Nebraska volleyball crowd makes history, and now Longhorns eye Moody Center

When the Texas volleyball players got home from a grueling, season-opening road trip late Wednesday, they all went to their homes for some needed downtime and clicked on Nebraska’s historic match against Omaha.

The spectacle drew more than 92,000 volleyball enthusiasts into Nebraska’s football stadium and set a global record for fan attendance at a women’s sporting event.

It also sent the Longhorns immediately into their team group chat.

“Oh, we were just all texting each other about how awesome it is for our sport,” said Molly Phillips, a 6-foot-5 outside hitter in her fifth season at Texas. “I mean, getting that many fans out in front of a volleyball game is insane. It just was a really emotional experience getting to see that and seeing how they (the fans) all embraced it. We really just thought it was super cool, breaking the record.”

Texas, which averaged more than 4,300 fans per match last season, regularly sells out its games at Gregory Gymnasium, only about a jump serve away from Royal-Memorial Stadium. Could Phillips ever imagine playing a match on the football team’s field?

“I know we can have more than 100,000 in there,” she said. “That would be really cool. We definitely have the space to do something crazy like that.”

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Elliott: Volleyball team wants to play in Moody Center

But UT volleyball coach Jerritt Elliott doesn’t deal in craziness. Instead, he’s a pragmatic promoter for his program and women’s volleyball. He understands the economic realities for a sport in which Nebraska remains the only NCAA women’s program that turned a profit in 2022, according to public records obtained by the Lincoln Journal Star. There might not be another volleyball program in the nation that could fill a football stadium, but Elliott’s team is among only a handful of others that regularly sell out their home arenas.

Texas’ home opener against Stanford on Sunday offers concrete evidence; the match has been sold out for weeks, and ticket prices on the secondary market are soaring well above $100.

Royal-Memorial Stadium might not be a realistic venue for Texas volleyball, Elliott said, but the new Moody Center with its approximately 15,000 seats looks like a viable option.

“We want to go into the Moody Center and try to sell that out,” he said. “That would be my next goal. We've had some preliminary talks on that, but nothing is set in stone right now.”

College volleyball appears to be on the rise

The timing seems right for the volleyball team to make a push for a match or two in Moody Center, the home arena for the UT men’s and women’s basketball teams. The Nebraska match created a buzz that goes beyond volleyball’s fan base, and ESPN and ABC have already announced that this year’s national championship match will move from Saturday night on one of the ESPN channels to Sunday afternoon on ABC.

Elliott and his coaching peers across the country said that will be a milestone moment in the media’s acceptance of volleyball as a viable economic draw.

“The move to ABC is incredible for the sport of women’s volleyball,” Stanford's Kevin Hambly told VolleyballMag.com after ESPN announced the switch earlier this summer. “This opens us up to every television and streamer in the country. The number of potential casual viewers moves to the (tens) of millions. I know all of the coaches are over the moon with excitement by ABC’s commitment to volleyball.”

Elliott agreed, telling reporters Thursday at Gregory Gym that volleyball’s surge into the spotlight reflects an increasing interest in the game.

“I think where the sport is growing right now is really exciting, and what Nebraska did was phenomenal,” he said. “It just shows not only the volleyball fan base, but the world, that volleyball is a really popular sport. And the numbers are showing that on ESPN and on TV.

“Women's athletics is growing left and right. I think you're seeing with the (Women’s) World Cup and the ratings they had. I think it's becoming the norm now. And I think there's a lot of men that are enjoying and understanding (volleyball) a lot more. And it's a phenomenal game. I mean, people still come to our games for the first time and go, ‘I never knew how great of a sporting event this is.’”

More: New OH Jenna Wenaas, Texas volleyball enjoy return to home court in preseason scrimmage

What lessons Texas learned in opening loss

Texas fans lucky enough to secure a ticket for Sunday’s match will certainly agree. The No. 7 Longhorns (2-1), the defending national champions, tumbled from their spot atop the American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll after a four-set road loss to Long Beach State on Aug. 25, but they rebounded by sweeping Loyola-Marymount and then dispatching No. 5 Minnesota in four sets Tuesday. Stanford (2-1) will probably drop from its No. 2 spot after Tuesday’s loss to Florida but remains a legitimate title threat.

Elliott and Phillips said several factors contributed to the opening loss to Long Beach State, which snapped a 15-match winning streak dating back to October. Texas had several new faces in the starting lineup, including freshman setter Ella Swindle and outside hitter Jenna Wenaas. All-American middle blocker candidate Asjia O’Neal missed the first two natches of the season with a slight injury before returning against Minnesota, and Long Beach State delivered one of its best performances in years before the largest home crown in a generation.

“I think there's lessons in winning and losing, and obviously they (the Texas players) listen a little bit better to those lessons after a loss,” Elliott said. “Now the pressure is off because we being No. 1 is not on us anymore. We've got to make sure that we're growing every day. Our goal is to be the best by the end of the season.”

Phillips credited Long Beach State for “playing a great game” but liked how her team responded to the setback.

“Our first time going out and competing, kind of a big stage, we had a few hiccups, but it was really good for us to be forced to bounce back so quickly,” she said. “This team has a ton of drive, so we only need a little bit of a kick like that to get us going. I think we responded really well and then had a great two games after that.”

Title celebration leads off Stanford match

Stanford offers the next big test. The Cardinal have won nine national championships, the most all time. Texas moved into a tie for fourth place with UCLA on the all-time list with its fourth title a year ago, and the program will celebrate by raising the championship banner before Sunday’s match.

While Elliott says he’s excited to “have that joy for your fans,” he doesn’t want his players to get swept up by the celebration. Early season matches against premier programs such as Stanford provide opportunities to pad your RPI rankings, which become crucial during the NCAA Tournament selection and seeding process.

“We're going to make it (the celebration) short and sweet,” he said. “You know, we don't want to get caught up in our emotions; we want to make sure that we are in a good spot to be able to compete and try to ultimately win the game and keep up this momentum.”

Phillips agreed, saying Sunday’s match provides another opportunity for this year’s team to form its own identity.

“I think it's a really cool event because we're going be able to have that moment and kind of reflect on what we did last season, but this is a new group, and we have new goals,” she said. “(Sunday) will be a really good test to see how we bounce back emotionally and focus on the game.”

Sunday’s match

No. 2 Stanford (2-1) at No. 7 Texas (2-1), 11:30 a.m., Gregory Gym, LHN

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Why not here? Record Nebraska crowd makes impact on Texas volleyball