SEATTLE – Husky Nation, tipping its hat to Husker Nation, shattered the UW Volleyball attendance record tonight and sold out the Alaska Airlines Arena for the first time in program history as 9,768 fans came through the doors and filled every seat. The Huskies held their ground early and had the house roaring with another run late, but No. 2 Nebraska was too consistent tonight, beating Washington by a score of 25-17, 25-11, 25-21.

The sold-out crowd broke a 10-year-old program record of 8,648 fans one night in November 2014 when then-No. 5 Washington upset No. 1 Stanford during National Player of the Year Krista Vansant’s senior season.

Head Coach Leslie Gabriel called the atmosphere ‘great’.

“It was so exciting,” Gabriel said. “I got to my office an hour before the doors opened and I could hear the music outside and people lining up. It was really cool. I hope the community comes back and watches us in the next three weeks, but it was great and the girls were excited. It was a lot of fun.”

The Huskies (18-6, 8-6 Big Ten) fed off the energy to take a 10-7 lead in the first set and tied the score at 12 before Nebraska (24-1, 14-0 Big Ten) Ten) took advantage of a 5-1 run to take control. In set two, the Huskies fell behind early, 1-6, and never got closer than six points the rest of the set. In the third set, UW was near the middle of the set, trailing by two at 13-15 before Nebraska went on a run and reached match point at 17-24, but UW saved four match points to give the crowd a few. more tension before Nebraska won on its fifth chance.

Everyone
Watches
Ladies
Sport

9??7??6??8?? can testify to this!#PointHuskies // @NCAAVolleyball pic.twitter.com/3PDrRjLtRk

— Washington Volleyball (@UWVolleyball) November 10, 2024

“Nebraska is a good team and they’re going to force you to play good volleyball all night. There were times when we did good things. I thought: Lauren Bays played well and extended her range in passing. Emoni, this was her second game as an outside hitter for us and it was good to see her make some big swings. Kiune had a successful evening just doing Kiune things. But overall you can look at any skill and say we wish we had performed a little better.”

Nebraska hit .375 as a team and had 44 kills to 35 for the Huskies, who hit .158 as a team. After serving 13 aces in a win over No. 14 Minnesota two nights ago, the Huskies were only able to get one ace from the Huskers, and that came on one of the saved match points late in set three. Nebraska, meanwhile, had five aces and missed just two serves, while the Huskies missed seven. Nebraska also had a 7.0-to-1.0 advantage in blocks.

Emoni Bush led the Dawgs with 11 kills. Kiune Fletcher was great with nine kills on 17 swings and batted .471. Audra Wilmes returned to action after missing the past five games due to injury, and she had nine kills with eight digs and hit .214. Molly Wilson had 31 assists.

this place just RELEASED ??

Candidate Play of the Year stayed off the ground, kicked over and put away!! ??#PointHuskies // @NCAAVolleyball // #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/RxdKRa5pmM

— Washington Volleyball (@UWVolleyball) November 10, 2024

Washington had to battle it out tonight, missing both of its top two in kills per set this season. Madi Endsley was unavailable due to an injury sustained after Thursday night’s win, and Kierstyn Barton missed her third straight game with a foot injury that occurred near the end of the win over Oregon on October 30.

Next: The Huskies have a third straight week ahead of them with one home game and one road game. Only three weeks remain in the regular season, and UW heads to UCLA next Wednesday for a rematch against the Bruins, then will be back home to host Northwestern next Sunday, Nov. 17.