.png){kind=logo}
Wrigley Takeaways: 43,067 Saw One Match
Kentucky beat Penn State in four. Nebraska led Missouri 11-7 when condensation on the court stopped the second match, and the Big Ten says it cannot be rescheduled at Wrigley Field.
No. 3 Kentucky beat No. 13 Penn State 3-1 (25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 25-15) at Wrigley Field on Sunday night, in front of 43,067 people who saw only that one match finish.
No. 1 Nebraska led Missouri 11-7 in the first set of the nightcap when the referees stopped it for the second time and never restarted it.
Condensation had been settling on the Taraflex for close to an hour. Players slipped on it, the crew went at the floor with mops, alcohol-soaked towels, fans and leaf blowers, and just after 10:30 p.m. Central the match was suspended.
Here is the Big Ten Conference, in a statement published by both athletic departments under nobody's name.
“Due to weather conditions affecting the court surface, Sunday's volleyball match between Nebraska and Missouri has been suspended. Despite best efforts and in collaboration with all parties, rescheduling at Wrigley Field is not possible. A decision on match continuation at the point of suspension will be announced at a later date.”
The Court Was the One Thing Nobody Could Fix
Two delays of roughly fifteen minutes each came before the call, decals were lifted off the surface between them, and nothing dried.
Dani Busboom Kelly is Nebraska's head coach, and she gave Kalen Lumpkins of the Chicago Tribune this afterwards.
“This obviously did not go as anybody wanted it to or planned, but up till the minute it was called, it was an incredibly first-class event. The Big Ten and the Cubs organization made this super special from the first moment we walked into Wrigley Field. The weather didn't cooperate, but (I'm) really thankful for everybody who went out on a limb and invested a lot of money and time and manpower to do something pretty special for our sport.”
She put the verdict in eleven words. “I do not think outdoor is what we should be doing.”
Everything about this night that could be planned was planned, and the surface was the part that could not be.
The Gate Was the Success, Not the Night
43,067 came through the turnstiles, a single figure for a doubleheader sold on one ticket. What that number is a record for depends on who you read.
The Chicago Tribune calls it the second-largest crowd in both Wrigley Field history and college volleyball history. Missouri's athletic department calls it the second-largest in Wrigley Field history and stops there. Hail Varsity calls it a state record for volleyball in Illinois.
Kentucky says only that it was the largest crowd ever to watch a Kentucky volleyball match, and prints no number at all.
The volleyball record itself was never in play. Nebraska drew 92,003 to Memorial Stadium in August 2023 and nothing in the sport has gone near it since, which is why the comparison has to widen off volleyball altogether.
Wrigley Field opened in 1914 and has since housed the Chicago Bears, the Chicago Cardinals, Northwestern football, a North American Soccer League team, a National Women's Soccer League match and two NHL Winter Classics, and until Sunday it had never staged a volleyball match.
Nebraska had played in front of 8,786 at DePaul on Friday night, a DePaul volleyball attendance record, and that crowd was a fifth of the one they walked into two days later.
Kentucky Hit .281 and Won the Only Match
Kentucky hit .281, put down 60 kills for a season high and out-blocked Penn State 12-8. Brooklyn DeLeye took 47 swings for 21 kills, Morgan Gaerte 32 for 15, and Kassie O'Brien set 48 assists, also a season high.
Penn State hit .173 and made 27 hitting errors across four sets. They took the third set 25-23, the only one Kentucky lost all night, and lost the fourth 25-15.
Georgia Watson grew up in Huntley, Illinois, and is a Cubs fan. She hit two of Kentucky's last three kills.
Brooklyn DeLeye, the senior who took those 47 swings, speaking to Lumpkins.
“The entire experience exceeded any expectations. I had no idea what to expect coming here. Getting into this facility is one thing, but let alone playing in front of just the fans that were out there and being on a baseball field was just so surreal.”
The Big Ten Had Won the Week by Friday
The competition underneath the showpiece finished two days before anybody reached Chicago. Nine matches on Tuesday went 5-4 to the Big Ten. Eleven more on Wednesday took it to 12-8.
Thursday and Friday split four apiece and left it 16-12 with two to play, which is more than the SEC could still reach. Four of those twelve SEC wins came against Iowa and Ohio State, who lost twice each and won nothing all week.
Kentucky's win on Sunday is the twenty-ninth of the thirty and it belongs to the SEC, so the week ends 16-13 with one match unresolved.
We are printing that rather than the 16-12 still on the Big Ten's own Challenge Week page this morning, which is the count from before Kentucky played.
The Match at 11-7 Is Probably Gone
Harper Murray's single kill is the only individual statistic Nebraska's night produced in front of 43,067 people.
The Big Ten's results table lists the match as postponed. Its statement calls it suspended, rules out rescheduling at Wrigley Field, and says a decision on continuing from the point of suspension comes later.
This one is probably never finished. Restarting a suspended set needs both teams in the same building on a date neither schedule has, and the conference has already ruled out the one venue that would have justified the trip.
