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Yesterday, Wintrust Arena hosted its first ever volleyball match with the DePaul Blue Demons playing against the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers. Both teams entered the game undefeated, hoping to defend their winning streaks. 

Since coming to DePaul in 2018, head coach Marie Zidek has been hoping to bring a marquee volleyball match to Wintrust Arena, she said in a letter on the DePaul Athletics website.

“It feels good to be finally here and in the building,” Zidek said. “How meaningful is it just to make history with it potentially being the largest intended match in Illinois as well?”

The game broke the all-time single match attendance record for collegiate volleyball in the state of Illinois. There were 8,786 fans in attendance. While the crowd was filled with a sea of mainly red and bits of blue, Nebraska volleyball fans are also known to follow the team wherever they go. They broke the Guinness World Record for the largest attendance at a women’s volleyball match in 2023.

The day before the match, the DePaul volleyball team watched a special reveal of the court. Some players admired the taraflex that read “DePaul” in royal blue and scarlet red. Some laid out on the court. Some yelled happily as they ran up the stands and around the concourse.

“Hats off to DePaul” said Nebraska head coach Dani Busboom Kelly. “They did everything they could to make this first class with the taraflex and Wintrust Arena. It was a really awesome venue and the attendance record reflected the work that they did.”

The game was important for DePaul for many reasons: they were on national television, and they played for a crowd almost three times the size of their home court capacity. DePaul’s home court is McGrath-Phillips Arena, which holds 3,000 people.

“We have played in arenas like this before in previous seasons,” sophomore outside hitter Kendall Timme said at a media availability on Thursday. “ …  It’s going to be a little bit of an adjustment. But I think it’ll be great.”

The Blue Demons started off strong, scoring the first point of the game. From then on, the game went back and forth, with DePaul eventually losing the first set 19-25.

The second set was not as close, with DePaul losing 13-25. The team seemed to lose energy, letting Nebraska get multiple kills. Nebraska also blocked many of DePaul’s spikes, which DePaul couldn’t return.

Shortly after that, they lost the last set 15-25.

The Cornhuskers had a higher attack percentage of .434 in comparison to DePaul’s .060. While DePaul had a lower percentage, Timme had the highest amount of kills in the game with 12.

“I do believe the score is not indicative of the quality of volleyball we played,” Zidek said.

Senior setter Leonor Polezzi also had positive things to say despite the loss.

“I think our confidence is now way better than before,” Polezzi said. “We passed like we never did. We did a very good job. We were such a great team.”

The last time DePaul and Nebraska faced off against each other was in 1979. The latest game was arranged by Zidek and Kelly, who knew each other from coaching the U.S. collegiate national team together in 2018 in Croatia.

Eight years later, they were able to get their teams to face off for the first time in over 40 years.

“I’m excited that they went out there and belonged in the match,” Zidek said.

DePaul’s next game is against No. 13 Penn State on September 7 back at McGrath-Phillips Arena.

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