Volleyball team
selected to host
tournament game
By John Adkisson
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska volleyball team,
ranked second nationally, has been
selected as a first-round host for the
NCAA Tournament, which starts this
weekend.
The Comhuskers, who will host
Miami of Ohio in the first round, will
likely be named host of the Mideast
Regional with a win over the Re
dskins Friday.
Dr. Barbara Hibner, assistant ath
letic director in charge of women’s
athletics, said winning a first-round
home date and an apparent regional is
a tribute to the volleyball team and its
fans.
“'Ihis is something the players
deserve after the season they’ve had,”
Hibner said. “It’s the least the athletic
department could do, not only for the
team, but for the fans who have fol
lowed them ali year.”
The selection of Nebraska as re
gional would give the Huskers home
court advantage all the way to the
Final Four, which will be held Dec.
13-15 in College Park, Md.
Nebraska hosted regionals in 1986
and 1989, and in both those years, the
Huskers earned a Final Four berth.
Hibner said this year, the NCAA looked
at Nebraska’s strong tradition and chose
Lincoln as the site.
Also included in this year’s Mide
ast Regional is Penn State, the na
tion’s only undefeated team. By bring
ing the Nittany Lions to Lincoln, Hibner
said the regional becomes even more
exciting.
“They know we have a history of
integrity and credibility here at Ne
braska,” Hibner said. “They are very
well aware of what we have done in
the past.”
“With the inclusion of Penn State,
that sets up a dynamic regional here
in Lincoln,” Hibner said. “In fact, it
may be one of the best regionals in the
country.”
Also included in the Mideast
Regional are four Big Ten teams:
Wisconsin, Ohio State, Purdue and
Illinois. Hibner said the selection of
four teams from that conference indi
cates the Big Ten’s strength.
1990 NCAA VoBlevball Tournament
#1 Nebraska 29-2 (NU Coliseum, 7:30 p.m., Friday)
# 8 Miami_ _
(Ohio) 25-5
#4 Ohio St. - -
23- 7
#5 Pitt. _ __
31-S_
#6 Illinois Mideast region West Region
21-11
#3 WI scon._
28-7
#7 Purdue
22-10_
#2 Penn St_
42-0_
#1 Hawaii
27-5
#8 SW Miss_£t
24- 7
#4 S. Jose St.
21- 7 -
#5 L. Bead i St.
26-8
#6 ucsb Northwest region _South region
19-6
#3 Idaho St_ _
22- 9
#7 Montana _
24-6 -
First-round tickets on sale today.
#2 Pacific-Adults $5 UNL students $3 -
26-6_
#1 UCLA
31-1
— #8 Gonzaga
l26A__
#4 Pepperdine
2Sb§-_
— #5 N. Mexico
121-6
#8 S. Diego St.
23-11
— #3 BYU
26-7
#7 Wyoming
19-9
_M2 Stanford
23-3
#1 Texas
29-3
— #8 Maryland
22JJ
#4 Florida St.
25-9
_#5 Kentucky
21- 11_ c
#6 Louisville %
22- 7 |
— #3 LSU *
31-6 f
o
#7 Tex-Arl ®
18-18 l
_m2 Texas Tech c
29-2 o
Klley Tlmpertey/Daily Nebraskan
Nebraska’s Val Novak (1) and Stephanie Thater attempt to block a spike by Colorado’s Michele
Kohler during the finals of the Big Eight Volleyball Tournament on Saturday at Omaha’s Civic
Auditorium.
CU efforts not enough to beat NU
By Chris Hopfensperger
Senior Reporter
OMAHA — Colorado volleyball
coach Bruce Saindon said his team
played well enough Saturday night to
beat a lot of the nation’s volleyball
teams.
Unfortunately for the Lady Buffs,
the only team they were playing was
Nebraska.
The Comhuskcrs, ranked No. 2 in
the last regular season poll, beat up on
Colorado 15-5,15-13,15-9 to win the
Big Eight tournament and an auto
matic berth to the NCAA Tourna
ment in front of 4,399 fans at the
Omaha Civic Auditorium.
“We would have bcata lot of teams
tonight, a lot of teams in the country,”
Saindon said. “Nebraska is justagood
team.”
Saturday night the Huskers were
good enough to hold the Buffs to 38
kills and a .10! hitting percentage.
They were led by Stephanie Thater
(14 kills, nine block assists) and tour
nament Most Valuable Player Janet
Kruse, who finished with 14 kills and
a .323 hitting percentage.
However, they weren’t flawless,
Nebraska coach Terry Pettit said.
“We still have a lot of things to
do,” he said. “We’ll need to smooth
some things out. Wc need to be fun
damentally stronger in some areas.”
Pettit said the team discussed the
improvements they needed to make
on defense after struggling to beat
Kansas in the first round of the tour
nament On Friday, the Jayhawks look
the Huskers to five games before fall
ing 15-7, 15-11, 18-20,8-15, 15-4.
“I thought vve made a real effort to
play better volleyball tonight,” Pettit
said about the Colorado match. “I
thought wc moved better, communi
cated better, shared information bet
ter.”
The Huskers also had better size.
“They’re just big and physical,” Sain
don said. “They just wear on you after
a while. It’s like a football team You
play a bigger team and the cumula
tive effect is overwhelming.”
Pettit said he also was happy with
the depth the Huskers showed in the
second game, when Sara Hesch and
Debbie Lee Brand came off the bench
to lead the Huskers back from a 12-4
deficit.
“From a certain point on,” he said,
“we played pretty much error free.”
Kruse led three other Huskers on
the all-tournament team; senior Val
Novak and sophomores Thater and
Eileen Shannon.
Saindon said a key for the Huskers
as they head into the postseason tour
nament is passing.
“If they can pass the ball, I think
they have a good chance to win the
national championship,” he said.
“When their passing the ball, they’re
as good as anybody I’ve seen.”
Huskers impress scout
despite poor showing
By Paul Domeier
Senior Reporter
NORMAN, Okla. — John Mis
ciagna attended his first Big Eight
football game Friday, watching the
Nebraska-Oklahoma game with the
eyes of an impartial observer and the
heart of a Comhusker fan.
He carefully analyzed Nebraska
for strengths and weaknesses. He pulled
for the Huskcrs because, as Georgia
Tech’s recruiting coordinator, he
wanted as highly-ranked a Citrus Bowl
opponent as possible.
Misciagna’s visit to the Memorial
Stadium was the start of Georgia Tech’s
scouting efforts to prepare for the Jan.
1 bowl game. Misciagna brought along
the Yellow Jackets’ game films to
trade for Nebraska’s films.
But as he set out his scouting sup
plies — a notepad, four pencils, micro
cassette recorder, two stopwatches
and pack of Redman — he said he
hadn’t even seen Nebraska on televi
sion this year.
Even in a 45-10 loss, the Huskcrs
impressed Misciagna with the team’s
speed.
“They are one of the quickest de
fensively we will face all year,’’ he
said.
The offensive skill players also are
fast, Misciagna said, and especially
dangerous when playing on the spe
cial teams. Tyrone Hughes showed
the Georgia Tech assistant a 16-yard
punt return and a 40-yard kickoff
return that started five yards deep in
the end zone.
Least impressive about the Husk
ers?
“Just the turnovers, mistakes,
dropped passes here and there,” Mis
ciagna said.
That was epitomized by a second
half Nebraska sack that ended in a 15 -
yard facemask penalty. Misciagna just
shook his head and said, “Mistakes.”
Those mistakes, particularly seven
turnovers, contributed to the loss dis
appointing to all Husker fans and to
Misciagna.
Still, that doesn’t mean Georgia
Tech can rest easy against that speedy
defense and potentially explosive
offense.
“We haven’t seen those two quali
ties together on a football team,”
Misciagna saiu.
Nebraska’s defense is like
Clemson’s, he said, and Nebraska’s
offense is comparable to Virginia’s.
Before he left midway through the
second half to catch his 6:30 p.m.
Bight out of Oklahoma City, Mis
ciagna said he got to see Nebraska run
against a defense similar to Georgia
Tech’s. The Oklahoma offense, though,
is completely different from the Yel
low Jackets’, he said, so the game
didn’t show much of what the Husk
ers will do on defense Jan. 1.
But after watching this game and
analyzing the films, Miscianga said,
the Georgia Tech staff should have a
good idea of what the Huskers do.
And he said Nebraska won’t be able
to sneak many things in once the
teams get to Orlando, Fla., for the
game.
“One of the things about a bowl ,
trip, you live in the same city for 10
days,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of
surprises.”
Murray State hands NU its first loss
From Staff Reports
A pair of free throws by Ccdrick
Gumm with 27 seconds remaining
proved decisive Sunday night as
Murray State outlasted Nebraska 81 -
79 to win the championship of the
San Juan Shootout in Bayamon, Puerto
Rico.
Gumm’s free throws made the score
80-76. Gumm, a freshman who had
not played at all in the game, was
shooting for an injured John Jackson,
who was fouled by Carl Hayes and
was unable to shoot the free throws.
Clifford Scales made the score 80
79 with a 3-point basket at the 11
second mark. Greg Coble hit the first
of two free throws for the Racers with
six seconds left. Beau Reid rebounded 1
the missed second shot and passed to
Scales, but Scales could not get a shot
off. :
“In the close games you must
execute and tonight we didn’t do that,” 1
Nebraska coach Danny Nee said. “We
need to develop a team cohesiveness !
oltensivcly to find a way to win close
ones.”
The Comhuskers had come back 1
See HUSKERS on 11