Huskers defeat Huskies;
60-14 rout earns praise
By John Adkisson
Staff Reporter
The Northern Illinois football team
was frozen in 85-degree heat Satur
day at Memorial Stadium by a Ne
braska defense that held the Huskies
to their lowest point total since 1988.
After the 60-14 Comhusker rout,
Northern Illinois coaches and players
could do nothing but praise Nebraska’s
defense.
“They have one of the top de
fenses in the nation,” said Northern
11 linoiscoach Jerry Pettibone. ‘ ‘ It was
the finest defensive team we’ve ever
played.”
Although Nebraska gave up 295
yards to the visiting Huskies, the
Huskers put the clamps on the Hus
kies’ main threat, quarterback Stacey
Robinson.
Robinson was held to 58 yards
rushing, the second-lowest total of
his career. His lowest total was 13
yards in last year’s Nothem Illinois
Nebraska game. The senior from
Danville, 111., also threw an intercep
tion and fumbled once.
“Several times in the game Stacey
was close to breaking a big one, but
the defense just closed in on him,”
Pettibone said.
Robinson echoed his coach’s
comments.
“They kind of wore us down,”
Robinson said. “They’re definitely a
better defensive team than they were
last year, just because of their experi
ence.”
The 14-point output was the low
est for the Huskies since they scored
10 points in a win against Southern
Illinois two seasons ago.
Northern Illinois mounted two
scoring drives in the first half to cut
the score to 16-11, but could only
muster 70 total yards in the second
half.
“We showed in the first half we
could move the ball against them,”
Robinson said. “I just wish we could
play two halves instead of one.”
Pettibone singled out Nebraska
players Reggie Cooper (strong safety),
Pat Tyranee (inside linebacker) and
Mike Croel (outside linebacker) call
ing them, “bonafide All-American
candidates.”
Robinson also said that Nebraska’s
team speed caused trouble for him.
“It was hard for me to get around
the defensive ends and turn the cor
ner,’ ’ he said.
Depth also became a factor in the
game. Nebraska used 96 players in
the game. Northern Illinois used 59.
“We just don’t have the depth
they do,” Pettibone said. “The physi
calness of the game certainly took a
toll on us.”
Northern Illinois fullback Erik
Jensen was lost for the year with a
knee injury sustained in Saturday’s
game, and the Huskies also lost de
fensive end Scott Van Bellinger for
an extended period.
The Nebraska-Northern Illinois
series ends with Nebraska also taking
last year’s game 48-17. Pettibone said
that this game was * ‘not worth it’ ’ for
the Huskies.
“I’m glad we’re through playing
Nebraska,” he said. “I’d just as soon
play teams at our own development
level.”
Pettibone said he also was im
pressed with the way the Nebraska
offense moved the ball.
“I said before the game that their
offense looked like it was ready to
explode,” Pettibone said. “I guess
that’s what happened out there to
day.”
Despite other players’ efforts,
I-back Flowers remains on top
By Paul Domeier
Senior Reporter
Leodis Flowers has to run as fast as
he can just to stay ahead of his back
ups at 1-back.
Last week, Scott Baldwin rushed
for 92 yards and the game’s only
touchdown with a long run of 53
yards against Baylor.
Saturday against Northern Illinois,
highly touted freshman Derek Brown
scored a one-yard touchdown on his
first carry as a Nebraska Comhusker,
and later busted a 59-yard touchdown
on a pilch to the left side. Brown
finished with 72 yards on five at
tempts.
George Achola also saw his first
action at 1-back, rushing twice for 13
yards.
Is it getting hot at the top for Row
ers?
“Oh, yeah, it’s getting hot at the
top,” Rowers said.
Rowers, though, cooled off any
See FLOWERS on 10
^™ MicnSn^auTmarvbally Nebraskan
Nebraska l-back Leodis Flowers eludes Northern Illinois
linebacker Steve Henriksen during the first quarter. Flowers
rushed for a career-high 124 yards Saturday.
Michelle Paulman/Dailv Nebraskan
Nebraska volleyball assistant coach Cathy Noth loads a fresh pineapple into her trunk at the
Lincoln Municipal Airport. The volleyball team returned Sunday from Hawaii, where it beat No.
1-ranked UCLA, No. 2 Hawaii and No. 11 Ohio State to improve its record to 4-0 this season.
Volleyball team tops No. 1 UCLA
By Cory Golden
Staff Reporter
Members of the Nebraska volley
ball team scaled the Diamond Head
Volcano in Hawaii on Saturday morn
ing.
It should only take the Comhuskcrs
until Tuesday to reach the summit of
the NCAA coaches’ poll.
In three days work, the third-ranked
Huskers dusted three top 20 teams at
the 1990 Hawaiian Airlines Wahine
Invitational: No. 1 UCLA, host No. 2
Hawaii and No. 11 Ohio State.
Then again, this ranking business
means nothing to Nebraska, now 4-0.
“I’m sure we will be (No. 1),” said
Coach Terry Pettit “That’s interest
ing for the fans and it promotes the
sport, but you can’t cash it in.’’
It’s not whether the Huskers win,
lose or what they’re ranked to the 14
year coach; it’s how they play. And
Pettit said he was happy with the
performance.
“They did a nice job,” he said.
“We played 10 players and they all
did a good job. They’re starting to
come together.”
Pettit said defense is what helped
the Huskers prevail when it came to
crunch time.
After losing the first game Thurs
day, 12-15, Nebraska rallied to top
UCLA 16-14 in the second game and
15-13 in the third. The Huskers dropped
the fourth 11-15 and were close to
losing the fifth and deciding game.
Crunch time.
“The team just refused to give
in,” said Assistant Coach John Cook.
“They showed they were tremendously
competitive and had a lot of guts.”
At 9-14, backs to the wall, Ne
braska turned up the level of their
play, Pettit said.
“Bccki (Bolli) made some great
digs,” Cook said. “Val (Novak) got
the ball to Cris (Hall) and she put it
«.vay.”
The Huskers, led by Hall’s26kills,
won 16-14 in two hours and 48 min
utes — the longest match in Nebraska
history.
In its second match, Nebraska
became the first team to sweep Ha
waii in six years on its home floor,
winning 15-11,16-14 and 15-5.
Nebraska’s defense, led by Bolli’s
team-high 12 digs, held Hawaii to a
.137 hitting percentage before a crowd
of 2,680 fans.
“In the first game they went up 5
0 and we came back to win,” Cook
said. “In the second game they had a
few passes at game point and couldn t
get it. That seemed to really take the
wind out of their sails.”
Nebraska picked up its thud vic
tory of the tournament by handing
Ohio State its third loss.
‘‘Ohio State was very emotional,
they were playing very hard,” Cook
said. “We were a bit flat. But with a
deeper bench and more consistency,
we just wore them down.”
Hall said the tournament champi
onship and the number one ranking
are, in the end, just one more step in
climbing to the top of the national
championship mountain.
‘‘I don’t know that anyone on the
team thought we could win three
straight,” said the outside hitter from
Chanutc, Kansas. “I thought we played
well but this is just training.
‘‘We have a lot more top 10 and
top 20 teams to play. We have 33
more games to get to the big one, the
national championship.”
Cook agreed.
‘‘We didn’t even get the chance to
enjoy winning,” he said. ‘‘We were
in a van 10 minutes after the match
ended and on the way to the airport.
W'e had a tremendous three days.
‘‘But we’re back in the gym to
morrow.”
NU JV holds Snow to seven points
By Chris Hopfensperger
Senior Reporter
Snow (Utah) Junior College’s of
fense knocked Friday afternoon and
the Nebraska junior varsity defense
answered, holding the Badgers to only
seven points in allowing them to gain
300 total yards.
Bill Weber, the Comhusker JV
coach, said he was happy with the
defensive play against Snow’s pass
ing offense.
“They run a difficult offense to
stop,’’ he said. “You’re going to have
them move the ball a little bit and get
in scoring position. But when the
defense rises to the task like we did,
we’ll shut them down.
“They’re going to be as good as
we’re going to play.”
Snow nearly tore the door down in
the second half, moving into scoring
position four times -- twice inside the
Huskcrs’ 10-yard line, but big defen
sive plays and offensive mistakes kept
them from converting.
“Wc had opportunities, oifcnsivcly,
to score and we didn ’t take advantage
of them,” said Snow coach Paul
Tidwell, whose team last year aver
aged more than 30 points a game on
ihcir way to a 6-3-2 record, including
a 23-23 tie at Nebraska. “I think we
really have to spend more time on
discipline. We’ve got to gel our of
fense in synch.
‘ Defensively, I thought we played
quite well, holding Nebraska to 14
points with their option and their
counters. I felt we did a good job
defensively. We didn’t really give up
any big plays.”
Nebraska started the scoring with
the game’s lone scoring drive, an 11
play, 44-yard march that ended with a
5-yard pitch play around the right end
by I-back Chad Pieters.
In the second quarter, a 67-yard
interception return by Husker strong
safety Brian Pollard, pul the ball on
21-yard line, setting up an 11-yard
pass from John McMillcn to light-end
Malt Shaw.
In the second half a blocked punt
gave Snow the ball on the Huskcrs’
13, but linebacker David Leader’s
13-yard sack on second down pushed
the Badgers back to the 22. The at
tempted field goal two plays later was
wide left.
Snow threatened to score on its
next possession, driving to Nebraska’s
six, but pressure on Snow quarter
back Bret Barben forced him to throw
the ball away into the end/one where
it was intercepted by strong safely
Travis Giesbrecht.
Barben wasn’t the only quarter
back under pressure. Scholarship player
Matt Jones, a passing quarterback in
high school, was badgered by Snow’s
defense and an unfamiliar offense.
Both put a lot of pressure on the
quarterback from Michigan City, Ind.
Weber said.
“With our option game, 1 was
expecting some execution problems,
but he generally did pretty good,”
Weber said.
Nebraska’s junior varsity is tradi
tionally composed of freshmen, but
the high number of players being
redshirted this year forced Weber into
supporting his team with a number of
upperclassmen who seldom see var
sity action.
“It gets a little tiring playing with
the scout team all the time without a
chance to contribute,’’ Weber said.
“I would hope the kids are excited to
play football. A couple of them even
thanked me for having them down.
That’s a good attitude.’’