OMAHA — They came downtown 17,000 strong on Tuesday, and went home having been a part of history in the largest crowd ever for an NCAA regular-season indoor college match.
Creighton’s match against Nebraska was a rare big-arena sellout for this sport — even in the volleyball state — and with 17,675 spectators at CHI Health Center Omaha, the schools combined to top the previous record by 638 attendees.
It was a fun night. And it ended up being massively entertaining, too, as No. 1 Nebraska was once again pushed to the max against No. 18 Creighton before the Huskers got the close five-set win.
The set scores for this 2 ½ hour drama were 25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 24-26, 15-9.
Creighton came up just short of its first-ever win against Nebraska.
The Bluejays stayed in the match by digging some shots that many of Nebraska’s opponents haven’t during an 8-0 start to the season for the nation’s No. 1 team.
Nebraska led 22-20 in the fourth set, but Creighton was able to stay alive when Nebraska started firing long and serving out. The Bluejays showed some major determination and skill while winning six of the final eight points of the set, including a set point shot off the block by Ava Martin.
And just like that, for the third time in the last four matchups, it was going five.
In the determining fifth set, Creighton had the early lead, but just like in the first set, Andi Jackson helped the Huskers take over with her crushing attacks. Harper Murray had the kill that felt like it put the Jays away for good with a shot down the line for a 12-8 lead.
Nebraska’s hometown player, Rebekah Allick, got the final kill in this in-state rivalry match.
The match hit sellout status on Monday, and then it was just a matter of what the final total would be. That total was announced during the middle of the second set.
The 17,675 figure topped the previous record for a match in 2023 between Marquette and Wisconsin at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
While it’s Creighton’s home match, the record doesn’t get set without Nebraska, with more than 75% of the fans wearing red. Creighton got a nice boost from more than 1,000 students on one end of the court, which added to an outstanding college sports scene. They unfurled a large Bluejay flag just before the match, just like before a big-time basketball game. Some students had face paint.
But the cheers were much louder when Nebraska won the point.
You could really feel how many Nebraska fans were there when the Husker fans stood at the end of the first set. And when Jackson served an ace, the roar was so loud the players must have had chills.
The overall attendance record is 92,003 for Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium match in 2023.
During the match Creighton dug a lot of hard-hit shots to extend rallies. But over the two-hour match, Nebraska being able to get kills from nearly every spot on the court was too much for the Jays.
Nebraska finished with 66 kills, and the Jays just 49.
Harper Murray had a match-high 17 kills, Virginia Adriano and Andi Jackson had 12 apiece and Taylor Landfair had 12.
In the most dominating stretch of her college career, Adriano has seven kills on seven attempts during the third set.
Creighton was led by Ava Martin with 16 kills, with Martin firing back after having just one kill in the first set. Middle blocker Kiara Reinhardt added 11 kills.
After winning the second set, Creighton also had a modest 10-8 lead as it looked to tie the match.
That’s the point in the match when the Huskers started to overpower Creighton. During one such stretch, Nebraska won nine of 10 rallies. The Huskers were really earning those points, too, with six kills during the stretch. Nebraska won the set 25-18 for a 2-1 match lead.
To start the match, the difference was that Creighton couldn’t stop Jackson on the slide attack and Creighton’s top players couldn’t get a kill.
Nebraska dominated the middle of the set when Jackson was flying too fast and jumping too high for the Jays to touch. She had kills on four of her first six attempts.
And Martin, the Jays’ season leader for kills by a wide margin, didn’t record a kill until the final three rallies of the set after going without a kill on her first seven attempts. Martin had just one kill on nine attempts in the set.
The end of the second set was suspenseful. Creighton led 21-17 after Jaya Johnson dropped a shot in the back corner of the court and the Jays were on their way. Not so fast.
Murray got a block by Murray, Nebraska had cut its deficit to 3-0. But the Jays walked it off by winning the final three points of the set, including an ace serve by Destiny Ndam-Simpson. Creighotn won the set 25-23, tying the match 1-1.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7435 or bwagner@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSSportsWagner.
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Brent Wagner
Husker volleyball/women’s basketball reporter
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