Memorial Stadium, home of the Nebraska Cornhuskers college football team, will be filled to the brim on Wednesday, Aug. 30. However, it won’t be with crazed Husker football fans.
Welcome to Volleyball Day in Nebraska, when swarms of Midwest women’s volleyball fans will ascend on the Huskers’ massive football venue to watch a day full of women’s volleyball and celebrate the sport. The Huskers’ women’s volleyball team has had plenty of success over the past eight seasons with two national championships and a pair of runner-up seasons — but the day isn’t all about them and their opponent, the Mavericks of Omaha. Wayne State (Neb) and Nebraska-Kearney will be part of the action, squaring off in a DII women’s volleyball top-25 exhibition as representatives of the high-quality programs in Nebraska.
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“We appreciate the opportunity to be included in such an historic event,” Lopers’ head coach Rick Squiers told NCAA.com. “At the same time, we think the UNK volleyball program is indeed a strong part of Nebraska volleyball tradition.”
The two DII programs, both of which were part of the loaded Central Region in last year’s DII women’s volleyball championship, will serve it up at 5:30 p.m. ET. More than a month ago, Nebraska announced the event was a sellout — in a college football stadium that holds more than 85,000 people. Considering the women’s college volleyball attendance record is 18,755, Squiers is quite correct in his assessment: this will be a historic event. With an additional 6,000 seats available for the matches, the expectations are to be somewhere around 91,000 people. That means UNK and Wayne State (Neb) could be part of an even larger record — the U.S. women’s sports attendance record of 90,185 people set in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Wildcats’ head coach Scott Kneifl reflected on the monumental event, noting that his town of Wayne, Nebraska has a mere 5,000 people, just about 1/20th of what his team is about to play in front of. “It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Kneifl said. “Memorial Stadium at capacity is the third largest stadium in Nebraska — so I’m sure there will be some nerves. But what an exciting opportunity — more excitement and joy than anything, to be honest.”
”Our team has played in front of many large crowds, 2000-plus,” added Squiers. “UNK holds most of the NCAA…
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