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A&M Raises Its Banner, Beats Three Unranked
The 2025 banner went up in front of Trev Alberts, Susan Ballabina and Gary Blair, who won a national title in the same building coaching basketball.
Texas A&M unveiled its 2025 national championship banner in Reed Arena on Friday night, in front of what KBTX called the fourth-largest crowd in the building's history, and the defending champions are five matches into a 3-2 season.
Athletic director Trev Alberts and university president Susan Ballabina were there, and Gary Blair, who won the 2011 national championship coaching Texas A&M women's basketball, watched from the seats.
Both Losses Came Against Ranked Teams
No. 7 Louisville beat A&M 3-1 at Fiserv Forum on 21 August in the Jeep AVCA First Serve, and No. 11 SMU swept the Aggies 3-0 in the same building two days later.
A&M opened the season ranked No. 8 in the AVCA preseason poll. Louisville sits at No. 7 and SMU at No. 11, which puts both Milwaukee opponents within three places of the team they beat.
Three Unranked Wins and One Stale Update
Grand Canyon, Arkansas State and Cal Poly made up the Texas A&M Invitational field. A&M beat Grand Canyon 3-1, took Arkansas State 3-0 on Friday night and closed with a 3-0 win over Cal Poly on Saturday.
None of the three carries a ranking, and Cal Poly left College Station at 1-1. The aggregates are the whole of the published scoreboard for all three matches.
What the three wins establish is that Texas A&M is better than three unranked teams, which was not in doubt on 23 August, and the question Louisville and SMU asked has not been put to the Aggies since.
Kyndal Stowers, Most Outstanding Player of the 2025 championship, hurt her back in warmups before the opener. Head coach Jamie Morrison said on 26 August that she likely would not play Friday, per Dylan Flippo of Aggies Wire.
Friday in that update means 28 August, the night of the ceremony, and that update is still the last word anybody has put on the record about her.
The Banner Is the Permanent Part
The banner is the only thing from this weekend that cannot be revised. The three results under it were produced against teams nobody has ranked. Morrison, the Texas A&M head coach, per KBTX on 29 August.
I kept looking up to the rafters, being like, 'Man, that's really cool. There's a banner hanging there that we had that accomplishment that gets to sit here for life and that's not something that will ever be taking down. That will be a part of Reed Arena for a long time to come and, I mean, not a long time to come – forever.'
The players have a different problem from their coach, because they have to produce the season the banner is standing over. Megan Fitch, a Texas A&M sophomore outside hitter, told KBTX after the ceremony.
We're all so excited. I was so excited to see what the banner looks like. I mean, last year was amazing, but this year we get to write our own story and we're really excited for that too.
Gary Blair's national championship banner has been in Reed Arena since 2011. The volleyball one went up on Friday, and the season hanging under it is three matches into a schedule that has not yet re-asked the Milwaukee question.
