Sports
Husker jumps
from basketball
to volleyball
By Nick Hytrek
Staff Reporter
Serving and defensive specialist Becky Bolli
knew she wanted to play for Nebraska, but her
plan was to play basketball instead of volley
ball.
The senior co-captain said that the night
before she was to make the decision to play
basketball, she received a call from Com
husker volleyball coach Terry Pettit.
“He said he was interested in me and wanted
me to come down and talk to him,” Bolli
recalled. “So I said ‘what the hey?,’ and came
down and visited and eventually came here to
play volleyball.”
Simple as that, and now Bolli is one of the
leaders of the No. 2 team in the country that this
weekend attempts to edge closer to a first-ever
national title by capturing the NCAA Mideast
Regional Finals and advancing to the Final
Four. Piaying basketball for Nebraska would
have been a logical choice since her sister
Stephanie had already paved the way.
“(But) I saw volleyball as a chance for me to
make my own little niche,” Bolli said.
And it was easy for Bolli to make her own
niche because the Burweli native had a talent
that no other Husker player before her ever had
— the jump serve; a high-velocity, top spin
ning serve that intimidates opponents, often
changing die tempo of a match.
we a never had a serving specialist like
that here before,” Pettit said.
Bolli self-taught the jump serve before her
senior year in high school.
I was at a camp and they encouraged me to
use it,” Bolli said. “So I worked on it ail
summer before the season started.”
Her unique serving technique caught oppo
nents off-guard all season and she helped lead
Burwell to the Class C-J State Championship
that season.
Bolli rejected numerous scholarship offers
to walk-on at Nebraska. She had to work
harder than the scholarship players, though,
there was less pressure, she said.
“As a walk-on, you have to work twice as
hard to get noticed,” she said. “(But) being a
walk-on allowed me 10 focus on me and not
worry about if I would be All-Conference or
anything. There is a lot expected from scholar
ship players.”
See BOLL! on 8
David Fahtoson/Dally Nebraskan
The jump serve is Becky Boili’s
trademark.
Runnin’ Rebels retain No. 1;
Arizona places close second
The Associated Press
UNLV, which received the news it wanted
last week when it learned it could defend its
national championship, remained the No. 1
team in the college basketball poll released
Monday morning.
The Runnin’ Rebels, who opened their sea
son Saturday night with a 109-68 victory' over
Alabama-Birmingham just two days after learn
ing the NCAA shifted its probation from this *
year’s tournament to next season, received 45
first-place votes and 1,579 points from the
nationwide panel of sportswriters and broad
casters.
Arizona (6-0), the only other school to re
ceive first-place votes, and Arkansas (5-1) held
second and third, while Syracuse (4-0) and
Duke (5-1) each jumped three places to be
fourth and fifth, respectively.
Three teams joined the Top 25 this week:
No. 21 South Carolina, No. 24 Temple and No.
25 Kentucky.
Arizona, which was No. 1 on 19 ballots, had
1,555 points, while Arkansas, which lost to the
Wildcats in the prescason NIT championship
game, had 1,435. Syracuse’s had 1,312, 80
more than the Blue Devils, whose only loss was
to Arkansas in the NIT semifinals.
Georgetown (3-0) and Indiana (4-1) each
jumped three places to sixth and seventh, re
spectively, while UCL.A, Ohio State and North
Carolina rounded out the Top 10.
The Hoyas, who have yet to beat a Division
1 team, had 1,164 points, 54 more than Indiana,
which rebounded from last week’s loss to
Syracuse with wins over local rivals Notre
Dame and Louisville.
UCLA (4-0), which has set the school’s
single-game scoring record twice this season,
including Sunday night with a 149-98 win over
Loyola Marymount, had 1,097 points. The
Buckeyes, who have broken the 100-point mark
in each of their victories this season, had 1,069
points, 71 more than North Carolina (3-1),
which dropped from fourth to 10th after losing
to South Carolina 76-74 in the semifinals of the
Tournament of Champions in the first meeting
of the border rivals in 18 years.
Pittsburgh led the second 10 with 957 points
and was followed by Alabama, Georgia, Con
necticut, Southern Mississippi, Oklahoma, St.
John’s, Louisiana State, Michigan State and
Georgia Tech.
The final five in the balloting were South
Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Temple and Ken
tucky.
Kansas 114, Mssourt 114, New Mexico 111,:.
Bulgers 88, BmTewx&eo St 82,
| New Mexico St. 70. VWSnavS 70. Defaul 7*. Murray
f St. 80. Oklahoma at SB. North Cw&lM 3t. St.
Bowling Green 48. Houston 41, Minnesota 35,
Nebraska $1. Louisville 28, Ban St. 22, Wyoming 18.
New Orleans 10, damson 14, South Alabama 14,
Xavier, Ohio 13. Louisiana Tech 12, Memphis SL 12.
Wake Forest 12, Richmond 10, BHgham Young 8.
West Virginia 8. towa 7. Mississippi SL 7, Oregon 3.
Purdue 3. Fordham 2, juntas Madison 2, San Diego
2, South Florida 2, CincinnatJ 1, Colorado St. 1.
Dayton 1. Michigan i. Princeton 1. Southern RBnois 1,
Texae-Fl Paso 1
Kruse constant in NU volleyball
By Chris Hopfensperger
Senior Reporter
The only thing more consistent
than Nebraska’s Big Eight volleyball
titles is Comhusker volleyball player
Janet Kruse.
Kruse, the Huskers' outside hitter,
has played in the last 229 straight
games and hasn’t missed a match
since she started playing volleyball at
Nebraska in 1988.
Even more impressive are her sta
tistics on the court.
Kruse has slammed down 950 career
kills faster than any other Nebraska
player with a .309 hitting percentage.
This season Kruse leads the Husk
ers with 357 kills, including 96 in the
last six matches. In the conference,
her .340 hitting percentage is second
only to teammate Stephanie Thater’s
.382 average.
Kruse’s play has not gone unno
ticed.
A 1989 All-American, a two-time
first-team All-Big Eight member
and a two-time Big Eight player of
the week, Kruse’s 39-kill perform
ance in this year’s Big Eight Tourna
ment earned her another accolade —
the Most Valuable Player honors.
Kruse said she was excited about
being given the award, but the impor
tancc of individual rewards dimin
ishes in light of team goals at this time
of the season.
“As a team we want to win the
national championship,” she said. “I
just try to play hard and what comes
my way comes.”
The Huskers are peaking at the
right time of the season, Kruse said.
The Huskers know what it takes to
win against Top 20 teams, owning
victories over top-ranked UCLA, No.
4 Hawaii, No. 15 Ohio State and No.
10 Wisconsin early in the season.
“We haven’t really played prime
See KRUSE on 8
Nebraska exceeds goal, breaks record
By Benji Greenberg
Staff Reporter
The goai~ for the Corrhusker
women’s 200-meter freestyle swim
ming relay team was just to qualify
for the national meet, but there are no
complaints about what also happened
at this weekend’s Husker Invitational.
The team broke the school record
of 1:33.76 set in 1985 tyy six-hun
dredths of a second. Chris Grneiner,
Lynne Braddock, Mindy Maiheny and
Chris Frederick teamed to qualify and
set the record.
“We did great in accomplishing
that record and the best part was that
we bettered our time by a second over
Friday’s time,” Grneiner said.
Coach Ray Huppcrt said this year’s
relay team is the best he has seen at
Nebraska, and that all of four sprint*
ers do an exceptional job at working
together.
“Chris and the rest of her relay
team is an outstanding group of girls
and provide good leadership skills,”
Huppert said.
It helps that three of the four share
living quarters.
“Another positive key is me, Mindi
and Lynne live together and that has
helped all of us become comfortable
with each other,” Gmeincr said.
This is the first time in Gmeincr’s
four-year Huskcr career that she has
qualified for.nationals.
“It’s taken Chris three years to
develop as a swimmer on the college
level and I feel as a senior, she’s
swimming very well and her experi
encc and work ethic have rubbed off
on most of the younger kids,” Hup
pcrt said.
Gmeiner said she thinks that what
the relay team accomplished this
weekend could rub off on the entire
squad.
“I feel the only way out team can
be successful is to win as a team,” she
said. “If out freshmen can come around
like the have, we should do well at
Big Eights and nationals.”
She said this year’s Husker team is
better than last year, which won the
Big Eight title.
"This year’s team has belter
strengths in the water and everyone
on the team realizes what the ultimate
goal is, win the Big Eight title and
place well at nationals,” Gmeiner said.
Cornhuskers tame Panthers
with 30-point road victory
From Staff Reports
Nebraska’s front line was too
big and too much for Eastern Illi
nois as the Comhuskers crushed
the Panthers 94-64 Monday in men’s
basketball at Charleston, 111.
Nebraska’s centers and forwards
combined for 75 points to lead Ne
braska to the 30-point victory, Ne
braska’s biggest road win since
1919-20. With the inside power
game, Nebraska shot 65 percent
from the field.
Carl Hayes led Nebraska with
20 points, 14 in the first half. Dapreis
Owens tied his career-high mark
with 18 points, including the first
eight Nebraska points of the sec
ond period.
Eastern Illinois led 12-10 after a
7-point run early in the game. But
Nebraska’s Tony Farmer, who had
12 points, scored on a free throw
and a field goal, and the Huskers
never trailed again.
Rich King, at 7 feet, 2 inches,
and 260 pounds — five inches taller
and 40 pounds heavier than any
Panther who played — led Ne
braska to a 39-28 halftime advan
tage. King scored 13 points.
Eastern Illinois kept the lead
down at the start of the second half,
but a pair of eight point runs by
Nebraska blew the game open. The
first put the Huskers up 56-38; af
ter the second, Nebraska led 68-44.
Starting shooting guard Beau
Reid didn't score until less than
nine minutes were left in the game.
Reid, though, contributed with six
assists and four rebounds.
Eric Piatkowski provided most
of the Nebraska’s late damage with
11 second-half points. Piatkowski
scored on a dunk at the buzzer for
the final margin.
The Huskers, at 4-1 off to their
best start since 1985-86, will play
host to Creighton on Thursday at
8:08 p.m. Eastern Illinois fell to 1
2.
Nebraska. 39 55 — 94
At Eastern Illinois .... 28 36 — 64
Nebraska — Owens 9-11 0-0 18,
Hayes 8-12 4-5 20, King 4-7 5-5 13, Reid
0-1 2-2 2, Scales 2-7 0-0 5. Farmer 5-7 2
4 12. Moody 4-5 0-1 8, Piatkowski 5-7 0
011, Chubick 0-0 0-00, Cresswell 1 -2 0
0 3, Lively 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 39-60 13-17
94.
Eastern Illinois — Olson 3-8 0-0 8,
Johnson 4-12 0-0 9, Kelley 1-5 0-0 2,
Rowe 5-11 0-0 15, Jones 5-12 0-0 11.
McKinnis 2 4 3-4 7, West 2-4 0-0 4,
Andrews 1 -5 2-2 4, Martin 2 4 0-04, Leib
0-4 0-1 0, Nicholson 0-1 0-0 0, Nichols 0
0 0-2 0. Collier 0-0 0-0 0 Totals 25 70 5
1064
3-point goals — Nebraska 3-6 (Pi
atkowski 1-2, Cresswell 1-2, Scales 1-1,
Reid 0-1), Eastern Illinois 9-21 (Rowe 5
8, Olson 2-6, Jones 1-4, Johnson 1-2,
Martin 0 1). Rebounds — Nebraska 40
(Hayes 7), Eastern Illinois 32 (Rowe 6)
Assists — Nebraska 23 (Reid 6), East
ern Illinois 9 (Martin 3) Turnovers — Ne
braska 22 (Moody, Hayes 5), Eastern
Illinois 25 (Jones /). Total fouls — Ne
braska 18, Eastern Illinois 16 A—4,213.