Sports
Huskers soar in height vs. height battle
By John Adkisson
Staff Reporter
The Oklahoma volleyball team
couldn’t beat Nebraska Saturday night,
but the Sooners sure had all the right
numbers. #
Like 6-foot-1,6-foot-2 and 6-foot
* 3.
The Sooners, the only team in the
Big Eight with a taller front line than
Nebraska, took the Comhuskers to
four games before losing 15-4,15-11,
13-15,15-10 in front of 3,820 fans at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
The victory gave 22-3 Nebraska a
15-match winning streak and its third
straight 12-0 regular-season confer
ence record.
But it took some persistent hitting
up, over and around the Sooner trees
before Nebraska emerged with its
seventh consecutive win over Okla
homa.
“They’re a 6-3 block, and that’s a
pretty big block to go around,” said
Husker middle blocker Kim Tonni
ges, who finished with with a team
high 9 block assists. “They did a great
job closing the block, and we just
didn’t cover too well for a while there.”
For a while early in the match, it
looked as if Nebraska would coast to
its eighth straight three-game sweep.
The Huskers won the first game in
fewer than two service rotations.
Oklahoma was down, but not out
by a long shot.
“I told the kids after the first game,
1 told them they were all scared,”
Sooner Coach Miles Pabsi said.
“Scared stiff”
The Sooners loosened up in the
second game behind 6-2 middle blocker
Laura Rappard, who finished with a
team-high 17 kills. But Oklahoma
lost an 11 -9 lead as Nebraska stormed
back to score the final six points and
take a two-game lead.
Was Oklahoma out of it yet?
Apparently, 6-3 middle blocker
Grctchcn Anderson thought not. The
freshman ignited a Sooner rally in the
third game as she smashed kills for
two consecutive sideouts with the score
tied 13-13.
One point later the final Sooner
tree, 6-1 sophomore Gloria Holcomb,
pounded a smash into mid-court to
give the Sooners a 15-13 win and give
Nebraska its first game loss after
winning 25 straight.
Nebraska Coach Terry Pettit said
the third-game loss may have been
good for the Huskers.
“We’ve been in a zone now for
four or five weeks,” he said. “To
some extent it was good for us, good
for us to play against a big block ...
good for us maybe to even play four
games.”
Tonnigcs said after the third game,
she and her Nebraska teammates knew
they needed to take control.
“We did not want that to happen,”
she said. “But after (the third-game
loss), we said, ‘This isn’t supposed to
happen,’ and we took control from
there.”
Nebraska did take control in the
fourth game despite Oklahoma leads
of 6-4 and 8-7. The Huskers secured
the win as senior Cris Hall served
three consecutive points for a 14-8
lead and Nikki Strieker notched a
service ace on the match's final point.
Seniors Janet Kruse and Hall, both
Michelle Paulman/DN
Nebraska’s Janet Kruse (left) and Peggy Meyer block a spike attempt against Missouri
Saturday night. The win over the Tigers clinched Nebraska’s 16th-straight Big Eight title.
playing in their final regular-season
home match, notched 18 and 10 kills,
respectively. Eileen Shannon had 15,
and Stephanie Thaler added 12 for
the Huskcrs.
Pettit said the victory proved that
his team can fight adversity and win.
“Great teams find ways to win
sometimes when they don't play very
well, because they play well on the
big points,” he said. “So it was cer
tainly a good effort.”
On Friday, Nebraska clinched its
16th consecutive conference title with
a 15-3,15-3, 15-2 whipping of Mis
souri.
Kruse, Hall, and Shannon each
had 10 kills to pace the Huskcr win in
a match that lasted just 48 minutes.
Pettit said winning the title, his
15th in 15 years at Nebraska, was still
special.
“Each one is different. There’s a
tendency when you have a record like
that to lump it together and not realize
the commitment it’s taken from each
different group of people,” he said.
Ten Bensel takes 2nd
Huskers qualify for national meet
By John Gardner
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska women’s cross
country team used three lop-10 fin
ishes to run away with the NCAA
District V Championships title in 4
Wichita, Kan., Saturday.
The Comhuskers scored 45 points
to outdistance second-place Kansas
State, with 85. Iowa State finished
third with 87 points, and Kansas ended
up with 88 for fourth.
With its first-place finish, Nebraska
earned an automatic berth to the NCAA
Championships in Tucson, An/., Nov.
25.
Fran ten Bcnscl led the way again,
running the 5-kilometer race in a time
of 16 minutes, 54.6 seconds, qualify
ing for second place. Lisa Graham
came up big with a sixth-place lime
of 17:52.2 and Theresa Sidling fin
ished 10th in 18:08.2. Julia Saul from
Kansas won the individual title with a
time of 16:48.
Coach Jay Dirkscn said he was
pleased with the overall performance
of his team.
“We were really the dominant team
in the meet,” Dirksen said. “Every
one ran real well, and because of that,
we won by a lot more points than we
did at the Big Eights.
Dirksen said his team placed all
seven runners before anyone else’s
top four. In fact, they all placed in the
lop 30. He said he was surprised by
the margin of victory.
“Forty-five points is a very low
score for this caliber of competition,”
Dirksen said.
Ten Bcnscl, who won the Big Eight
Conference meet, ran a very “con
trolled” race this week, Dirksen said.
“Fran’s plan was to get into one of
the top spots early, then run conserva
tively the rest of the way,” he said.
“And that’s exactly what she did. We
wanted to make sure she was healthy
going into the national meet."
Dirksen said the biggest surprise
in his eyes was the performance of
Sylvia Veil. Veit placed 17th.
“That was the best race I’ve ever
seen Sylvia run,” he said.
As for the men, Nebraska placed
fifth with 163 points.
As expected, Iowa Slate ran away
from the field, scoring a mere 29
points to easily outdistance second
place Kansas State with 64 points.
Dirksen said he was pleased with
the way the men ran, especially after
the way the meet started.
“The guys were totally out of it at
the beginning and finished very, very
strong, he said. “They definitely ended
the season on a good note.”
Freshman David Iteffa, hampered
by a hip injury, led the way for the
Huskers with a time of 31:38.9 and a
13th-place finish.
Dirksen said he especially was
pleased with Tom Banks, who fin
ished the 10-kilometer race in 32:22.5
to place 26th.
“Tom ran as good a race as I’ve
ever seen him run,” Dirksen said.
The Nebraska women now will
look forward to the national meet.
Things are looking good right now,
Dirksen said.
“We really have some momentum
going into nationals,” he said. “The
girls have been running very well
lately. They’re coming on at the right
time.”
Outfielder signs
NU letter of intent
Nebraska baseball coach John
Sanders announced Friday that Darin
Erstad, an outfielder from Jamestown,
N.D., has signed a letter of intent.
The 6-foot-1 Erstad hit .374 this
past summer with 12 home runs and
65 runs baited in for his legion team,
which finished second in its division
in the stale tournament.
Erstad, who is also a standout
hockey player, kicks for his high school •
football team and runs the hurdles in
track.
He passed up scholarship offers
from Creighton, Minnesota and
Wyoming.
I_ ITrm
The Computing Resource Center is offering free microcom
puters seminars to UNL students. The seminars will feature an
introduction to Microsoft Word for the Macintosh and
WordPerfect for IBM machines.
Lab Location Dates Times
Advanced Microsoft Word for Macintosh
Bancroft 238 Tuesday, November 19 2:30 to 4:00
I Advanced WordPerfect 5.1 on IBM
Sandoz(IBM) Tuesday, November 19 3:00 to 4:30
I
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