Sports Tennis player inspired to face the best By Paul Dometer Stiff Reporter t Professional wrestler Ric Flair used to challenge competitors to try for his heavyweight championship by saying, “You wanna be The Man, you gotta BEAT The Man.” Nebraska tennis player Matthias Mueller has taken Flair’s words to heart. He said he knows that to be a top player, he must play the top play ers. So Mueller, in his First season at No. 1 singles for the Comhuskers, traveled to the Volvo All-American tournament in Athens, Ga., last weekend. Mueller was the last player to en ter the qualifying round of the tourna ment, and he won three matches to reach the finals of the qualifying rounds. Johan Mizuerk of Louisiana State defeated Mueller, 6-4, 6-4, to keep the Husker out of the 32-man touma ment, but with the three victories Mueller should make the lop 50 in the next collegiate rankings, Nebraska men’s tennis coach Kerry McDer mott said. Mueller didn’t make the first rank ings. Mueller said he went to the meet so he could play the top individuals in the country. “It was my first time out against all of the good players,’’ he said. “I want to know how good they are.’’ Last semester, Mueller won the Big Eight’s No. 3 singles title. When Steven Jung and Robert Sjoholm completed their eligibility, Mueller inherited the top spot Mueller said he played Jung in practice last year, and Jung, who was the NCAA individual runner-up, always would win. But last year Jung went to the Volvo tournament and only reached the final round of qualifying. McDer mott said he hopes Mueller can make the same progress that Jung did. After his showing at the Volvo tournament, Mueller said he thinks he can battle for a top-60 spot, and maybe make the NCAA tournament next spring. Mueller said he isn’t iooking to make the finals of the NCAAs. He even said he’d be satisfied with reaching the semifinals of the Big Eights this season. But he is confident in his spot on the team. “I don’t want to sound too selfish and self-centered, but I think I’m the best player on the team,” he said. Mueller came to Nebraska from Hamm, West Germany, last year. Though originally from Sweden, Sjoholm played club tennis with Mueller in Hamm. They even teamed together in doubles. Mueller said he visited the United States in the summer of 1988. He stayed with Sjoholm for a week, and McDermott asked Mueller if he wanted to play for Nebraska. Kathrin Edelkotter, another friend of Sjoholm’s and Mueller’s from the club in Hamm, came to Nebraska in the fall of 1988 to play % for the women’s team. She tested the school for Mueller, and encouraged him to enroll. Mueller said Sjoholm helped him prepare for the SAT and other entry tests he needed, and after completing his year of military service, Mueller joined his friends in Lincoln. He soon took over at No. 3, and ran off a 16-match winning streak before grabbing the Big Eight title. Mueller said he wasn’t sure he’d be back, though. He said he had trouble adapting to the university, and he knew little English. He went home to Hamm this summer, he said, still undecided. McDermott told Mueller that he needed to know his decision by early June, so he could give the scholarship to someone else if the top returnee elected not to come back. Mueller weighed his options at Nebraska and in Germany, and de cided to come back to the United StHtCS “First of all, I liked it,’ ’ he said. “I also get the opportunity to play tenn is every day, study and get my degree. ’ ’ At Nebraska, Mueller gets his tui tion paid for, and he gets to play some of the top players in the country. He said he will improve by play ing the best players. Going up against the best is also good for McDermott, since the coach and the player admit ted Mueller has trouble concentrating against lesser opponents. In spite of that annoying habit, McDermott said Mueller is in the same situation Jung was last fall, and Mueller could do the same things Jung did. “I still feel Matthias has the po tential to be a solid No. 1 for us, and make a name for himself,” he said. Columnist advises Iowa on win against NU Iowa Stale coach Jim Walden will be up to his usual tricks when the Cyclones face Nebraska on Saturday. But he needs to add some new twists. Throughout the year, Nebraska has shown that it is vulnerable. The Comhuskers have a mounting num ber of key injuries on offense, and they showed against Oklahoma State that their‘dime defense can be run against. With this in mind, Walden needs to adjust his plan of attack so it ex ploits these areas of concerns. Here’s what Walden needs to do in order to beat Nebraska: • Run in what appears to be obvi ous passing situations. Time and time again, Oklahoma State tailback Vcmon Brown picked up alarming amounts of yardage when the Huskcrs went into their dime defense. The dime is effective against most passing quarterbacks, but Brown and the Cowboys showed that it can be challenged when a team has a halfway-decent back. • This week, Iowa State needs to run in second-and-long situations and throw only when it absolutely needs to or believes it can catch Nebraska off guard. The Cyclones have a formidable running back in Blaise Bryant, and quarterback Bret Oberg is capable of putting up big numbers through the air in a hurry. If the Obcrg-Bryant combination is used effectively and mixed occasionally with another re ceiver or tight end, things could get interesting. And if nothing else works, Iowa State always can run up the middle. •When his team docs pass, work on the comers and stay away from the middle. Throughout the year, Nebraska strong safety Reggie Cooper has proved that he is a formidable force in the middle. To try to neutralize his presence, as well as give up a seem ingly automatic six points on an inter ception return, work on corncrbacks Tahaun Lewis and Bruce Pickens. Pickens possesses great speed, but is vulnerable on short, hook patterns. If Iowa State starts its offensive series off with a quick pass for seven yards that come compliments of Pickens, it will allow Obcrg to drop back in the pocket and cither throw or hand off on a draw to Bryant. If the quick pass is dropped or incomplete, let Nebraska’s defense dictate what is done next. If the dime unit is in, run. If not, it’s all up to Obcrg. And if all else fails, Iowa State always can attack Lewis by throwing deep down the sideline. This works — iust ask Oklahoma State’s Curtis Mayfield. • Concentrate on stopping Ne braska quarterback Gerry Gdowski and the vaunted triple option. A large part of Nebraska’s offense this season has come compliments of Gdowski and Huskcr fullback Bryan Carpenter. Carpenter’s statistics aren’t that impressive, but his role in Nebraska’s offense is. Carpenter is dangerous, particu larly when Gdowski takes the foot ball and stuffs it into hisbclly to begin the triple option. If the defensive line sags toward Carpenter, Gdowski takes the ball out and runs an option play. This combination, which also in cludes Nebraska running back Ken Clark, has proved to be an effective combination all season long. Iowa State must stop it, or at least contain it, in order to be successful. • Force Nebraska to throw. Gdowski is an impressive passer, but his once talent-filled group of receivers is diminishing quickly. The latest receiver to fall by the wayside is wingback Richard Bell, who suffered a hamstring injury against Oklahoma State. Bell’s status for Saturday is questionable, and even if heplays, it’s doubtful that he will be 100 percent. To make matters worse, Bell’s backup - the talented Nate Turner ~ didn’t make the trip to Oklahoma State and is questionable for Iowa State. That leaves two unproven players -- Mark Dowse and freshman Tyrone Hughes - at the wingback position. • Avoid kicking situations as much as possible. Iowa State dropped a 43-40 deci sion to Oklahoma Saturday thanks largely to kicker Jeff Shudak, who was suspended for breaking an undis closed team role. Shudak won’t play against Nebraska, and his replace ment, Rich Petrovich, might as well not even make the trip. After Petrovich missed his first extra point attempt of the day against Oklahoma, Walden elected to go for two points the rest of the game. He also turned the ball over three limes on downs instead of kicking chip shot field goals. That means Iowa Slate gave up at least four points against Oklahoma, and easily could have made 13 more. Makes you wonder how Shudak feels, huh? • Use the no-huddle offense. If Walden really wants to throw a wrench into Nebraska’s plans, he should run a no-huddle offense. This would prevent the Huskers from making their defensive changes and also would allow for more offense defense mismatches. The only trouble with a no-huddle offense is it relics so much on the talents of the quarterback. If Obcrg is on - which he is capable of being - a no-huddle attack would be a great weapon. But if not, it could be a disaster. None of these recommendations arc meant to be taken as guarantees of success. Iowa Stale probably could run them all day and still find a way to lose. But if run effectively, these rec ommendations would at least give Iowa Slate a chance. Apcl i