W O M E N ’ S C O L L E G I A T E V O L L E Y B A L L Hosts with the most
There was nothing like a home-state championship celebration for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who toppled Texas in the title match. (Photos: University of Nebraska)
Playing in their home state in front of record crowds, the Nebraska Cornhuskers claimed their fourth NCAA title in an all-Midwest semifinals that had a big-time atmosphere
IT WASN’T IMPOSSIBLE TO GET A LAST-MINUTE TICKET for the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship title match in Omaha, Nebraska on Dec. 19. You just had to be willing to drop some coin.
The match was sold out long before the
first serve, and so were the semifinals two nights earlier. The semis pulled in 17,551, breaking the attendance record of 17,430 set in Nebraska in 2008. The finals, in which the fourth-seeded Huskers took the title with a sweep of the third-seeded Texas Longhorns, upped the count to 17,561. That topped the championship match record of 17,209 who showed up in Omaha in 2006, which was also the final leg of a Husker championship run. An online search the night before
December’s final yielded ticket options that 44 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
included a pair of seats in the lower section of CenturyLink Center for $1,058 and indi- vidual tickets for $325. So, yes, scalping has reached the starting gate in women’s volleyball, although Nebraska Coach John Cook says it’s not entirely new. He remembers above- face-value tickets for Penn State matches back when the Huskers played at the Nebraska Coliseum, but that arena held just 4,000-plus fans.
This year’s ticket frenzy is a good sign that our sport is nibbling around the edges of mainstream attention, and Cook was encour-
aged by the entire atmosphere surrounding the event. “This is the biggest stage we’ve ever had,” he said. “Everything felt more big time – like the NFL or the NBA.” Nebraska setter Kelly Hunter said: “It’s crazy to hear not only that those tickets were being scalped, but what they were going for. Everyone in the state wanted to be here. They love us, I guess.”
Back at ya The Huskers returned the love in a big
way, earning the school’s fourth title – the third under Cook – and first since 2006 in front of a crowd that was rocking in red. In the Dec. 17 semis, they defeated a ninth-seed- ed Kansas team that had given the national semifinals the historical significance of being the first in its 34-year history to not include
by Don Patterson
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