Nebraska volleyball sells out Memorial Stadium, expected to shatter attendance record

Nebraska's Memorial Stadium has made news for a sellout not related to the football team.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers announced on their website Thursday that they sold out their Volleyball Day doubleheader, which will take place Aug. 30 at the hallowed venue in Lincoln.

The volleyball program sold about 82,900 tickets over three days. The event is expected to smash the record for attendance at a women's college volleyball game. The current mark is 18,755, which was set by Nebraska and Wisconsin for the 2021 national championship at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

"Nebraska fans never cease to amaze me," Nebraska vice chancellor and athletic director Trev Alberts said in a statement. "We knew the interest in this match would be extremely high, but to sell out Memorial Stadium is truly remarkable. I've heard lots of talk about breaking the NCAA volleyball attendance record, but given the incredible demand for this event we want to explore every avenue to see if it's possible to challenge the record for the most attended women's sporting event in this country. We are truly grateful!"

Alberts also shared the news in a video posted to his social media account where he stood on the turf at Memorial Stadium with football coach John Cook to reflect on the momentous moment.

"Right now, we're all having an out-of-body experience because it's just, it's overwhelming to see what's happened the last two days," Cook said. "I never really believed. As you know, I was doubtful. … You start thinking it, now it's happening."

The first game of Volleyball Day will be an exhibition featuring Nebraska-Kearney against Wayne State. The primetime event will be Nebraska's volleyball team taking on Omaha in a regular-season matchup.

The Cornhuskers volleyball program has a storied history with five national championships and 34 conference titles. Last year, the Cornhuskers made it to the third round of the championship tournament before being eliminated by Oregon 3-2.

The team has sold out 303 consecutive regular-season games. They play at Bob Devaney Sports Center, which features suites, state-of-the-art video boards and a capacity of 7,907.

Memorial Stadium has a 60-plus year streak of sellouts for the football team, even going through the 2020 pandemic. Donors would buy large batches of tickets at low prices to keep the streak going. At the end of the 2022 season, which marked Memorial Stadium's 100th anniversary, the streak was at 389 games. It is the longest-running sellout streak in college football.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nebraska volleyball sells out football stadium, likely to break record