Some Quick Thoughts on the 2025 NCAA Women's Indoor Volleyball Final

Congratulations to the Aggies

This year’s final match was definitely one for people who had a flight to catch. Those people included me, and I am at the airport typing this before I board and before I forget.

First, congratulations to both teams on their seasons and especially to Texas A&M, who bring the number of programs who have won an NCAA title to a lucky 13. I think they are deserving champions and went through the tournament in entertaining fashion.

With that said, I don’t think the final match is one that will prove particularly memorable for anyone other than Aggie fans. While the defense and hitter coverage were amazing and inspiring to see, contrary to cliché, neither win championships. If you’d like evidence, look no further than Kentucky’s dig total. They dug more balls than A&M did while facing fewer attacks and yet they did not win.

What does win championships? Points. In particular, kills win championships. But, in this year’s championship, Kentucky won that battle too, 40-39, and yet they did not win. Neither team scored enough kills to put themselves in the upper echelon of NCAA finalists. A&M was 39% kill and Kentucky was 35% kill. Average NCAA semifinalists and finalists score 41-42% kill when they win so neither team quite hit that threshold. (A&M fell about 2 kills short, while Kentucky was around 5 kills short.) As a result of not scoring enough, both teams allowed errors to decide the outcome. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they lost the attack error battle, 20%-13%. In general, matches aren’t super engaging when errors determine the winner and I don’t think tonight was any different.

Ifenna Kos-Okpalla, Lizzie Carr, and Asia Thigpen each had kill percentages that put them in the upper third of attackers in their positions but each contributed very little to the overall scoring. Kos-Okpalla was the biggest contributor of the three, accounting for about 1/5 of her team’s kills. But it’s hard to appreciate good attacking when it’s such a small part of the team’s success. These contributions shouldn’t be overlooked, but they will be overshadowed. And they will be overshadowed by lackluster performances by most of the pin attackers.

I had been looking forward to watching two first-team AVCA All American outside hitters from Kentucky go against two second-team AVCA All American pins from A&M. Of the four, I think only Kyndal Stowers played like an elite finalist. The other three were, well, average (at least when you’re only considering performances in the semifinals and finals). In terms of kill percentage, only Stowers achieved a kill rate (43%) that compares to the top third of semifinalist and finalist pin attackers.

Looking at team scoring, A&M definitely performed like a championship team, siding out at 72%. Their point scoring was sufficient, 44%, but it felt like more than enough because of the huge side out advantage they held over Kentucky. The Wildcats actually sided out at a decent rate, 55%, but teams in the semifinals and finals probably need to be at 60% to have a good chance of winning. So, by holding their opponents to a more pedestrian side out percentage, the Aggies were able to open up big gaps because they sided out so much better.

In closing, I’ll reiterate that I think Texas A&M is fully deserving of the trophy and I also think Kentucky deserved to be in the final alongside them. I believe they were the two best teams in the postseason. I’m sure both teams wish they could have performed better but, ultimately, you only need to be better than the team across the net from you and the Aggies were certainly the better team tonight.

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You may notice the stats I chose to describe tonight’s performances (K%, E%, SO%, and PS%) are not ones you hear if you watch a lot of volleyball on television. But we’re trying to change that. My first presentation of the weekend discussed that exact topic and I’ll post the video and the slides soon.

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