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Nebraska volleyball breaks global women’s sports attendance record with crowd of 92K - The Athletic

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LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska surpassed the recognized world-record attendance for a women’s sporting event Wednesday night, announcing a crowd of 92,003 at the “Volleyball Day in Nebraska” event that filled its football venue, Memorial Stadium. Here’s what you need to know:

  • The crowd, calculated by Nebraska as tickets sold for the event in addition to a head count of all team and event personnel — the marching band, media members and others — topped the 91,648 attendance record set on April 20, 2022, when Barcelona beat Wolfsburg in a UEFA Champions League semifinal at Camp Nou in Spain.
  • The previous U.S. record was established on July 10, 1999, at the Rose Bowl as Team USA beat China in the Women’s World Cup final.
  • Nebraska — ranked No. 4 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll — faced in-state foe Omaha in the second match Wednesday at Memorial Stadium.
  • The Huskers won in a sweep, 25-14, 25-14, 25-13. Wayne State defeated Nebraska-Kearney in a Division II match to kick off the event.

Backstory

The idea to play volleyball at Memorial Stadium was born last year. Nebraska coach John Cook, who has led the Huskers to four of their five NCAA championships, and athletic director Trev Alberts concocted the plan after Wisconsin set a regular-season attendance record for a volleyball match. The Badgers drew 16,833 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis., last September to take the mark from Nebraska. The Huskers, after Wednesday, have played in front of nine of the 10 largest crowds for a collegiate volleyball match.

Cook’s program has set the standard nationally for fan support, selling out an NCAA-record 307 consecutive matches. Nebraska has been ranked nationally in every AVCA poll, dating to its 1982 inception. Three of its alums, including team MVP and new assistant coach Jordan Larson, played on the gold-medal-winning U.S. squad at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.

The night

The atmosphere at Memorial Stadium was electric Wednesday, featuring an immersive volleyball experience and several produced videos displayed on the 4,000-square-foot HuskerVision screen atop the north end-zone seats. Former Nebraska volleyball players lined the entrance of the playing field as Cook and the Huskers entered to their own version of the famed football Tunnel Walk.

Weather, the only factor that could have disrupted this event, was perfect. The temperature cooled to 80 degrees in the opening set, with light wind and not a cloud in the sky. Rain or adverse conditions would have pushed the event to the Bob Devaney Sports Center, Nebraska’s volleyball arena that seats 7,907.

The significance

“Volleyball Day in Nebraska” is the latest spark for momentum in women’s sports. Attendance and TV viewership for women’s volleyball is on the rise.

Multiple U.S. professional leagues are in the formative stages. The championship game of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament this year, in which LSU beat Iowa, attracted an average of 9.9 million viewers — more than 4 million over the previous record for that event. The women’s basketball tournament also broke an attendance record.

According to NCAA president Charlie Baker, increased competition on the playing field in women’s sports attracts new interest. In volleyball, teams from the West Coast dominated the early years after the NCAA sponsored a championship in 1981. The past six years have delivered five different champions, including first-time winners Wisconsin and Kentucky.

The success at producing such an event on Wednesday figures to lead more schools to re-imagine what is possible for women’s sports. Already, Iowa has scheduled an exhibition women’s basketball game against DePaul at Kinnick Stadium for October. As of this week, almost 40,000 tickets were sold.

What they’re saying

“Unless something really weird happens, (Nebraska) will be a national-(title) contender,” Baker said Wednesday. “You have history here. You have a huge crowd. You have a state that is very proud of its athletic heritage, (and is) very competitive. … I think women’s volleyball has nothing but runway ahead of it.”

Cook said, “Women’s sports are a big deal here.”

“And (the volleyball players) got to experience what the men got to experience on the same level,” he said. “And maybe in some ways even more, because of how the crowd interacted.”

Andi Jackson, a Nebraska freshman middle blocker, called it “incredible” to be part of a world record.

“I don’t have enough words to describe it,” she said. “I can’t describe just how grateful I am to be a part of it.”

Required reading

(Photo: Dylan Widger / USA Today)

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