ATHENS, Ga. \u2014 Playing between the hedges at football\u2019s Sanford Stadium, and with coach Kirby Smart watching, the Georgia women\u2019s soccer team on Thursday night set an attendance record for any college soccer match.<\/p>\n
An announced crowd of 25,433 saw Georgia\u2019s 6-0 win over James Madison, easily topping the previous record for a women\u2019s soccer match: 14,410, in the 1999 championship between North Carolina and Notre Dame in San Jose, Calif.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s crowd also exceeded the men\u2019s soccer attendance record set in 1980, when 22,512 watched a match between Saint Louis and SIU Edwardsville at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a major win for the University of Georgia, it was a major win for our program, it was a major win for collegiate soccer,\u201d Georgia coach Keidane McAlpine said. \u201cWe had an opportunity to celebrate one of the best moments in women\u2019s soccer ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickets to Thursday\u2019s match \u2014 dubbed \u201cSoccer at Sanford\u201d \u2014 were free, although fans had to pay for parking and concessions. They also had to deal with a 98-degree temperature at kickoff.<\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s effort to break the attendance record was in the works since the spring, with Georgia anticipating fresh excitement after the men\u2019s World Cup. Atlanta hosted eight World Cup matches, including a semifinal game in which Argentina eliminated England.<\/p>\n
Sanford Stadium was also the site, 30 years ago this month, where the U.S. women\u2019s national team won the gold-medal match over China in the Summer Olympics. That match drew a crowd of 76,481, setting an international attendance record at the time for any women\u2019s sporting event.<\/p>\n
The famous hedges were removed from Sanford Stadium for that occasion. But Thursday, they remained.<\/p>\n
Kirby Smart showed up to support @UGASoccer<\/a> as they play in Sanford Stadium \ud83d\udc4f pic.twitter.com\/7uuTR35p80<\/a><\/p>\n