Nebraska Volleyball Just Made Sports History in a Big Way

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln volleyball team beat competitors from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, but Cornhuskers fans—and anyone who’s seen the team all over the news this week—have even bigger wins to celebrate. On Wednesday, the two teams took over the Lincoln University football stadium, nicknamed “The Sea of Red” by its robust fanbase, and broke nation and world records for both attendance at a women’s sporting event and attendance at a volleyball game.

A whopping 92,003 people were in the crowd, beating the previous US record held by the 1999 Women’s World Cup soccer final between the US and China by 1,818 people. It also shattered the world record for attendance at a volleyball game, previously held by a University of Florida at University of Wisconsin match with 18,755 people in the crowd.

The celebration doesn’t stop there. The Nebraska game also reportedly broke the world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event—widely considered to be held by a 2022 Champion’s League soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid—by 355 people. The team celebrated on X with the caption, “Husker Nation, you’ve done it. The WORLD RECORD for a Women’s Sporting Event lives at Lincoln. Today’s attendance: 92,003. There is NO PLACE like Nebraska.”

It’s worth noting the Associated Press has reported that a match at the unofficial 1972 Women’s World Cup in Mexico City drew a crowd of 110,000 people, which would potentially make this new record invalid—but that hasn’t been recognized by Guinness and frankly, Nebraska’s win is worth celebrating regardless. It isn’t uncommon to see “The Sea of Red” at full capacity for a Nebraska football game, but this game even beat the record for stadium attendance previously held by a 2014 football game by 418 people. Seeing photos and videos on social media of so many people dressed in school colors for the volleyball team is wildly emotional.

The Cornhuskers have won five national championships and the team holds the NCAA record for sellouts in volleyball at 306 home matches in a row. Nebraska may be known for its football, but volleyball fans are also showing up in droves—and that’s incredible to see.

(featured image: Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)

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Samantha Puc

Samantha Puc (she/they) is a fat, disabled, lesbian writer and editor who has been working in digital and print media since 2010. Their work focuses primarily on LGBTQ+ and fat representation in pop culture and their writing has been featured on Refinery29, Bitch Media, them., and elsewhere. Samantha is the co-creator of Fatventure Mag and she contributed to the award-winning Fat and Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives. They are an original cast member of Death2Divinity, and they are currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction at The New School. When Samantha is not working or writing, she loves spending time with her cats, reading, and perfecting her grilled cheese recipe.

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