Premier volleyball event will bring Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Nebraska to Bridgestone Arena
Six teams − Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky of the SEC and Nebraska, Purdue and Illinois from the Big Ten − will be part of three matches at Bridgestone Arena.
An official announcement is expected Tuesday.
It will be the first volleyball competition ever sponsored by the Nashville Sports Council.
Each team will play one match. Matchups for the event, which will be televised on ESPN, will be revealed Tuesday.
Nebraska is one of the nation's top programs, which often leads the NCAA in average attendance for home games each season. In 2023 Nebraska played Omaha at Memorial Stadium, home of the school's football team, in a match that set the NCAA Division I attendance record at 92,003. It also broke the record for attendance for any women's sporting event, surpassing the 91,648 in attendance at the 2022 UEFA Women's Champion League match.
Nebraska has won the national championship five times and finished runner-up five times.
Tennessee advanced to the NCAA tournament in 2024 and posted a 15-12 record. A program record crowd of 6,193 attended the Lady Vols' season-opening match last season against Penn State at Food City Center.
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Vanderbilt is set to launch its program for the 2025 season. The spring season begins Friday with an exhibition match against Tennessee at Brentwood High.
Purdue advanced to the NCAA regional semifinals in 2024 while Illinois made it to the NCAA tournament first round.
Nashville Sports Council president and CEO Scott Ramsey and Nashville Predators president and chief operating officer Michelle Kennedy will address the media at Tuesday's news conference along with ESPN reporter and The Zone 104.5-FM sports talk co-host Dawn Davenport, who played volleyball at Auburn.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Nebraska in volleyball event at Nashville
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