Every year thousands of fans pack into the Bob Devaney Sports Center to watch one of the best collegiate volleyball teams in the country play. Nebraska Volleyball currently has the longest consecutive sellout streak in women’s sports as it sits at 303 games. 

This year Nebraska set another record  with 92,003 fans attending a match against the UNO Mavericks at Memorial Stadium on what was called “Volleyball Day in Nebraska”. This set the record for most attendees at a women’s sporting event in history.

This was the first time ever that a volleyball team played inside of a stadium designed for football. This match should be made a yearly event. It brought one million dollars which will be split between the schools that competed. There could be even more money brought in from other states if the event is repeated as fans from 47 different states attended the match.

This money will create many opportunities for the university. It will bring money to all sports programs at the university, potentially increase the scholarships available to students, and have renovations made to the university.

Also, having a volleyball match at Memorial Stadium every year will create national attention for the Nebraska volleyball team as well as the rest of the university. In just the first year this event generated more excitement than anyone had ever imagined a volleyball match could.

Recruits would be even more willing to come play for Nebraska if they had an opportunity to play in front of more than 90,000 fans. Nebraska volleyball already has the number one recruiting class in the nation so having this event could keep it that way and even improve recruiting.

Above all this is the magical experience that this event created for every fan in attendance. The magic went beyond watching world class volleyball right in front of you. It went along with the thrill of being a small part of the world record that was set as well as being able to experience the show that went on afterwards. The show went above and beyond as it used drones and fireworks to put on an impressive light show which set the stage for the grand finale which was a concert performed by country music star Scotty Mcreery.

All this makes “Volleyball Day in Nebraska” worthy of being an incredible yearly event in the future.