Inside the preparations for Volleyball Day in Nebraska

Aug 11, 2023

Luke Mullin, Amie Just and Brent Wagner talk all things volleyball in the latest episode of Life in the Red.

When staging a first-of-its-kind outdoor college volleyball match played in a massive football stadium, there are hundreds of details to figure out.

There are the obvious ones, like trying to keep the court dry and where to put the TV cameras. There’s the less obvious, like how much time is needed for the Tunnel Walk player entrance when there are 14 players and not 100 like the football team (and those players will have a lot of adrenaline).

The stadium match organizers do not yet know the exact answer to that question, but they will after a Tunnel Walk dress rehearsal.

By Wednesday afternoon, the planning will be done and the gates to Memorial Stadium will open and the phenomena that is Nebraska volleyball will reach another level when 85,000-plus people attend a match that will be watched on TV all over the world.

For hundreds of staff in the Nebraska Athletic Department, it has been eight months of dreaming, planning and executing to make it possible.

And the final product should be quite a scene — just think about those sun-setting photos.

Lindsay Peterson helps manage the players and staff for the NU volleyball program and has been a part of the planning team for Volleyball Day in Nebraska.

She’s also experienced the growth of the program over the past two decades as a Husker player and staff member. Shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday when that first serve soars through the open air, Peterson expects it to be a very rewarding feeling because of all of the work it took to get to that point.

She’s excited to take it all in.

“Just sitting on the bench and witnessing the number of people here to watch a volleyball match and be a part of a women’s athletics event is going to be very satisfying,” Peterson said.

The day begins with Nebraska-Kearney playing Wayne State in an exhibition match at 4:30 p.m. The Huskers play Omaha at 7 p.m.

In May, Nebraska’s event staff did a test run with some of the equipment needed to build the court. That was easier to accomplish because some things were already in place for UNL commencement at the stadium.

So, they set up a small portion of the elevated court stage, and the Taraflex court. Then a few of the graduate assistant coaches — former college men’s volleyball players with some oomph to really test the mock court — did some blocking and hitting jumps.

From that test, planners learned that they should reinforce the stage with plywood. With that information in hand, they could adjust what resources they needed to order and how many days would be needed to build the court.

“We had to make a change by adding plywood to make it a little more sturdy, but other than that they said it felt like playing on a court,” Peterson said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my, gosh.’ They felt comfortable and safe.”

How is it even possible to stage a stadium volleyball match? Well, it begins with the ability to shut down playing football at the football stadium for about eight days for setup, practice and tear down.

Nebraska’s first game of the season is at Minnesota, so that was possible. The Husker football team had a practice under the lights in the stadium that ended at 9 p.m. on Thursday, and about one hour later, the work of converting a football stadium into a volleyball stadium began.

At the stadium, leading the stadium match production is Matt Davidson, an associate athlete director for event management.

The build began with nine semi-trailer trucks filled with decking to cover the field, which is needed to protect the field and set the base layer for the court.

This will be a 17-truck production with decking, two stages, the gear for a post-match concert by country artist Scotty McCreery and one truck for the concert audio (the 2021 Garth Brooks concert at Memorial Stadium was 50 trucks).

A stage for the court is needed because of the slope of the football field for drainage. The stage must be carefully crafted to make the court level, with the legs of the stage ranging from 9 inches in the center to 18 inches on the edge. The length of the stage is 140 feet.

“We wanted to create almost no chance of a player going off that raised surface,” Davidson said.

On top of the court stage will be two layers of plywood to help secure the stage. On Monday, Nebraska’s normal red court will be rolled out. A three-row bleacher will be installed in the north end zone, where friends and family of the players can watch the matches.

There are also 204 courtside seats, just like at the Devaney Sports Center The far edge of the court will be near the 40-yard line on the north side.

On field level are standing-room-only sections, and that’s where many of the college students will be.

The build-out also includes organizing a locker room area for each team, some of which will be in multi-person rooms at the stadium.

Workers put in floor tiles on Friday to prepare Memorial Stadium ahead of Volleyball Day in Nebraska.

The Nebraska volleyball team will use the massive locker room used by the Husker football team until just recently, when it moved to a new locker room.

There will be a Tunnel Walk for the volleyball match, using the format from last year’s football games with the volleyball players coming from the locker room under the north stadium and entering the field from the northwest tunnel.

The volleyball team also has a Tunnel Walk at Devaney, but it happens quickly and everyone has it down to a science for when the players leave the locker room and when the band begins playing “Hail Varsity.”

So on Tuesday, the Huskers will be practicing their Tunnel Walk, in addition to their serves.

“On Tuesday night we need to figure out the timing of when they need to leave the locker room to get on the court because they’re coming out to finish their warm-up and it’s a five-minute period that they have to hit and serve before game time,” Peterson said.

“Tuesday, a lot of questions are going to have to be answered because that’s our first opportunity to really see how the setup is going to work.”

There will not be a Unity Walk arrival for the volleyball team as the football team does, but the team will briefly attend the Adidas Rally at the NU Coliseum at 12:30 p.m.

When Athletic Director Trev Alberts announced the match in February, he promised a “full production.” Therefore, you can expect lots of videos, lights and more surprises.

Nebraska’s match will be “very similar” to a game day, Davidson said.

“If not more bells and whistles,” he said.

A flyover prior to Nebraska’s match is scheduled to include two F-16 fighter jets and a KC-135 in formation.

How does this compare to putting on a Husker football game?

“It’s massively different,” Davidson said. “We’re having to come out and deck a field and build a stage and spec all of that out to not only meet the safety requirements that we have for our playing surface for our student-athletes, but also the introduction of a concert stage as well. You’re working with site lines, and you’re working with the concert and Scotty’s team to get everything that they would like done based on what their rider requires.”

For the volleyball staff, one exciting thing about the match was being able to invite all the former players.

Therefore, Wednesday should be the largest gathering of Husker volleyball players ever.

“Absolutely,” Peterson said, “because we don’t have the tickets available to invite everybody back. So usually if alumni are back and Devaney we’re recognizing one or two teams.”

There were 95 players who bought tickets as part of the group, spanning from the first teams in the late ‘70s to last year. And more seats means alums can bring their family.

“Normally it’s like, ‘You can come,’” Peterson said. “I think that’s a big part of it is for them to have their families back and have families interact.”

The night before the match there is a social event at the stadium, when the alums will get to watch part of Nebraska’s practice.

The alums also got special T-shirts, and they will be part of the Tunnel Walk, just like former football players do on occasion.

Nebraska’s Olympic champion alums — Jordan Larson, Kelsey (Robinson) Cook and Justine Wong-Orantes — won’t be able to attend because they’re in California training for a tournament.

Terry Pettit, who led Nebraska to its first national championship in 1995, and brought coach John Cook to Nebraska, will make several appearances.

Also in attendance will be many NCAA and Big Ten leaders, including Commissioner Tony Petitti.

The NCAA has given Nebraska permission to lengthen the intermission following the second set from five minutes to 10. That will allow the teams to return to the locker room. Some players will put on a fresh jersey, and have more time to hydrate.

And that will also allow for some more presentations inside the stadium.

An email was sent out to high school and club volleyball teams so they could purchase tickets as a group, and many did, including those from neighboring states.

More than 40 busses with teams are expected, including from Gretna and Norris. The teams will be seated together and recognized.

Four high school players committed for Nebraska’s next two recruiting classes will attend, on either official (expenses paid) or unofficial visits.

From the 2024 recruiting class, Skyler Pierce (Lenexa, Kansas) and Olivia Mauch (Bennington) will be there. And from the 2025 class Ryan Hunter (Charlotte, North Carolina) and Keri Leimbach (Lincoln Lutheran) attend.

Also planning to be there is a prospect Nebraska is still hoping to get: Taylor Harvey, a middle blocker from Bountiful, Utah, who is uncommitted and taking college visits.

Pierce and Harvey will be coming to Lincoln just a few days after returning from a tournament in Mexico playing for the United States junior national team.

Nebraska’s players will get their first feeling of what an outdoor match will feel like when they practice at the stadium from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

And with another one-hour practice the day of the match, they’ll have three hours of experience in the stadium. The other three teams will also get to practice at the stadium.

The youth who help with the volleyballs and keep the court dry for Husker matches will be working extra hard when the action shifts to a larger venue. Also, the court could have a lot of perspiration on the court from players diving.

In addition to at least four students with towels, a few of Nebraska’s practice assistants will also use mops to clean the court during timeouts.

And event staff may experiment with having some fans near the court.

The field-level setup should allow for a smooth transition from the Huskers' match to the post-match concert, with a break of about 15 minutes.

A runway will connect the concert stage and the court.

“That will be for Scotty to use if he wants to,” Davidson said.

McCreery’s set should last about 75 minutes and does not have a required end time.

Davidson has been a part of more than 100 meetings for Volleyball Day in Nebraska, starting with a small exploratory group to a final meeting with more than 50 people attending — from HuskerVision staff to Lincoln Police.

And when the city bus system wasn’t able to run its typical shuttle service for game day because it’s a weekday, the athletic department contracted 50 busses as a free service and came up with a great name for it — Big Red Volleyball Express.

There will be about 3,300 event staff across 35 agencies.

Last winter when Davidson was told about the potential of the match, his thought was, “Let’s make it happen.”

On Wednesday, they will.

“It’s a little thinking outside the box with this event, but we’re pretty used to staging postseason championships,” Davidson said. “And we’re kind of looking at this almost like a postseason championship type event, just because of the unique nature of it.”

Reach the writer at 402-473-7435 or [email protected]. On Twitter @LJSSportsWagner.

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Luke Mullin, Amie Just and Brent Wagner talk all things volleyball in the latest episode of Life in the Red.