Texas took home the NCAA women’s volleyball title Sunday, sweeping No. 1 overall seed Nebraska to win its second straight championship.

The win came in front of a record-breaking crowd of 19,727 – breaking the indoor volleyball attendance record set just days before during the NCAA semifinals. And it caps off a record-breaking year for attendance in women’s volleyball, centered around Nebraska.

“You think you’re invincible. You think it’s destiny. ‘It’s ours.’ And I think Texas experienced that,” Nebraska coach John Cook said.

The Cornhuskers set the record for the largest crowd at a women’s sporting event, hosting 92,003 fans at an outdoor match at Memorial Stadium. They also had the largest home season total with 255,953 people turning out. And now, they are part-owners of the largest NCAA volleyball game.

Yet despite Nebraska’s historic season, there weren’t any doubts Sunday about Texas being national champion once again. Libero Asjia O’Neal served 10 consecutive points in the second set, which proved pivotal in the 3-0 sweep.

“Volleyball is a huge game of momentum,” O’Neal said. “During that run, I could totally feel the momentum shift to our side. We were playing with so much confidence and joy and I just knew that we had the game in the bag. … I was smiling because I was so happy with how we were feeling. You just feel it. I felt we were going to win the match.”

And the serving really became the key to the game.

“They had a level of serving we haven’t seen all year and that really impacted us in our momentum and our confidence and then everything started going their way and they got all the momentum and we just couldn’t ever get it back,” Cook said.

Texas took home the title in the first NCAA volleyball championship match to be televised on ABC.

“We had all the confidence in the world,” Texas star outside hitter Madisen Skinner told ESPN after the match. “I’ll say it until I die — this team was peaking right now and we just had so much trust and belief in one another. I mean our service pressure was insane. It gave us so many options in transition.”

O’Neal called it “the most joyous season I’ve ever had in my life.”

“We were just able to play free — we love each other and support one another and throughout the whole year, it was just so fun,” O’Neal said. “It was definitely challenging at times, but just today as an example, everyone played free, everyone had confidence in one another, and we were able to go out and take down some really incredible teams.”

Nebraska volleyball dominated throughout the season, but in the national championship match, Texas flipped the script.

The second-seeded Longhorns defeated the Huskers, who entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, in a three-set sweep (25-22, 25-14, 25-11) to win the title for the second year in a row.

Before Sunday’s final at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, Nebraska (33-2) had lost just one set during its tournament run. The Huskers had lost just one match all season, to Big Ten rival Wisconsin in November.

Before Sunday’s final, Texas (28-4) had just one clean sweep during the tournament, a 3-0 win against SMU in the second round. The Longhorns needed to save a match point against Tennessee in the round of 16.

After that, though, battle-tested Texas bested the top three ranked teams in the country, defeating Stanford, 3-1, in the quarterfinals, Wisconsin, 3-1, in the national semifinals, and then a young but powerful Nebraska squad in the title match.

Texas outside hitter Madisen Skinner won Most Outstanding Player for the national semifinals. She posted match highs of 16 kills and five digs in the championship match.

The NCAA volleyball final is set, with Nebraska and Texas set to face off at 3 p.m. ET Sunday. Sunday’s match at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, will be the first volleyball national championship televised on ABC.

This marks Nebraska’s 11th trip to the NCAA final, with the Huskers having won five national titles to this point. They defeated fellow No. 1 seed Pitt in a 3-0 sweep, 25-20, 25-23, 25-17. Nebraska will face defending national champion Texas, a No. 2 seed, after the Longhorns upset No. 1 seed Wisconsin in four sets in the other semifinal.

For the Longhorns, Sunday will be their 10th NCAA final appearance. They have won three titles and will be going for their fourth. This will be the two teams’ third matchup in the national championship, with Nebraska beating Texas in 2015 and in 1995.

From 1996 to 2010, the two were conference rivals when Nebraska was still a part of the Big 12. Nebraska currently holds the series’ edge, 33-24. It’s a storied rivalry, with the first match between the programs coming in 1981. The latest match was the 2021 NCAA regional finals, which was won by the Huskers.

“There’s such a rich tradition of alumni, All-Americans, people that have won national championships on both sides,” Texas coach Jerritt Elliott said. “It’s Celtics vs. Lakers.”

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Texas' Marianna Singletary spikes the ball against Wisconsin's Anna Smrek in the NCAA volleyball semifinals. (Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

The NCAA volleyball tournament has reached its final four, with Nebraska, Pitt and Wisconsin all advancing as No. 1 seeds. Reigning champion Texas also reached the semifinals as a No. 2 seed.

In the quarterfinals, Nebraska beat Arkansas in four sets, as did Wisconsin with Oregon. Texas upset top-seeded Stanford in four sets to advance. Pitt was the only team to go to five sets in its regional final, besting last year’s national runner-up Louisville.

For the Longhorns, this year marks their 15th Final Four and their 11th in the last 16 seasons. They’ll face Wisconsin, which won the national championship in 2021 and is into its fourth Final Four in the last five years.

“We’re still climbing,” Badgers senior Devyn Robinson said. “We haven’t reached our best volleyball so we’re on our way up.”

Nebraska, meanwhile, entered the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed. The Huskers finished as runner-up in 2021, and their last championship came in 2017.

Pitt is the only team among the final four never to have won a national championship, or to have advanced to the championship match. The Panthers will have the chance to do so Thursday, but they will have to go through Nebraska in order to do it.

The semifinals and championship will take place at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

NCAA women’s volleyball tournament: Schedule

  • Semifinals: Thursday, Dec. 14 (ESPN)
    • No. 1 Nebraska vs. No. 1 Pitt — 7 p.m. ET
    • No. 1 Wisconsin vs. No. 2 Texas — 9:30 p.m. ET
  • Championship: Sunday, Dec. 17 (ABC) 
    • Semifinal winners — 3 p.m. ET

The NCAA volleyball tournament has arrived, with Nebraska locking up the No. 1 overall seed.

The five-time national champion Cornhuskers lead a contingent of stacked No. 1 seeds, including 2021 title winner Wisconsin, nine-time champion Stanford and Pitt.

No. 2 seeds include Kentucky, Louisville, Oregon and 2022 champion Texas, while Arkansas, Creighton, Purdue and Tennessee enter as No. 3 seeds. Rounding out the top four seeds are BYU, Florida, Kansas and Washington State.

A total of 64 teams will compete in the tournament. The field includes first-timers in Omaha, Coppin State, Wofford and Grand Canyon.

Penn State is in the tournament for the 43rd time. The Nittany Lions are the only program to appear in the tournament every single year. Nebraska and Stanford each have made 42 appearances and Hawai’i has made 41, while defending national champion Texas has made 40.

The SEC leads all conferences with eight teams, while the Big 12 has seven teams and the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 each have five.

For the first time, the championship match will be televised on ABC, taking place at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, Dec. 17.

Check out the full bracket here. The full schedule for first round matches – including time of matches – is here.

NCAA women’s volleyball tournament: Schedule

  • First and second rounds: Thursday, Nov. 30, through Sunday, Dec. 3
  • Regionals: Thursday, Dec. 7, and Saturday, Dec. 9
  • Semifinals: Thursday, Dec. 14 — 7 p.m. ET on ESPN
  • Championship: Sunday, Dec. 17 — 3 p.m. ET on ABC