As of Aug. 30, when a sea of red gathered due to their shared passion for volleyball, a new world record had been broken. While the previous attendance record for a Women’s Sporting Event was 91,648 fans, the game between the Nebraska Huskers and Omaha Mavericks shattered the record reaching an attendance of 92,003 fans.
While most Husker volleyball games are held at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) campus, this game was moved to Memorial Stadium, also on campus, in order to hold a larger capacity compared to the 13,595 people that Devaney can hold.
This event was such a huge deal that Aug. 30 was even coined as Volleyball Day in Nebraska. Due to the game, all UNL classes were cancelled allowing students to attend without having to skip class. The festivities do not just stop there. After the game, there were fireworks as well as a music performance by Scotty McCreery.
Ultimately, the one thing that allowed for this occasion was a love for volleyball from across the state.
“I love watching volleyball, like I still love the Huskers, I love UNO volleyball, and I love Burke volleyball,” junior Lea Hanson said.
Although not everyone was able to get tickets for the game, numerous people watched the game on TV from the comfort of their own home.
“Even though I didn’t watch it in person, I think that the views speak a lot to other people that are watching and that could make it [notable] around the world,” Hanson said.
No matter where people watched the game, the moment it was made known that the world record had been broken was an extremely significant moment for not only Nebraska volleyball, but women’s sports as a whole.
“I literally had my camera out because they were about to announce [the attendance number] and I took pictures of the number on the screen because I was freaking out,” Hanson said. “That’s a huge number, especially for Nebraska.”
One of the reasons why this record was able to be broken was due to the game being between two teams located in Nebraska which allowed fans from both teams to attend the game.
“A Husker volleyball game would usually be against other bigger schools but obviously the Huskers went against UNO which is a state team,” Hanson said. “And then before that, Wayne State and UNK played which is crazy. So, just celebrating Volleyball Day in Nebraska in general is really cool.“
Overall, this game will go down in history as record breaking and as a game that was watched by people across the globe.
“This makes an impact on women’s sports because it’s just something that people all gathered for in Nebraska in general, but also the whole world was watching this game. And, breaking that record just sets expectations for women’s sports and for the future that women’s sports are important.”
