A No. 3 seed always means good things, and for 25-4 Texas A&M volleyball, it meant a straight road to the Sweet Sixteen after spending a successful weekend at home in Bryan-College Station’s Reed Arena.

The Aggies kicked off the NCAA Tournament with a sweep over Campbell, with sets of 25-20, 25-10 and 25-13. Putting on a seminar in offensive domination, Texas A&M hit for .417 as a group with outside hitters Logan Lednicky leading with 18 kills at .654 and Emily Hellmuth following with 10 kills at .667. Together, Lednicky and Hellmuth shattered the program record for the three-set match hitting percentage, which was previously at .650.

The next day, the Aggies took down No. 20 TCU in a 3-1 match with four sets of 23-25, 25-22, 25-23 and 29-27. Although this match was much more hard-fought than the previous day’s, it marked another milestone — Texas A&M had ensured its first ever back-to-back Sweet Sixteen entry, earning its largest single-season win total since 2012 at the same time.

That Sweet Sixteen will be against No. 9 Louisville on Friday, Dec. 12. Louisville is currently 26-6, 16-4 in ACC play after losing to Pitt 0-3 and Stanford 2-3 to close out regular season play. With two wins against Loyola University of Chicago and Marquette University, the Cardinals will be looking for an upset.

Texas A&M’s resume stacks up against Louisville, however, with the Aggies hopeful for an Elite Eight appearance. After beating top teams like Texas and Tennessee throughout conference play, Texas A&M very well could make its first appearance in the Elite Eight since 2001 under head coach Laurie Cobelli.

However, Texas A&M’s inconsistencies still arise. Although the Aggies’ first matchup against the Longhorns resulted in a 3-2 win, their path to an SEC Championship was cut short by Texas in a 1-3 loss. Against Kentucky, this year’s SEC Champion and second No. 1 seed, Texas A&M’s efforts were completely futile and resulted in a 1-3 shutdown.

The opportunity to make history with its first Elite Eight appearance in 20 years — and, past that, first Final Four appearance ever — looms ahead of Texas A&M. However, history has still already been made. For a program that historically has fallen just short of deep playoff runs, a back-to-back Sweet Sixteen appearance is still a storybook ending.

Whether or not more pages will be added to that book will be decided on Friday at 6 p.m. CT.