NCAA Championships final between Nebraska Cornhuskers and Texas Longhorns becomes most-watched college volleyball match of all-time
The action-packed NCAA Championships final between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Texas Longhorns recorded the highest viewership of any college volleyball match.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers and Texas Longhorns locked horns for the finals on Sunday, December 18, 2023, at the Amalie Arena in Tampa Florida. According to ESPN, the clash set a TV viewership record with 1.7 million fans watching it live.
Along with the TV viewership, the spine-tingling faceoff also set a new record for attendance in an indoor NCAA Volleyball game, with 19,727 spectators witnessing the action at the venue. 51% of this massive crowd included female fans.
The previous record was broken only three days prior during the semifinals when the Huskers dominated the Pittsburgh Panthers and the Longhorns defeated the Wisconsin Badgers to enter the finals. The packed stands at the Amalie Arena saw 19,598 volleyball fans cheering.
The NCAA Volleyball Championship also saw the highest attendance for a Division One college volleyball match previously in the same season between Nebraska and Omaha at the Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska on August 30, 2023, with 92,003 fans in attendance.
A look at Nebraska Cornhuskers and Texas Longhorns performance at the 2023 NCAA Volleyball Championship
Although the Nebraska Cornhuskers were the heavy favorite to grab a victory with their winning streak to the finals, the Texas Longhorns dominated the Huskers 3-0 in the finals to lift the trophy for the second consecutive time.
The Longhorns overpowered the Huskers with 25-22, 25-14, 25-11 to win their fourth overall championship. The Longhorns achieved this feat for the third time under the guidance of coach Jerritt Elliott.
This win also marks the Longhorns' first victory over the Huskers in an NCAA clash. The teams previously faced each other in the finals of 1995 and 2015, with the Huskers claiming the victory in both finals.
After losing three out of eight games the entire season, the Longhorns made their comeback against the Stanford women's volleyball team with a score of 3-1 on its home arena. Further, the team secured their place to face off against Huskers in the semifinals against the Wisconsin Badgers with a win of 3-1.
While the Texas Longhorns secured the title for the fourth time, the Nebraska Cornhuskers are in the lead, having secured the title five times, including in 1995, 2000, 2006, 2015, and 2017, with the first championship under coach Terry Pettit and the next four under John Cook's tenure.