COLLEGETOWN, FL — An eighth-seed FAMU team pulled off three straight upsets to capture the 2025 SWAC title and punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament.
- SWAC Tournament overview: No. 8 FAMU beat No. 1 Prairie View A&M in the quarter-finals, avenged regular-season losses by toppling No. 5 Alabama A&M in the semi-finals, and then defeated No. 7 Southern in the championship game.
- Championship match: Rattlers won the final in four sets.
- Watch the video below to see what this win means for FAMU's Volleyball program.
No. 8 Florida A&M wins back-to-back SWAC Volleyball titles
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"We worked really hard to building a championship culture here. So no matter how early season goes, we believe we can win a championship. I'm very happy for the girls," Gokhan Yilmaz, FAMU Head Coach, said.
The FAMU Rattlers have done it again, back-to-back SWAC Champions.
A season filled with grit and unmatched dominance.
I'm Lyric Sloan at FAMU, where players tell me this is more than just a win, it's a legacy in motion
The 2025 SWAC volleyball tournament opened Friday morning inside the Alfred Lawson Center.
No. 8 seed Florida A&M stunned top-seeded Prairie View A&M in the quarterfinals, then avenged two regular-season losses by taking down Alabama A&M in the semifinals, beating the fifth-seeded Bulldogs and setting up a championship showdown with No. 7 Southern University.
“I think we're looking for poise. Going into championship Sunday can be very emotional. We don't want to ride a roller coaster of up and down. We want to stay even keel. We know they're going to get some points. We know we're going to get some points. And who can score the last five points at 20-20 being clean, and we've done that all weekend,” Brooke Hudson, Assistant FAMU Volleyball Coach, said.
In the title match, the unlikely meeting of the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds started with the Rattlers jumping out early, taking the first set 25-12.
They dropped the second set, but rallied to win the next two, 25-22 and 25-23, securing back-to-back SWAC championships.
“Everyone went all out every point. We knew that it was going to be hard, we knew that it was going to be a fight, and we just knew that we needed to make less errors than they did, and that's what we did," said Sydney Whitfield, FAMU volleyball player.
"I mean, it's amazing to go in as the eighth seed and cause three upsets in the same weekend, I'm very proud for our goals and what they accomplished," Yilmaz said.
The victory also clinches the Rattlers a spot in the NCAA tournament.
That's why we open the season. That's one of our goals every year that we play here. We'll see who we draw. It's always a difficult match, but we're excited to be in it again.” Yilmaz said.
With tonight's victory, FAMU not only claims the conference crown, but momentum moving into postseason play.
At FAMU Lyric Sloan ABC 27
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