__ Sports.
Nebraska uses
trio to defeat
Fighting Irish
By Mark Derowitsch
Senior Reporter
and
Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
Throughout this week in
practice, Nebraska volleyball
coach Terry Pettit said he could
sense the Cornhuskers would
perform well against Notre
Dame.
And Pettit’s expectations
proved to be correct as Ne
braska defeated the Fighting
Irish 15-3, 15-1, 15-9 before
823 fans at the NU Coliseum.
“We’ve been practicing
well- there wasn’t anybody on
the squad or the coaches that
didn’t know going into this that
we were going to play well,”
Pettit said.
“I can’t tell whether we’re
going to win but I can usually
sense when we are about to play
really well because it shows up
in practice.”
Pettit said the 19-1 Huskers
played good defense against the
Irish. He said they performed
equally well offensively.
“We did a nice job,” Pettit
said. “I thought we set up our
block particularly on (outside
hitter Zanette) Bennett, who’s a
great player. You can’t stop her
but maybe at least you can pre
vent her from dominating the
mitch. We did a good job
there.”
Bennett recorded nine kills
and hit .172 percent. Coming
into the match, Bennett was
hitting .332 percent.
wucrisivciy, uic nusxcrs
were led by outside hitter Kathi
DeBoer. The senior from Firth
had 11 kills and one service ace.
Middle blocker Virginia Stahr
hit .714 and recorded 10 kills.
Lori Endicott had one serv
ice ace to raise her string of
consecutive matches with at
least one to 12. Pettit said he
counted on his three offensive
weapons to lead the Huskers.
“DeBoer, Endicott, and
Stahr we count on,” Pettit said.
“And they’re doing a good job
of getting better.”
Pettit said the reason for the
Huskers offensive success is
because of their fast paced at
tack.
“The tempo in which we do
things is faster (than most
teams),” Pettit said. “It would
be like playing basketball and
then all of a sudden running into
a team that was just throwing
the outlet pass to midcourt.”
In the first set, the Huskers
raced out to an 11-0 lead before
Notre Dame avoided the shut
out. DeBoer had four kills while
Angie Millikin added two.
Notre Dame added two more
points on a Husker error and an
ace kill by Taryn Collins to
close the gap to 11-3.
But two ace kills by Carla
Baker and Val Novak, and a
Notre Dame hilling error gave
the set to Nebraska.
The Huskers jumped out to
an early 3-0 lead in die second
sel before a net violation pul the
Irish on the scoreboard. The
Huskers scored the next 12
points to take a two-set lead.
In the final set, Nebraska
look a 13-5 lead before Notre
Dame came back and cut the
Husker lead to four, 13-9,
But a Notre Dame error and a
kill by Endicott gave the win to
Nebraska.
Notre Dame coach Art Lam
bert said the Fighting Irish
started good but couldn’t keep
up the pace.
Paul Vonderlage/Daily Nebraskan
lldiko Guba
Hungarian tennis champ
to serve as a Husker
By Steve Sipple
Staff Reporter
Nebraska tennis coach Kerry
McDermott stumbled upon Hungar
ian tennis player Ildiko Guba this
summer.
Now Guba is stampeding over
opponents on the Comhuskers’ fall
schedule.
Guba, an 18-year-old freshman
from Budapest, Hungary, is unde
feated as a Husker. She won champi
onships in the Nebraska Open on Sept.
7 and 8 and the Wood Valley Open in
Topeka, Kan., two weeks ago.
Guba has defeated Arkansas’
Christy Rankin, Oklahoma’s Julie
Vaughn and Kansas State’s Theresa
Burcham, all of whom are the No. 1
singles players at their colleges.
McDermott said Guba may be
Nebraska’s best women’s player ever.
But if not for Nebraska’s visiting
civil engineering professor Istvan
Bogardi, McDermott said, Guba
wouldn’t be a Husker.
McDermott said Bogardi, also
from Budapest, contacted Guba about
Nebraska last May.
McDermott said he met Bogardi
during the summer of 1985. He said
Bogardi approached him about giving
tennis lessons to his children, who
played on a club team, the Spartac
ules, with Guba.
McDermott, who is in his first
season as the Husker men’s and
women’stcnniscoach, said he learned
in May that Bogardi was returning to
Budapest for two weeks. McDermott
said he sent information on Nebraska
and its tennis program to Budapest in
case Bogardi knew of any tennis pros
pects who might want to attend col
lege in the United States.
Two weeks later, McDermott said,
he learned that Guba was interested.
Guba was ranked 10th in the junior
world rankings and had captured jun
ior titles at Wimbeldon and at the
French Open.
“At first I thought (her interest) was
a joke,” McDermott said. “I thought
she was going to turn pro. But her
parents wanted her to get an education
and at the same time improve her
game.”
Guba said she liked the idea of
coming to America.
“It was basically the language,”
she said. “I couldn’t learn to speak
English any other way. And learning
the culture — I liked that idea.
“I probably wouldn’t have gone to
college in Hungary. I wasn’t thinking
of school, I was thinking of taking a
year off. But this came and I was
feeling good, so I said I’d love to
come.”
McDermott said he signed Guha in
late July. She arrived in Lincoln Aug
20.
McDermott said it is time for him
to appreciate Guba’s talent.
“A week after school started I saw
her play for the first time,” he said. “I
knew she was good, but I didn’t know
how good.
“But from playing her ... she hits
so hard for a girl.”
McDermott said Guba mixes
power with finesse.
“She has really soft touch for a girl,
which you don’t see much,” McDer
mott said. “She can slice her backhand
and lop-spin her backhand one
handed — not many women can do
that.”
Guba spent last season as a member
of the Hungarian Federation tennis
team. She said she has played all over
Europe, South America and the
United Slates with that team.
Guba said she first came to the
United States last December to play in
the Continental Players’ Cup at Pom
pano Beach, Fla. Later that month,
she competed in the Orange Bowl
Junior Clay Court World Champion
ships in Miami.
Guba said the time she spent on the
road made her high-school days dif
ferent from that of the average teen
ager. She said it also made her lirst
weeks as a college student rough.
“It was so scary,” Guba said. “It
was like, 'Oh my God.’ It was so
different to go to class every day. I had
to get used to that, but it’s fine now.
“(In Hungary') I could go whenever
I wanted to, but I didn’t have much
lime.”
Guba said the Hungarian Tennis
Federation allowed her to travel and
take tests by certain deadlines that
were set by her high school. She said
exceptional athletes are often granted
that benefit in Europe.
“1 always did fairly well,” she said.
McDermott said Guba has made a
smooth transition from high school to
college.
“She used to travel by herself at a
young age,” he said. “I think she’s
made the adjustment real well.
“Hopefully she can benefit from
what we have to offer and we can
benefit from what she has to offer.”
McDermott said Guba will offer
stability at the lop of the Huskers’
lineup when they start Big Eight con
ference play in late April.
Wildcat impressive, Osborne says
By Mark Derowitsch
Senior Reporter
After holding Oklahoma State
running back Thurman Thomas to
seven yards on nine carries last week,
Nebraska football coach Tom
Osborne said the Comhuskcrs must
slop another impressive running
back Saturday.
Osborne said that although Kansas
State tailback Tony
have Thomas’ sta
tistics, the scnioi
from Rochester,
N.Y., is just as good
as the Oklahoma
Stale Hcisman Tro
phy candidate.
“The guy that
catches your eye is
Tony Jordan,”
Osborne said. “He’s _
probably the big- Jordan
gest pure running back we’ve faced
this year, and 1 really believe that he’s
as good as anyone we’ve seen. He may
not have the opportunity that (UCLA
running back)Gaston Green and Thur
man Thomas would have, but I think
his abilities arc equal.”
Jordan and the rest of the 0-6 Wild
cats will face the Huskers Saturday at
Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is sched
uled for 1:35 p.m.
Jordan has rushed for 345 yards on
75 carries this season despite an in
jured left ankle. Those numbers com
pare to the 707 yards on 129 attempts
that Thomas has picked up this season.
Kansas Stale coach Stan Parrish
said Jordan has managed to play well
despite the injury.
“When he’s been healthy he’s
played really well,” Parrish said.
‘Right now, it’s not fair to assess what
he’s all about. He’s the best football
player on the team.
“He’s the cog that keeps things
going. He keeps the spirit up, keeps us
working.”
Parrish said what keeps Jordan
from being named all-Big Eight is a
talented offensive line.
“Let him run behind (Nebraska’s)
line, he’d do very well,” Parrish said.
“1 mean, running behind our line, how
well is (Husker I-back) Keith Jones
going to do?”
Parrish said another offensive
weapon the Wildcats rely heavily on is
quarterback Gary Swim. Swim, a
transfer from Snow Community Col
lege in Ephraim, Utah, has completed
51 percent of his passes for 706 yards
and six touchdowns.
Osborne said Swim is a different
type of quarterback than what the
Huskers arc used to seeing.
'He's the cog that
keeps us going. He
keeps the spirit up,
keeps us working.'
—Parrish
“Their quarterback is a good
thrower,” Osborne said. “He doesn’t
appear to be a scrambler. Bui I think he
has the ability to stand in there and
throw the ball pretty well.”
Osborne said the 6-0 Huskers can’ll
afford a letdown even though they
have defeated Kansas State the last 18
times they have faced them. Nebraska
has outscored the Wildcats 704-173
during that era.
“It (a Wildcat victory) can happen,’
Osborne said,
Osborne said he remembers the last
time Kansas State beat the Huskcrs.
Osborne was an assistant to former
Nebraska coach and current athletic
director Bob Dcvaney when the Wild
cats defeated Nebraska 12-0 in 1968.
“(Nebraska linebackers coach)
John Mellon and I sat up in the press
box and hid for about an hour when the
score was 12-0,” Osborne said. “We
wouldn’t come out because we let the
fans go al ter Bob. T hen when the coast
was clear, we came down.”
Parrish said a Kansas Slate victory
over Nebraska would go down as “one
of the biggest upsets in the history of
college football.”
“It would mean everything to beat
Nebraska,” he said. “It would be a
resurrection. It would also be one of
the dark days in (Nebraska’s) pro
gram.”
