Nebraska volleyball game aims to set new attendance record in women's sports

The University of Nebraska is about to set a record not only for women's volleyball but women's sports.

The Cornhuskers are hosting Nebraska-Omaha at Memorial Stadium, the school's famed football stadium that seats over 85,000 fans. Yet according to athletic director Trev Alberts, Nebraska believes that it can reach up to 95,000 fans for this intra-state affair.

Should the game fill up all the stands, Nebraska vs. Nebraska-Omaha would not only be the most attended volleyball game by far, but it would also be the most attended single-day women's sporting event of all-time. It would surpass the 91,648 fans who watched Barcelona take on Wolfsburg in a UEFA Women's Champions League match in April 2022.

In a well-detailed article for USA Today, Paul Myerberg spoke with members of the team and their athletic department about the flurry of logistics involved in staging this historic event, as well as what it means for women's sports around the world. Yet one particular wrinkle of this game comes from a rivalry with a school that's not even involved in the match.

Alberts and women's volleyball coach John Cook both said a major motivator for playing this match at Memorial Stadium was to one-up fellow Big Ten rival Wisconsin.

Per Myerberg, the Cornhuskers co-own with Wisconsin the overall NCAA volleyball attendance record (18,755), set when the two met in the 2021 national championship game in Columbus, Ohio. But the Badgers set a new regular-season record (16,833) in a match against Florida last September, sneaking past the previous mark (15,797) set when Creighton hosted Nebraska one week earlier.