Nebraska volleyball fans may have a good chance to see some of the country's best programs arrive in Lincoln to open up the 2025 season.
As first reported by Amie Just, the AVCA website has posted on their events page the First Serve Showcase calendar for the opening six matches of the season, listing Lincoln, Neb. as the location for the event. The opening date is set as Friday, Aug. 22, and would run through Sunday, Aug. 24.
Per the AVCA website, the event would include "8 of the nation's top collegiate volleyball teams" to open the 2025 season. The event would "feature the first six matches" of Division I women's volleyball. At the start of the 2024 season, Nebraska visited the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky. to take on Kentucky as part of this season's First Serve Showcase. The Huskers downed then-No. 9 Kentucky 3-1 on Aug. 27.
The event schedule listed for the 2025 event features six teams despite the website description detailing eight teams. Friday's matches would feature two matches, Saturday would have one match, and Sunday would include two matches. The First Serve Showcase details the following format for the weekend:
Friday
- Team 1 vs Team 2
- Team 3 vs Team 4
Saturday
- Team 5 vs Team 6
Sunday
- Team 1 vs Team 3
- Team 2 vs Team 4
The announcement page also lists ticket information with presale tickets becoming available in the Summer of 2025 with the genreal sale tickets also available at that time. The team announcements and other information have yet to be released onto the website as of Tuesday morning.
2024's AVCA First Serve Showcase featured Nebraska, Wisconsin, Louisville, and Kentucky as the Huskers battled the Wildcats while the Badgers battled the Cardinals. All four of the programs reached an NCAA Regional Final this past weekend, with Wisconsin and Kentucky falling to the top seeds in their respective regions. Nebraska downed Wisconsin 3-0 Sunday, while Louisville handled Stanford 3-1 on Saturday.
The location in Lincoln has yet to be detailed. 2024's First Serve Showcase location, the KFC Yum! Center, seats 22,090 in total capacity while the Lincoln facilities - the Bob Devaney Sports Center and Pinnacle Bank Arena - have a volleyball seating capacity at 8,309 and 15,290 respectively. Nebraska coach John Cook had previously stated that the Huskers were expecting to find a way to host a Big Ten match at PBA in 2025 to break the attendance record in a conference match set by Purdue on Oct. 19 with 14,876 attendees at Mackey Arena.
"Next year we'll definitely be going to PBA (Pinnacle Bank Arena) so we can get that record too," Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network back in late October. "We want to hold every record. I think our fans are fired up, so we'll have to play a Big Ten match in PBA."
.@HuskerVB is coming to a PBA near you in 2025. @jcook2 & @lo_westy are back in this month's Kicking Back with the Cooks and it's a doozy!
— Huskers Radio Network (@HuskersRadio) October 24, 2024
-Full Episode-
Watch: https://t.co/IYdzSJLvDj
Listen: https://t.co/grdor9fU1q
@WoodhouseAuto pic.twitter.com/Dlm9c7pPSL
Pinnacle Bank Arena is the home of the Nebraska men's and women's basketball teams and seats 15,500. The current PBA record for a volleyball match was set in 2016 when the US National team packed 10,213 fans inside the building. Currently, Pinnacle Bank Arena has no listed events on their August 2025 schedule for the listed AVCA dates.
Nebraska is well known for its long-standing tradition for volleyball attendance and fandom, as the Huskers hosted the "Volleyball Day in Nebraska" in 2023, playing in front of 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium. The Huskers also look to earn their sixth national championship this coming weekend, as Nebraska returns back to the Final Four after finishing as the national runner-up last season.
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