What Volleyball Day in Nebraska could mean for women’s sports

What does Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023 mean for the state of Nebraska?

All undergraduate classes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be fully virtual, most of the campus offices and facilities will be closed and a Scotty McCreery concert will close out the night.

All for volleyball.

On that date, a pair of outdoor women’s volleyball matches — first of their kind — will be held in the epicenter of college volleyball: Lincoln, Nebraska. Both will be held at Memorial Stadium, where the football team plays. The first will be a 5:30 p.m. ET DII exhibition match between Nebraska-Kearney and Wayne State, followed by a regular season matchup between Omaha and the Huskers at 8 p.m. ET.

By day’s end, the all-time NCAA women’s volleyball attendance record won’t be just shattered — it will likely be quadrupled. But brace yourselves… It’s not just the sport of college volleyball that will feel the impact of this monumental event.

#VBdayinNE Press Conference

🎙️: @bekkaallick5, @merbson, @jcook2 https://t.co/uqOwFxiLuz

— Nebraska Volleyball (@Huskervball) August 29, 2023

If NCAA volleyball were a religion, Nebraskans would be the most devout practitioners. The Huskers have maintained a 306-match regular season sellout streak that dates back to 2001. Nebraska has also led the nation in home attendance since 2013, the year that the volleyball team adopted the Devaney Center as its home court — and the yearly average number of fans has consistently exceeded the stadium seat capacity. In fact, 13 of the 14 largest NCAA volleyball regular season crowds have been Nebraska matches.

The attendance record for volleyball belongs in the state of Nebraska. pic.twitter.com/KZoAkwHOkh

— Trev Alberts (@TrevAlberts) April 27, 2023

Then there’s what the Huskers have accomplished on the court. Besides the five national championships, Nebraska has been No. 1 more than anyone else (102 times), has been ranked in every weekly AVCA poll since 1982 — that’s more than 600 times — and has been in the top 10 in nearly 90 percent of the polls.

But it’s not just about the Huskers. In DII volleyball, UNK has made 23 NCAA tournament appearances and topped the record book 15 times in average yearly home attendance since 1998. The Lopers also claim the DII all-time attendance record that dates back to 2005, when UNK faced Grand Valley State in front of 5,025 fans in the NCAA tournament. 

Now, let’s talk about smashing records. The regular season NCAA…