Sports
Logan Lednicky caps dream with volleyball title at Texas A&M
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A few days before the NCAA women’s volleyball national championship, Texas A&M opposite hitter Logan Lednicky posted an old family video on her Instagram account. Lednicky is maybe 5 or 6 years old in the video, wearing a maroon A&M shirt and doing cartwheels on the grass at Kyle Field, A&M’s football stadium. “Say ‘Gig ‘Em, Aggies,'” her mom, Leigh Lednicky, implores her, and little Logan walks up to the camera, smiles and gives a thumbs-up.
Under the video, Lednicky wrote that she is living in that little Aggie’s “answered prayers.”
Her dad, Kyle, was a long snapper for the Texas A&M football team in the 1990s, and her mom worked in the football office. She chose Texas A&M because she always dreamed of being a fourth-generation Aggie, but that was only part of it. She wanted to help build a middling volleyball program into a powerhouse.
Lednicky went beyond that little girl’s dreams Sunday, swatting 11 kills to lead Texas A&M to a sweep over No. 1 seed Kentucky for the program’s first national title. The senior from Sugar Land, Texas, was a linchpin in the Aggies’ improbable December postseason run, helping her team knock off three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.
In the final four matches of her career, when it mattered most, Lednicky amassed 69 total kills, a team high. She’s one of four seniors who have been with the program from the beginning — they went 13-16 as freshmen — and set the tone for the historic season. The past and present swirled through that class Sunday. With the Aggies cruising in the final set, coach Jamie Morrison high-fived Lednicky, and hung on to her hand.
“I think she had that moment where, ‘This might be the last four points of my college career,'” Morrison said. “I think she actually started getting a little teary on the court. I was like, ‘Oh, no, did I just ruin everything?’ No, it means the world.
“There was a group of them here from the beginning that said, ‘I want to be a part of this, I want to build this program.’ … I don’t think they were envisioning a national championship by the time they were done. I think when we were selling what we were doing, it was building something they could come back to in the future and be really, really proud they helped build.”
It was Lednicky who helped save the season on Dec. 13 in the Sweet 16, when the Aggies were down two sets to Louisville. She hammered a team-high 20 kills in a reverse sweep, and afterward, Lednicky mentioned a random note that someone left on the scorer’s table as her team was teetering toward elimination.
The note said, “Something great is about to happen.”
She has always been the charismatic optimist — the one who keeps things loose. Teammates call her everything from their “ride-or-die” to a best friend.
She has been a recruiter. When Morgan Perkins hit the transfer portal after her freshman season at Oklahoma three years ago, her first text came from Lednicky, an old club teammate. Perkins said the text was something along the lines of, “Hey, Mo-Mo, I see you’re in the portal …”
Lednicky, along with sophomore Kyndal Stowers, helped pull A&M together when the Wildcats sprinted out to a 15-9 lead in the first set. The Aggies later said they dealt with some jitters at the start of the match, but it was short-lived. Lednicky’s kill drew A&M within one, and then she teamed up with Perkins for a block that tied the game. Stowers’ kill completed the rally and gave the Aggies the set, 26-24.
From there, the Aggies dominated. They took a commanding 19-8 lead in the second and pulled away in the third with a Lednicky kill that made it 18-11.
“I was pretty emotional all day today,” Lednicky said, “just knowing that no matter the outcome of this game, it would be my last getting to represent A&M on my chest. Being able to do this with these girls — end like this, I just can’t even believe it.
“I’m so happy I get to carry this with me through the rest of my life and remember all the memories with these girls.”
In the waning moments of the match, a corner of the arena chanted, “Why not us?” It became a slogan for the Aggies in the postseason, during the match against Louisville. Late Sunday, Lednicky gave a shoutout to her boyfriend and teammate Ava Underwood’s boyfriend for coining it for the Aggies at a concession stand in Lincoln, Nebraska.
“We kind of took it and ran with it,” she said. “We started saying it. Ava and Addi (Applegate) wrote it on their shoe. Now it’s on a T-shirt somehow. Shout out to them.
“But, I mean, it’s true. It’s a testament to the hard work this program has put in all year long, staff, players. That’s such a great statement. ‘Why not us’ has turned into, ‘It is us’. I think with that dawg mentality all season long, all tournament long, we knew it was going to be us.”
Morrison, who came to A&M in December 2022 and overhauled the program’s culture, figured it would take at least five years to win it all. He credited the rapid ascent to his team’s work ethic.
Kyle Lednicky waited for his daughter after the match, marveling over how she and her teammates set out to change a program and did it so quickly, and dramatically. He said former A&M football coach R.C. Slocum texted her Sunday morning and wished her luck.
“That was pretty cool,” Kyle Lednicky said.
Of course he always hoped his daughter would go to his alma mater, but he says he never put pressure on her. Maybe it was osmosis, that all those football games, and that maroon clothing, would eventually seep into her consciousness, and her heart. It didn’t matter. That fourth-generation Aggie is now a first-generation champion.
Kyle Lednicky saw his daughter’s Instagram post Thursday, and it brought back a flood of memories.
“I had to put it away,” he said, “because I got teary-eyed when I was looking at it.”
Sports
Duke staffers ‘got punched in the face’ as UNC fans stormed court after upset win, coach says
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Duke Blue Devils staff members “got punched in the face” as North Carolina Tar Heels fans stormed the court in celebration of their rivalry win, head coach Jon Scheyer said Saturday.
No. 14 North Carolina topped No. 4 Duke, 71-68, after Tar Heels guard Seth Trimble hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left. Tar Heels fans hit the court thinking the game was over but had to be corralled back to their seats once officials added less than a second back to the clock.
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Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer reacts in the first half at Dean E. Smith Center on Feb. 7, 2026. (Bob Donnan/Imagn Images)
Scheyer said that some of the team’s staff members took hits during the fracas.
“For me it’s hard to talk about the game when I was most concerned just for the safety of our players after the game,” Scheyer said. “I don’t want to make it about that, because Carolina, they played a great game to win. And that’s a heartbreaking loss for our team.
“I got staff members that got punched in the face. My family, pushing people away, trying to not get trampled. That’s not what this game is about.”
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said he apologized for the incident, but didn’t have details on any injuries.
“When they rushed the court, a number of people got knocked over,” Cunningham said. “But then we had to clear the court again. So when we normally have something like just rushing the court and the game is over, we do have a line by the benches to get people off safely.
North Carolina fans take the floor and celebrate after the team defeated Duke in the final seconds of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
UTAH TECH BASKETBALL PLAYER PUNCHES OPPONENT AFTER GETTING DUNKED ON IN VIRAL INCIDENT
“Obviously, if somebody got injured, that’s just really, really disappointing. We’ll do the best we can to make sure that doesn’t happen, but again, my apologies to Duke for that.”
A Duke official told multiple outlets that one person tied to the program had been injured but had no other details.
Scheyer and Duke had a similar incident happen after Duke lost to Wake Forest in 2022. Then-Blue Devils player Kyle Filipowski was shaken up after a Demon Deacon fan collided with him during their celebration.
Scheyer, who wondered in 2022 when court-storming was going to be banned, was asked whether he still believed it should be prohibited.
“Just shouldn’t have people getting punched in the face,” he said. “Shouldn’t put our players in position where they’re face-to-face with people who can do anything at that time. It just takes one reaction. Even today, I had to push people away just to try to protect our players.
North Carolina guard Seth Trimble (7) celebrates with fans after an NCAA college basketball game against Duke, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
“They won, they should celebrate. They want to court-storm, court-storm. But just let’s get our guys off safely, that’s it. That’s where I’m at with that.”
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Duke fell to 21-2 on the season with the loss. North Carolina improved to 19-4.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Lokesh Bam’s late fireworks proved in vain as England held on to beat Nepal by four runs in a thrilling T20 World Cup 2026 match at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on Sunday.
Chasing 185, Nepal began strongly as openers Kushal Bhurtel and wicketkeeper Aasif Sheikh set the tone with aggressive stroke play. The 37-run partnership was broken when Sheikh fell for seven off nine balls, dismissed by Liam Dawson.
In the final over of the powerplay, Bhurtel was dismissed for 29 off 17 deliveries, featuring four boundaries and a six, leaving Nepal at 42 for 2 in 5.2 overs.
Skipper Rohit Paudel and Dipendra Singh Airee then steadied the innings, adding a 50-run partnership to take Nepal past the 100-run mark in 12 overs. Airee looked set for his 11th T20I half-century, troubling England’s bowlers with powerful strokes.
However, Sam Curran broke the 82-run stand by dismissing Airee for 44 off 29 balls, which included six fours and a six.
Shortly after, Rohit Paudel fell to Liam Dawson for 39 off 34 deliveries, featuring two fours and two sixes, reducing Nepal to 126 for 4 in 15.3 overs.
Nepal lost further momentum as Aarif Sheikh was caught by Jofra Archer for 10 off eight balls, including a six, leaving the side at five wickets down.
Lokesh Bam fought back, hitting consecutive sixes off Archer to bring Nepal closer, with 24 runs needed from the final two overs.
In the 19th over, Mark Wood conceded 14 runs but took the key wicket of Gulsan Jha for one, leaving Nepal needing 10 runs off the last over.
Sam Curran bowled the final over, conceding five runs as Nepal fell just short. Lokesh was the standout for Nepal, scoring a quick 39 off 20 balls with four boundaries and two sixes.
Batting first, England made a poor start as opener Phil Salt was dismissed cheaply for one off two deliveries, removed by Sher Malla on the first ball of the second over.
Wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell then stabilised the innings, scoring at a brisk pace with boundaries flowing freely.
However, Nandan Yadav had other plans, dismissing Buttler for a crucial 26 off 17 deliveries, including five boundaries, leaving England reeling at 43-2 in 4.3 overs.
Pressure continued to mount as England lost Tom Banton on the first delivery of the seventh over, dismissed by Sandeep Lamichhane for two off five balls.
Bethell and captain Harry Brook steadied the innings with a sensible partnership, guiding the team toward a competitive total as Bethell brought up his third T20I fifty and helped the side cross the 100-run mark.
The duo put together a 71-run partnership, which ended when Dipendra Singh Airee claimed the important wicket of Jacob Bethell.
Bethell finished his crucial innings with 55 runs off 35 balls, hitting four boundaries and four sixes, taking the team to 128-4 in 13.4 overs.
England were five wickets down when Airee struck again, taking the wicket of Sam Curran. It was Airee’s second of the match, and Curran was dismissed after scoring just two runs off eight deliveries.
Brook continued to pile on runs for his side, taking the total past the 150-run mark and earning a well-deserved sixth T20I fifty.
However, after reaching his milestone, Nandan Yadav claimed the key wicket, ending the captain’s valiant innings of 53 runs off 32 balls, which included four boundaries and three sixes.
Will Jacks remained unbeaten, playing a fiery 18-ball 39 that included one boundary and four sixes, while Archer was run out for one off three deliveries.
The “Quadg0d” struggled in his first Olympic skate, but his best events are still to come, and there’s no reason to panic.
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