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Record-Breaking Crowds Show Nebraska Volleyball is Must-See at Any Venue

Home or away, the Huskers' matches are filling arenas to the rafters.

Maren Angus-Coombs

Nebraska volleyball players celebrate a point at Oregon.
Nebraska volleyball players celebrate a point at Oregon. / Nebraska Athletics

Nebraska is proving to be must-see volleyball no matter what the venue is.

Following a brief review from HuskerMax columnist Dave Feit, the Huskers currently hold the attendance record at 17 different venues, with Pinnacle Bank Arena expected to join the list next year.

Feit put together his research after the Huskers swept No. 12 Oregon in front of 8,566 fans at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene. The 17th record-setting crowd came Saturday night at Alaska Airlines Arena, where the Huskers swept Washington with a sellout of 9,768 in attendance.

Although head coach John Cook was looking forward to returning home and getting back into his regular routine, he left Washington impressed by yet another impressive, oversized crowd.

“It's unreal how we're drawing. We’re selling out arenas and they're not our arenas. We're selling out at other people's arenas,” Cook said. “I don't know if people want to come see us or if they want to try to see somebody knock us off. But it's pretty impressive. There's something happening right now with these crowds, especially out here on the West Coast.”

The sold-out crowd in Settle set a program attendance record, surpassing the previous high of 8,648 fans from Nov. 2014, when No. 5 Washington defeated top-ranked Stanford.

The crowd in Eugene broke the previous arena record for volleyball attendance of 7,334, set during Oregon State’s visit on Sept. 22, 2023. It marked only the third time over 6,000 fans had gathered to watch the Ducks at MKA.

"It was so exciting," said UW head coach Leslie Gabriel. "I was in my office an hour before doors opened and I could hear the music outside and hear the people lining up. It was really cool. I hope the community comes back and watches us over the next three weeks but it was awesome and the girls were fired up. It was a lot of fun."

With Oregon and Washington in their first Big Ten season, seeing how well Husker fans travel has created an elite atmosphere for both programs. NU has also displayed the sport's growth.

"Personally I just love seeing the sport of volleyball grow and seeing more people being engaged," Oregon senior Onye Ofoegbu said. "It looked like Christmas tonight (with all the red and green in the stands). It was awesome. No matter who's in the crowd, it's just awesome to know that people are willing to take time out of their day to watch us play and watch us do what we really love. So it's awesome."

However, this is nothing new for the Huskers who have played in front of 90,000-plus before.

"We love the fans. We love getting to meet so many people,” NU setter Bergen Reilly said during an interview with BTN. “It just really is so cool that the game of volleyball is growing so much and that we can be such a big part of that, and we're just so honored to be part of all these record-breaking crowds.”

Nebraska heads back home for their next , where they’ll compete for the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy against the 14th-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers. The match is scheduled for an 8 p.m. CST start on Thursday and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

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Maren Angus-Coombs
MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

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