Wrigleyville turned into a Sea of Red on Sunday as Nebraska fans poured into Chicago ahead of Nebraska’s outdoor match against Missouri at Wrigley Field. By noon, the streets around the ballpark were already full of Huskers starting pregame festivities.
Kristen Sedlacek was among them. She and her sister, Mindy Helfrich, bought tickets as soon as they were released to the public, then drove into Chicago on Friday night with Paulette Stefka and their sons for what the family called the “Nani, Aunties and College Boys Trip.” Sedlacek said there was no way they would miss it, and called Nebraska’s run of big-stage moments something fans had to see for themselves.
The draw was bigger than a road trip and bigger than a single match. Sunday’s Wrigley Field volleyball setting was part of a doubleheader that also included Kentucky and Penn State, and Nebraska and Missouri were scheduled as the second game. The outdoor matches were first-time experiences for Kentucky, Penn State and Missouri, while Nebraska arrived with a fan base already used to showing up in force.
That was obvious again in Chicago. Nebraska gear worn all weekend drew questions from locals about why so many Husker fans were in town, and Brian Smith said the sport keeps reaching new places with new crowds behind it. He said volleyball is just growing, that everything gets bigger and better every year, and that the game is moving into new locations with more people and more fan bases. The scale of Sunday’s turnout matched that feeling, even if it did not match the one Nebraska has already set before.
Smith and his wife, Rachel, were at Nebraska’s 2023 Memorial Stadium match against Omaha, when 92,003 fans set a world record for the largest attended women’s athletics event. He said that night showed how strong Nebraska’s fan base is, and he still remembers John Cook speaking about nowhere but Nebraska, with his own throat tightening and his wife openly sobbing beside him. Sunday’s expected crowd, upward of 40,000 fans, was far smaller than that record, but it still underscored how far the Nebraska volleyball pull now reaches.
That gap is the point. Wrigley Field gave Nebraska another marquee stage, and the public tickets did not stay available for long once they were released. For all the talk of tradition and spectacle, the story in Chicago was also about movement: fans from Nebraska following the team into one of the most recognizable settings in American sports, and doing it fast enough to make Wrigleyville feel like home before the first serve. Nebraska and Missouri were set to play later in Sunday’s doubleheader, but the crowd outside the stadium had already made its verdict clear.
