Sports
Volleyball team shuts down Fighting Mini
By David Moyer
Staff Reporter
The Bob Devaney Sports Center
was rocking and the Nebraska volley
ball team was rolling on Sunday as
the Comhuskers defeated the 15th
ranked Illinois Fighting Illini 15-7,
15-7 and 15-1 in front of 4,052 fans.
Nebraska coach Terry Pettit said
he had no explanation for the Busk
ers’ easy win.
“I anticipated a much more com
petitive match,” he said. “Physically,
I’m not sure to this point in the season
they would have played somebody
that could do some of the things we
were doing.”
What the Huskers were doing was
using a balanced offensive attack led
by Eileen Shannon’s 15 kills. Her
fifth kill of the game gave her 1,000
for her career and put her in the same
club as teammates Janet Kruse and
Cris Hall.
Nebraska also took advantage of a
young and inexperienced Illinois team
that Hall said seemed to self-destruct
during the course of the match.
Despite the lopsided score, Pettit
said he wasn’t sure if the match was
the best the Huskers have played this
season.
But Kruse said she thought it was
the best.
“I think as far as playing as a team
it was,” she said. “I think we came
together real well in all three matches,
and when Illinois was down, we re
ally took it to them.”
The match began the way Pettit
had anticipated. After Nebraska took
a 1-0 lead on a kill by Stephanie
Thater, both teams traded sideouts.
After the 11th straight sideout, the
Illini lied the score. But from there,
the Huskers never looked back.
Illinois kept the game close, cut
ting the Huskers’ lead to 9-5, but
Nebraska came through with a 6-2
run that ended on a block by Kruse
and Kim Tonniges to end the game.
The Illini have used the block to
their advantage so far this season,
Pettit said, but the Huskers turned the
tables.
“They’ve won a lot of their matches
on blocking,” he said. “Thater, Hall,
Kruse and Shannon are going to get
blocked some, but you’re not going to
go out and score six or seven points a
game blocking.”
In the second game, Nebraska
jumped out quickly, taking a 12-0
lead, including seven straight on
^ Kiley Timperley/DN
Nebraska’s Nikki Strieker and Stephanie Thater block a spike by Illinois’ Lorna Henderson, left, during Nebraska s straight-set
victory over the Fighting lllini Sunday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Tonniges’ serve to begin the game
scoring.
The Illini eventually closed the
gap to 13-7, but the Huskers were
able to finish them off after that,
silencing the restlessness of the crowd.
Pettit said that because Illinois’
players showed that they were not
going to give up, the Huskers needed
to come out and finish off the Illini in
the third game.
Pettit got his wish. The Huskers
ran away from Illinois in the final
game, 15-1.
“I was pleased that we didn’t let
them in in the third game,” he said. “I
thought that they would come out
with fire and I was pleased that when
you get somebody in that position we
were able to close it out.”
The win snapped a four-game
winning streak for the Mini, who were
coming off a Friday night win over
Penn Stale. But Illinois coach Mike
Hebert said he didn’t sense a let down
by his team.
“It was clear we weren’t prepared
to play,” he said. “I think every team
plays within a range from top to bot
tom, and I think Nebraska’s top is
higher than our top, and their bottom
is not as low as our bottom.”
Hebert said the Illini found their
bottom Sunday.
“This is our poorest performance
of the season by far,” he said. “We
would have had to have played very
close to our top, and they would have
had to be sort of mid-range for us to
be competitive.”
Illinois fell to 8-3 on the season
while Nebraska improved to 12-3.
Men’s tennis bounces back to take Husker Invitational
Staci McKee/ON
Nebraska’s Mike Garcia returns a shot during his match against Iowa State's Mickey Ramsey
Friday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Garcia won 4-6,6-3,7-6.
By Jeff Singer
Staff Reporter
Alter an anemic performance last
weekend at the Tom Fallon Invita
tional at Notre Dame, the Nebraska
men’s tennis team took out some
frustration at the Husker Invitational
this weekend.
The Cornhuskers dominated their
competition in the seven-team tour
nament, advancing a player in each
bracket to the semifinals. Nebraska
captured four titles while winning the
invitational.
Joseph Rahme was the first of the
Huskers to take home a title, defeat
~ ing Iowa State’s Stefan Tzvetkov 6-2,
3-6,6-4 in the No. 1 singles final. He
said he hopes his success against some
of the region’s top players will help
people remember his name.
“This was a really good tourna
ment for me,” Rahme said. *1 hope
my name is now one of the most
feared in the region, and that this will
help gel me a top regional ranking.”
Karl Falkland equaled Rahme’s
success when he won the No. 2 singles
title by beating Tim Deroviaof South
ern Illinois in straight sets 6-4, 7-5.
Falkland said the invite was a big
confidence booster.
“When you win a tournament, it
really helps your confidence," Falkland
said. “This will definitely help me
when Big Eights start.”
The other singles champion was
Troy Bray at No. 6 singles. He beat
teammate Jay Segrist 6-3,6-1 to win
his first Husker Invite title.
After the top two doubles teams
lost in the semifinals, the No. 3 doubles
squad of Todd Broadcrick and Chris
Nielsen won Nebraska’s fourth title
by beating Jeff Nielsen and Mickey
Ramsey of Iowa Stale 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Broadcrick said he was proud of
how he and Nielsen competed.
“Both Chris and I play very well
together,” Broadcrick said. “We got
down when we lost the first set, but
we came back and gave it our all.”
Nielsen said he was glad to win his
first tournament as a Husker.
“This was awesome. I just love
winning,” Nielsen said. “We played
well together in the tournament, and
this has really helped my confidence.”
Nebraska coach Kerry McDermott
said he hoped the Huskcrs’ success
will help his team gain some recogni
tion in the region.
“We’re trying to establish ourselves
as one of the oetter teams in the
region, and I think we did that this
weekend,” McDermott said. “This was
a big boost for our program and will
hopefully get us some respect.”