Nebraska Volleyball fell short after an outstanding season.

On December 17, the University of Nebraska’s Volleyball team went head to head against returning champions from the University of Texas in the NCAA D1 Volleyball Championships. Ranked number 1 with a season record of 28-4, as well as being the Big Ten conference champions, Nebraska fans were confident the team was going to walk away with the trophy for the first time since 2017.

The game, held at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, drew 19,727 in attendance and 1.7 million live viewers watching from home. All of them anticipated a close game, but were met with a 3-0 shutout by Texas.

Harper Murray, an 18-year-old outside hitter from Ann Arbor, Michigan, has a lot of confidence for the future of the Nebraska volleyball team even after the loss.

“I think we’re gonna win three National Championships the next three years,” said Murray.

Even with the loss, the team plans on coming back stronger than ever; they graduated no seniors and their entire starting line-up is returning to the court later in 2024.

This championship match broke the indoor attendance record again, after only breaking it a few days prior at the semi-final matches, when Nebraska played University of Pittsburgh and Texas played University of Wisconsin.

According to NCAA, “(there was) a 115% increase from last year’s championship match’s viewership of 786,000,” making history not just for women’s college volleyball, but for women’s sports in general.

In this past year, volleyball has gained a lot of popularity following the success of women’s college teams this year, in both men’s and women’s divisions.

Longtime Athletic Director Mark Conroy noted how popular volleyball has gotten on campus.

“We had the most girls ever involved with the program this fall,” he said.

Despite the increasing growth in popularity for the girls, Conroy explained that the boys still lack volleyball resources in high schools on the east coast.