Nebraska's fight song begins, “There is no place like Nebraska". When it comes to volleyball, those words never rang more true.
The Cornhuskers laid claim to the world record for largest attendance at a women's sporting event with 92,003 filling Memorial Stadium for their volleyball match against Omaha.
The university took aim at the record last spring when it announced it would hold a daylong celebration of a sport that enjoys immense popularity in this state of fewer than two million.
LIVE UPDATES: Latest scores and action from the US Open day four
READ MORE: Storm star gives coach 'wonderful headache' in win
READ MORE: Joey's solution to farcical season ending
“We took a chance by playing in Memorial Stadium, and to go for the record and break it. … I don’t think anybody could have envisioned that when this whole thing started,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “It feels like a great accomplishment for this sport called volleyball played by women. It’s a state treasure. We proved it.”
The event began with an exhibition between in-state Division II powers Nebraska-Kearney and Wayne State and was followed by the Huskers' three-set sweep of Omaha in a regular-season match. Country artist Scotty McCreery performed afterward.
The previous attendance record was 91,648, set during a Champions League football match when Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 5-2 at the Camp Nou Stadium in 2022.
Memorial Stadium's official capacity is just over 85,000 for football, but that number was higher for this event because there were seats and standing room on the field.
Fans in red and white started their tailgate parties outside the stadium hours before first serve of an exhibition Wayne State won in three sets. The stadium was one-quarter full at the start of that match and gradually filled to capacity as players for Omaha and Nebraska were warming up.
There was a flyover during the national anthem and, minutes before first serve, Cook led his Huskers into the stadium to the Tunnel Walk, the longtime tradition of the football team. Synchronised chants of “Go Big Red!” were heard all around.
Though 91,648 was widely acknowledged as the women’s sports attendance record, at least one match at the unofficial 1971 Women’s World Cup in Mexico City reportedly drew 110,000 people.
The American record attendance for a women’s sporting event had been 90,185 for the 1999 World Cup football final between the United States and China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California — the game where Brandi Chastain ripped off her shirt after scoring the decisive penalty shot for the U.S. win.
https://twitter.com/HuskerVB/status/1697085158539616383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The NCAA does not track attendance across all sports, but associate director of media coordination and statistics Jeff Williams said a crowd of 90,000-plus was easily among the largest for a non-football game. A 2010 outdoor hockey game between Michigan and Michigan State at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor drew more than 113,000 fans.
A message seeking comment from officials of Guinness World Records was not immediately returned.
Nebraska has sold out 306 consecutive regular-season matches. The Huskers have led the nation in attendance every season since 2013, and eight of the top nine crowds in NCAA volleyball history are matches that have involved Nebraska.
https://twitter.com/espn/status/1697060879932461216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
There are 75 women from the state of Nebraska who are on Division I volleyball rosters this season. At 44 players per million in population, the state trails only Hawaii (67 per million) in Division I players produced per capita, according to volleyball statistician and historian Rich Kern of RichKern.com.
“You don’t think you’re going to be part of a world record event, and seeing how much everyone supports volleyball and wanted to be part of that record is awesome to see,” Omaha's Shayla McCormick said.
Volleyball has surpassed basketball as the No.1 girls high school team sport in the United States. It’s long been No.1 in Nebraska.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.