“I asked Jamie Gordon (AVCA CEO)… I had coffee with him this morning, and I said, ‘What do you think about all this?’ He goes, ‘This all started with a stadium match,'” John Cook told Hail Varsity. Cook meant the Huskers’ record-setting August 2023 match at Memorial Stadium. Two years down the line, the ripple effects of Volleyball Day continue to push stars like Harper Murray to new heights.

The 2023 Memorial Stadium match made Nebraska the symbol of college volleyball. But it wasn’t just that. The Huskers continued to set viewership records, with last year’s semifinal between Nebraska and Penn State becoming the most-watched in college volleyball history. So after Cook watched the Huskers kick off the 2025 season inside a sold-out Pinnacle Bank Arena, he felt like it was an NBA game.

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