Nebraska volleyball breaks world record for women’s sports attendance

A volleyball match in Nebraska appears to have made history Wednesday night — not on the court, but in the stands.

In addition to winning their match against the University of Nebraska at Omaha in a 3-0 sweep, the Nebraska Cornhuskers said they smashed the world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event after the match hosted at Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium drew more than 92,000 fans.

“Husker Nation, you’ve done it,” the team said on X, formerly Twitter. “The WORLD RECORD for a Women’s Sporting Event lives in Lincoln.”

“There is NO PLACE like Nebraska,” the team said.

“The attendance of 92,003 set a record for the largest crowd to watch a women’s sporting event in the United States. The crowd of more than 92,000 also surpassed what is widely regarded as the world-record attendance for any women’s sporting event,” the Huskers said in a separate online post.

While 91,648 at a soccer game in Barcelona, Spain, has been widely acknowledged as the previous women’s sports attendance record, at least one match at the unofficial 1971 Women’s World Cup in Mexico City reportedly drew 110,000 people, according to The Associated Press. The U.S. record for women’s sports attendance was 90,185 for the 1999 World Cup soccer final between the U.S. and China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Guinness World Records did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The team looked to shatter records after it announced last spring that it would make the match a daylong celebration of volleyball, a sport that enjoys huge popularity in Nebraska.

The Huskers usually host matches at their home facility, the Devaney Center, with the volleyball program having sold out 306 consecutive regular season matches, according to the team. The Devaney Center has a maximum capacity of 13,595, according to the University of Nebraska’s official athletics website.

Wednesday’s match does not count toward that streak, because it was played at Memorial Stadium, where the football team plays, allowing the Huskers to bid for a record attendance.

“We took a chance by playing in Memorial Stadium, and to go for the record and break it … I don’t think anybody could have envisioned that when this whole thing started,” Nebraska coach John Cook said, according to the AP. “It feels like a great accomplishment for this sport called volleyball played by women. It’s a state treasure. We proved it.”

According to the Huskers, the match also shattered a pair of NCAA records Wednesday night by exceeding records for any NCAA volleyball match and any NCAA volleyball regular season match. The NCAA does not track attendance across all sports, and NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the claim. The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fans and onlookers championed the Huskers for the achievement on social media, with one poster writing on X: “What an amazing atmosphere! Congratulations to the players and to the fans for their incredible support.”

Another wrote: “So happy to see the support for women’s sports! This is so awesome for these ladies!”