some way. Because the more you're in those uncomfortable situations, and we've talked a lot about discomfort during this and how we've earned the right to be in it more, but the more we're in it, the more we get comfortable, the more we're used to being ourselves in those moments. If you have a slipup, you can learn from it in terms of straying away from who you are.

I think the fact that the SEC was so strong, and I've been saying it all season, I know volleyball when I'm looking around the country, seeing especially what us, what Kentucky and what Texas were doing. I thought those were three of the best teams, if not the three best teams in the country as we went through the season.

Q. You talked about your relationship with Dan Fisher yesterday. What did you see from the team that kept them in the fight?

JAMIE MORRISON: They played really good volleyball. I put together our Block and D plan. They hit 30-44, so I didn't do a very good job. He's one of the best coaches in the game.

One of the hardest things about this, and I didn't realize it until last year and I played JJ Van Niel with Arizona State, I'm going to have to go up against some of my best friends. I know this is the fifth time they've been here, I know they haven't made it past this round. I didn't want to be the person to end it, but that's sports.

We talk a lot. Logan talked about it with her relationship with Liv. Same thing with Dan and me. You have to turn that off for the two hours, you have to go battle, and you have to respect this game.

If I see him in two hours from now, I'm going to go give him a hug, I'm going to apologize. Not that I didn't want to do it, but just that you have to do that in sport. Again, that's the thing I didn't realize that I had to wrap my brain around.

Again, I have a lot of love, a lot of respect. I thought he got his team fighting till the end. Yeah, it's bittersweet. I'm really proud of these girls and I'm really sad for my friend.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for your time. We'll see you on Sunday.

JAMIE MORRISON: Thank you.