How Volleyball Day in Nebraska inspired a 'volcano' of outdoor matches in America — now, Wrigley Field

The former Nebraska setter and libero turned Husker graduate assistant stood on the raised platform at Memorial Stadium as four military aircraft — a KC-135 Stratotanker and three F-16 Falcons — flew in formation overhead from the north.

She — Nebraska’s career assists record holder — surveyed the unbelievable scene in front of her: 92,003 people filled one of the country’s largest college football stadiums to watch women’s volleyball.

“The flyover, that was the coolest moment,” Hames reflected to the Journal Star. “There were tears in my eyes thinking about how cool it was that Lincoln, Nebraska, had that many people in it for a volleyball match. I was soaking it all in: just how cool and historic that moment was — seeing how far our sport has come.

“Nebraska is basically setting the standard for that.”

It’s been three years since Volleyball Day in Nebraska.

When people discover Hames played at NU, Volleyball Day in Nebraska is the first thing they bring up. She tells them she was there. They ask her questions about the experience. With a smile on her face, she tells them everything about the glass-ceiling-smashing celebration of her sport. She knows they are questions she’ll likely get for the rest of her life, but it’s a privilege she’s honored to have.

“Everyone’s eyes were on it,” Hames said. “It’s just crazy the impact that it’s had.”

Volleyball Day in Nebraska had an economic impact of approximately $10 million for the local economy, according to documents provided to the Journal Star, but the true return on investment is incalculable.

Not only has the event inspired countless kids across the country to take up volleyball, but it has also become the catalyst for Sunday’s Big Ten/SEC Challenge matches at Wrigley Field and dozens of high schools to host outdoor matches of their own.

One of those states? Tennessee. One of those involved schools? Webb School of Knoxville, Hames’ alma mater and current employer.

“It’s literally because of Nebraska volleyball,” Hames said. “You would think, ‘Yes, in Nebraska.’ But all the way in Tennessee, all over the country? It’s just wild.”

Since Volleyball Day in Nebraska, high schools across the nation in at least 22 states have followed suit with their own outdoor matches, while several others have expressed interest, according to data compiled by the AVCA and maintained by the more than 50 state high school associations.

“Now people are like, ‘Wow. What is this? Why did this just all happen?’ But people within the volleyball community are like, ‘Oh no. This has been bubbling under the surface,’” AVCA CEO Jaime Gordon told the Journal Star. “It’s almost like a volcano. Nobody recognizes the volcano until it erupts. But there’s a lot of pressure and there’s a lot that was building under it.”

GEORGIA: BACKYARD BRAWL

On Aug. 30, 2023, Ashley Jones hosted a team bonding night at her home in Georgia.

They held a cookout in the backyard for dinner, and at 8 p.m. ET, they watched the Big Ten Network’s broadcast of Volleyball Day in Nebraska — screened over the projector and shown on the side of Jones’ house.

“It was the coolest experience ever, just to see volleyball on such a big scale and get to watch it as a team,” Jones said, noting she knew “right away” that she wanted to do something similar as a head coach.

Following that season, Jones interviewed for the head coaching job at Walton in Marietta — then a 15-time state champion in Georgia’s largest classification. In those interviews, she brought up her new dream.

Man, how cool was it that Nebraska did that? That’s something I would love to bring to Walton if we could get the community behind it.

It was serendipitous. Walton’s biggest rival, Pope, was already in the early stages of planning an outdoor match for their annual Backyard Brawl game.

Like with Jones, parents of Pope players drew immediate inspiration from Volleyball Day in Nebraska — bringing their grand idea to coach Erica Miller.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, stop,’ because it was during the season,” Miller said with a laugh.

Other high schools across the country immediately followed suit — including West Delaware in Iowa in 2024. Pope’s parents took notice and came back to Miller. Seeing West Delaware’s setup convinced Miller that it could be done on a smaller scale, but she told the parents to re-approach her after the season was over.

“A week after we were done, they were right back to me,” Miller said.

For Miller, there was no question as to who they’d play against.

The neighborhood lines in Marietta that dictate which students go to Pope and which students go to Walton are blurry. Some of the kids go to middle school together, and then end up attending different high schools. Additionally, there’s pedigree from both schools in the sport. At the time, Pope had five state championships.

Miller pitched her athletic director on a simple line: "You want to be the first in Georgia to do this?"

He was in — with one caveat.

“He’s like, ‘Yes. But you guys figure it out’” Miller recalled. “That was a little bit daunting. It cost us $6,000. That’s a lot of money for us.”

They figured it out, and 1,500 fans showed up on that idyllic, 80-degree Saturday night.

“It was magic,” Miller said. “It was perfect. The sun set at the right time. We had the stadium lights on. It was a gift from God with the weather.”

The same couldn’t be said for this year’s edition at Walton.

The logistics, Jones said, were the hardest part of the process — but noted she was “fortunate to piggyback off of what Pope experienced” when the Greyhounds hosted. Months went into planning the second annual event, with a team of around 50 parent volunteers, using donated time and supplies from community members.

But rain forced the event to be moved inside.

Miller was heartbroken for Walton after seeing the lengths the school went to in order to put on a great event — complete with food trucks and carnival games.

“They went above and beyond,” Miller said. “They wanted it to happen. But if the refs are going to stop it because they felt like it was an unsafe playing surface, then what are we gonna do?”

Jones added, “I’m not gonna lie and say we weren’t disappointed. Being able to play outdoors is just a rare experience. Our seniors, unfortunately, they don’t get that moment back.”

Walton and Pope made the most of it anyway, still playing in an environment unlike any of them had played in before for an indoor, regular-season match. The gym overflowed with people — complete with full, on-theme, student sections supporting both schools.

As the junior varsity match was finishing, Miller went back into the locker room and encouraged her team by teasing out what they were about to walk into.

“‘You’re going to be really excited when you get out there. The kids have shown up for you,’” Miller said. “It didn’t matter to them at that point once they saw how many fans showed up”

There were early jitters for both teams — even though Walton was fresh off a state title the year before and Pope the year before that. The two top-tier programs battled in a five-setter that ultimately went Walton’s way.

“With Walton, we want to talk about it and try to do it outside again,” Miller said, “but if it goes sideways another time?”

NEW YORK: FRONTIER VOLLEYBALL STADIUM SERIES

Amazement set in for Frontier High School boys volleyball coach Nick Penberthy as he watched Volleyball Day in Nebraska.

Then, a year or so later, he came across a Facebook post that showed a school in Ohio pulling off a high school version of the feat.

The Frontier Volleyball Stadium Series “spun from those two things,” Penberthy said. “ I’m like, ‘All right. I’m a motivated person. I can certainly put in the legwork.’ Our current superintendent and board of education, they’re all for doing unique things for kids that will give them a lasting memory of being in a public school.”

Before proposing the event, Penberthy reached out to five high schools that had attempted to host outdoor volleyball — East Grand Rapids in Michigan, Mascoutah in Illinois, Mercy in Texas, West Delaware in Iowa and Newark Catholic in Ohio — and asked for advice.

In planning, Penberthy placed a primary focus on embracing the community aspect of the event. The first 200 high school students in line received a free Chick-fil-A sandwich. The winning teams won the Chick-fil-A Cup trophy and earned free meals. They made student section T-shirts, handed out free popcorn and assorted other giveaways. For the first time, cheerleaders were at one of their games.

“You gotta give people a reason to show up,” Penberthy said, noting that 2,012 people attended the inaugural event that served as the first-ever sanctioned boys volleyball match that was held outdoors. “It was just an insane, insane day. The kids will never forget it. I’ll never forget it.”

Moving forward, the Frontier Volleyball Stadium Series will serve as the school district's annual Back-to-School event. They’ve upped the investment: purchasing the sport court and the Covermaster subsurface that goes under the court. The second annual event is Sept. 19.

But the first one will forever be etched in the minds of those who showed up — especially the little ones still dreaming of who they want to become.

“To have those kids come out and see it and be like, ‘Whoa. I want to play in this one day,’” said Penberthy, who is a fifth-grade teacher in addition to a volleyball coach. “That’s the same thing on a national level. Is every school district going to have a chance to do this? No. No, they’re not. But it’s a motivator. For those kids, it’s more so like just getting them out to the event and be like, ‘Whoa. This is cool. I should go try volleyball.’”

Since Frontier intends to host its event every year, Penberthy put together a detailed how-to guide for anyone who wants to host their own outdoor volleyball match.

He’s already shared the guide with several interested parties.

“We want other people to experience it like we did,” Penberthy said. “... It’s cool how it’s evolved past just a volleyball event, and now it’s a true community celebration that people are looking forward to.

“We are all-in on this thing. We picked a different school this year so we can give some other kids a chance to experience the event. So we’ll see how that works. We might transition in the future to a full-day tournament-style thing. There’s so much we can do with it.”

NEBRASKA: BATTLE AT BUELL

One word comes to mind for Lindsay Grant.

Surreal.

That’s how the longtime volleyball coach who now guides Premier 17 Black’s and Millard North’s teams sums up Volleyball Day in Nebraska and the event’s domino effects.

“To see that many people on that high of a level come and support women’s athletics – it was like, ‘This can be done. This is important,’” Grant said.

The event sparked an idea for both her and Joe Wessel, one of her fellow 17s coaches at Premier and the head coach at Millard West: “We should do that at Millard.”

“She’s like, ‘Do you think we could pull it off?’” Wessel reflected. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I think we could.’ So we both sent messages out to our athletic directors and we’re like, ‘Hey. We have an idea.’”

The concept gradually became reality over the eight-month planning process. Millard South was brought into the fold, too, so their event could celebrate their entire school district in a jamboree-style showcase.

“We’re like brothers and sisters,” Wessel said. “We’re all under one umbrella but we’re also competitive. We’ve gotta compete against each other, but we’re all under one Millard. It was more of a project to support our community.”

The hardest part was finding a court to rent, Wessel said, but Craig Wiedel, the Great Plains Region representative for USA Volleyball, helped make the connection.

“Once we had the court solidified, everything else just fell into place,” Wessel said.

Pulling off the event required cooperation from everyone.

The three athletic directors at the schools and the district’s overarching athletic director worked in conjunction to plan the event. Millard North and Millard South’s football teams helped set up the court, while Millard West’s football team assisted with takedown.

“It literally took the whole Millard family to do it,” Wessel said.

On Aug. 21, 2025, more than 4,000 people flocked to Buell Stadium to watch the three matches and were treated to near-perfect weather conditions.

For Wessel, the gravity of the moment hit him as the national anthem began to play before Millard North and Millard South began their match. For Grant, one of her lasting memories was watching all three volleyball teams host the kids’ clinic before the main event.

“I hope that instilled just a little bit of, ‘I want to be there one day’ for some of the younger ones,” Grant said. “The community piece of it is really what we were going for.”

For Millard, Battle at Buell isn’t turning into an annual event — even though Wessel and Grant both hear from community members asking about it.

“Everybody is just like, ‘Are you guys doing it again?’ ‘Is that how you’re going to start this fall?’ And we’re like, ‘No,’” Wessel said. “We’ve talked about, ‘Maybe it’s an every-four-year thing.’ Just putting the thing together was so time-consuming. It was really fun to do, but at the same time, it was a lot to do (while) trying to prepare for a season.”

THE NEXT BIG DREAM

The first emotion that comes to mind for Nebraska’s Harper Murray is elation.

She — one of the most visible women in the sport — has seen how high schools have adopted the premise of Volleyball Day in Nebraska and turned it into something special for their programs and their communities.

“Volleyball Day in Nebraska has brought so many good things to so many people,” Murray told the Journal Star. “It’s cool to see people doing that. Obviously it might not be on the scale that we had, but the thought’s behind it. They know why they want to do it: they want to bring more people to the sport and bring more love to it. It just makes me happy to see people believing in themselves and believing in this sport. We’re grateful that we kind of started that trend. Hopefully it can continue and just keep getting bigger.”

Nebraska is upping the ante again this weekend, as the Huskers will again play outdoors at a historic venue.

On Sunday, Nebraska — along with Penn State, Kentucky and Missouri — is slated to play at Wrigley Field to cap off the Big Ten/SEC Challenge.

“It just started a ‘How can we look at the sport differently?’" said Jen Flynn Oldenburg, the president of the AVCA and the head coach at Ohio State. “To have the Big Ten/SEC Challenge in Wrigley Field this year, it’s just something special. It’s just putting us in a different light.

“It’s just showing that we’re evolving with the times. There’s people that are investing in this sport at all levels. The fact that we’re doing it on the high school level just speaks volumes for where we are and where we want to be.”

The growth of the game since Volleyball Day in Nebraska has been undeniable.

Since then, Nebraska volleyball has played in NFL and NHL venues. The Huskers have sold out (or nearly sold out) arenas from Washington to Los Angeles to South Dakota to Michigan to Tennessee to New Jersey. Viewership for Nebraska’s matches has risen exponentially.

But it’s not just Nebraska.

Overall attendance is up across the board, from Division I through the lower levels. Overall TV viewership is up across the board. Two professional leagues have taken root with Major League Volleyball and League One Volleyball. Overall participation at the high school level has grown year over year for the last two decades, according to the AVCA.

For the sport, it’s a perfect storm.

“That’s what we’re hitting — this convergence of these different forces,” Gordon said, referencing the 2000 Wolfgang Petersen-directed film. “With all of these things together, we’re starting to get the attention of national and global brands that are now investing in it.

“The compounding growth right now is amazing to see.”