NCAA Championships final sets new indoor volleyball attendance record

The NCAA Volleyball Championships final on Sunday night was not only an adrenaline-fuelled match but it was also a record-breaking one. As underdogs Texas Longhorns prepared to take on fan-favorites Nebraska Cornhuskers, there was an arena full of viewers, 19,727 to be precise, watching and cheering for their teams.

This enormous crowd set a new record for attendance in an indoor NCAA Volleyball game, breaching the record set just a handful of days ago in the semifinals of the tournament.

In the final four matches, where Nebraska took on the Pittsburgh Panthers and Texas battled the Wisconsin Badgers, there were 19,598 people in the stands of the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

Meanwhile, over a million people tuned into ESPN on December 14 to catch the live telecast of the semi finals matches.

This has been an overall strong season for the NCAA Volleyball Championships viewership-wise with multiple records falling over the course of the past few months. In fact, the record for an indoor collegiate volleyball audience was broken thrice this season, the first time being on August 30 when over 92,000 people attended the Nebraska vs Omaha clash in the Memorial Stadium, Lincoln.

This season has also seen viewers avidly watch a total of 466 million minutes of the live telecast on ESPN, over the course of 35 matches.

NCAA Volleyball Championships: Texas Longhorns claim back-to-back titles

Meanwhile, the crowd of 19,727 at the Amalie Arena on Sunday got to witness the Texas Longhorns thoroughly dominate the Nebraska Cornhuskers to claim a second consecutive NCAA Volleyball title.

Coming into this match, the Huskers looked like the obvious favorites for the win, having dropped only a single game the entire season. On the other hand, the Longhorns had lost three of their eight initial matches and had barely scraped through to the playoffs.

Despite the setbacks, Texas made the comeback of the season when it managed to beat Stanford on its home court. From there, the team went on to take down Wisconsin in the semis before dismantling Nebraska in the finals.

Led by the likes of Madison Skinner and Asian O'Neal, the Longhorns raced to victory 25-22, 25-24, 25-11, their first time beating the Huskers in an NCAA face-off.

This marks the team's fourth overall championship win and their first time winning consecutive titles. This is also their third win under head coach Jerritt Elliott.