2024 Women’s Sports

by Ken Hambleton

The landscape has changed in Lincoln.

There is something beyond football.

The University of Nebraska women stamped, stomped, screamed and hollered their way into the headlines and into the hearts of fans across the state and the nation last year.

Nebraska volleyball, riding a streak of sellouts at home since 2001, wowed the world with an all-time record for a women’s sports event when 92,003 fans packed into Memorial Stadium — the site of Husker football for the last 100 years—for the jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring volleyball day in August of 2023.

National media attention, sports show specials and talk of the Husker record volleyball day still simmers.

By the end of the season, Nebraska volleyball had brought a record 264,665 fans into home games, including the all-time turnout for any women’s sport ever back in August.

The Huskers played in sellouts on the road at Penn State, Wisconsin, and other Big Ten schools, as well as Creighton and in the national title run that ended in a loss to Texas.

“The unintended benefit of the epic night, the inspiration across the board for women’s athletics, for all the families, and girls who play volleyball, this was remarkable,” said former Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts.

“We’re going to be celebrating this event for a long time,” added NU volleyball coach John Cook.

Cook, who boosted his 26-year coaching record to 689-100 (.873), saw his most recent team win a Big Ten title. He has four national titles and has reached the Final Four five times.

He said he expects more of the same with this year’s team.

He returns pre-season all-conference picks Merritt Beason, Lexi Rodriguez, Bergan Reilly, Harper
Murray and Minnesota transfer Taylor Landfair
to this year’s team. Big Ten coaches picked Nebraska to win the conference title — and the conference includes USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon this season.

The frenzy started but didn’t stop at volleyball.

NU women’s basketball stormed through a 13-2 Big Ten Conference record and beat Iowa, starring Caitlin Clark, before a frenzied sell-out in Pinnacle Bank Arena crowd that stormed the court.

The season continued with a magical run to the Big Ten Conference title game in Minneapolis, Minn., and another matchup with Iowa and Clark in the title game. Iowa won in overtime, but the Huskers earned a trip to the NCAA tournament.

Nebraska won a tourney game for the first time in 10 years and returns a number of players, including all-conference selection Alexis Markowski, as well as the top recruit in the state in Britt Prince for next season.

Husker rifle finished third and boasted a national champion in small bore rifle. NU bowling, always a powerhouse, finished third in the NCAA, and track and field finished eighth nationally, with two NCAA champions on the podium.

Husker soccer reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament and could claim its best home crowds ever. Husker softball, even without national champion pitcher Jordy Bahl, who was injured in the season opener, drew its biggest home crowds ever.

The success of Nebraska’s volleyball day and the excitement of another NCAA title game run set the stage for the surge in basketball attendance, softball attendance and national media attention to Husker women’s sports last year.

Nebraska volleyball standouts from the past — Jordan Larson, Justine Wong-Orantes and Kelsey Robinson-Cook — playing for the US silver-medal team in the Olympics, and a march to 10th place in the Olympic shot put by Alexina Johansson, an NCAA champion in track and field, only fired up the base for more in the future.

Cook summed it up, “I think women’s sport is on fire right now.”