Women’s sport is on fire

by Ken Hambleton

Truly, there is no place like Nebraska for women’s athletics.

Nebraska athletics for women has been seen by more people, more times and in more places than any other college program.

The cornerstone to the new monolith of Nebraska fandom is the Husker volleyball team.

Nebraska set the world record for women’s volleyball attendance in August of 2023 with 92,003 fans jammed into Memorial Stadium for a season opening game.

NU volleyball has sold out 337 consecutive home games at the Bob Devaney Sports Center and can brag of the collegiate high of 8,713 average attendance for 2024. This year, after opening in the Pinnacle Bank Arena before an average of more than 15,500 fans for two games, the Huskers will return to the Devaney Center and newly-named John Cook Arena to a new 10,200-seat venue — up 2,000 from 2024.

The Huskers average more volleyball fans at home than any other NCAA program by almost 4,000 fans. Add to the fact Nebraska away games at Purdue, Wisconsin, Penn State, Minnesota, Stanford, Washington, UCLA, USC, Kentucky and a few others have set single-game attendance records across the country. More than 40 percent of the highest attended college volleyball games involve Nebraska.

“This is such a special place, with so many fans and such great support, I jumped at the chance to come home,” said new Husker volleyball coach Dani Busboom Kelly. “Husker fans have an amazing ability to raise the level of support higher and higher.”

A former All-American, former assistant coach and now, the fourth coach in NU volleyball history, Busboom Kelly said she is overwhelmed with the reception she and her latest team received in a season-opening AVCA tournament at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Busboom Kelly follows the incredible successes of former coach Terry Pettit and five-time national champion coach John Cook, who retired last winter.

NU athletic director said hiring Busboom Kelly was simple. This program needed Dani and we know her excellence as a coach and as a player will carry this program forward, he said. Busboom Kelley was raised in Cortland, NE and attended Freeman High School in Adams, helped NU to the 2006 national championship, was an assistant on the 2015 Husker NCAA title team and took Louisville to a 203-44 record in eight years with the Cardinals before coming home to Nebraska. She gave birth to Jett, her second child in May of 2025.

“I remember how special it was to play in the Coliseum — the noise and the fans,” she said. “I know what John Cook built to pack the house after the move to the Devaney Center. I think we’re just riding the wave right now.”

Add in the average home attendance of 5,632 fans for women’s basketball at PBA, 2,306 fans at the newly enlarged Bowliln Stadium for softball, and 1,437 for women’s soccer at Hibner Stadium and Nebraska boasts the second-most attendance in all of NCAA women’s athletics.

Husker women’s basketball coach Amy Williams led her team to the NCAA tournament last year and softball coach Rhonda Revelle led her team, including Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, Jordy Bahl, to the NCAA Super Regional last year.

“I think women’s sport is on fire right now,” John Cook said.