In August, more than 80,000 fans will pack the University of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium for a volleyball match that is being billed as one of the largest women's sporting events in history.
The Cornhuskers feature a host of former MaxPreps All-Americans, including freshmen
Bergen Reilly of
O'Gorman (Sioux Falls, S.D.),
Laney Choboy of
Leesville Road (Raleigh, N.C.),
Carolina Jurevicius of
Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin (Chardon, Ohio) and
Harper Murray of
Skyline (Ann Arbor, Mich.). They'll be part of the Volleyball Day festivities, taking on Nebraska-Omaha on Aug. 30. Tickets sold out in less than 48 hours.
"This is going to be a special day for the sport of volleyball," Nebraska coach John Cook told Huskers.com. "At Nebraska we're always aiming to 'Dream Big' and raise the bar, and there can't be a much bigger way to do that than to play a match outdoors in a 90,000-seat football stadium."
In addition to last year's MaxPreps All-Americans, the Cornhuskers' roster also features past MaxPreps All-Americans
Lindsay Krause of
Skutt Catholic (Omaha, Neb.),
Ally Batenhorst of
Seven Lakes (Katy, Texas),
Kennedi Orr of
Eagan (Minn.) and
Lexi Rodriguez of
Sterling (Ill.).
The Cornhuskers have sold out more than 300 straight matches in the volleyball-crazed state.
But it's not just Nebraska where volleyball's popularity is reaching new audiences. According to the NFHS Participation Survey, volleyball is the second most popular girls high school sport in America behind only track and field. The most recent survey, released for the 2021-22 school year, shows 454,153 girls played volleyball at more than 16,000 schools while 456,697 competed in track and field.
However, volleyball ranks sixth overall behind boys sports football, track and field, basketball and baseball.
The record for an NCAA volleyball match is 18,755 in 2021 when Nebraska played Wisconsin in the NCAA final in Ohio. The largest crowd to attend a women's sporting event was 90,185 for the 1999 World Cup final between the United States and China best remembered for Brandi Chastain's winning penalty kick goal.
