Sports
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Husker coach downplays Pacific showdown
By John Adkisson
Staff Reporter
A year ago, Pacific smashed the
Nebraska volleyball team’s national
championship dreams.
Now comes Nebraska-Pacific 1991,
and a silent buildup to the showdown
in matches tonight and Saturday in
Stockton, Calif.
Pacific was responsible for two of
the Comhuskers’ three losses last year,
including a four-game semifinal win
that sent Nebraska packing from the
NCAA Final Four.
But Nebraska Coach Terry Pettit
isn’t talking payback this season.
“The key is to be patient and poised,
not revenge,” Pettit said. “You can’t
afford to be too emotional about it,
because it’s a skill sport. If you get
Michelle Paulman/DN
Nebraska’s Nikki Strieker (12) and Stephanie Thater miss a block against Missouri on Nov.
15. The Cornhuskers will travel to Stockton, Calif., this weekend to play Pacific.
too emotional, you’ll be undisciplined.”
Pacific, at 20-4 overall and ranked
third nationally by the NCAA this
season, lost in last year’s national
championship match to UCLA. Three
of the Tigers’ losses this year have
come to No. 1 Stanford, No. 2
Long Beach State and No. 4 Hawaii.
Nebraska, ranked eighth, is 22-3
and riding a 15-match winning streak.
In that span, the Huskers have won 45
of 47 games.
Pettit said that the matches will
help him gauge his team entering
next month’s NCAA Tournament.
“It allows us to play a Final Four
opponent and learn from it without
being in the Final Four,” he said.
“Beyond winning, it will give us the
opportunity to evaluate what things
we handle well against a quality
opponent, and what things we don’t.”
One key ingredient missing from
last year’s Pacific-Nebraska matchup
is graduated Tiger outside hitter Krissy
Fifer, who pounded 21 kills in the
Final Four victory last season.
Another Pacific All-American,
setter Melanie Beckenhauer, returns
from last year’s team and is the “go
to person” in the Tiger offense, ac
cording to Coach John Dunning.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt
that Melanie is the best setter in the
country,” Dunning said. “We’ve played
some teams with awfully good set
ters, and Melanie seems to be a whole
cut above the rest.”
Dunning, in his sixth year at Pa
cific, is 4-1 against Pettit’s Nebraska
teams. The Tigers also own a 7-1
advantage in the all-time series, the
best record of any team against the
Huskers.
Pacific’s dominance of Nebraska,
Dunning said, can be attributed to
luck.
“I don’t know why,” he said. “But
every time we played them, they had
very, very good teams. We’ve just
happened to score a few more points
that they have.”
Dunning said he expects the same
thing from Nebraska that he has been
seeing for the past few years.
“There’s no reason to think they
will be a whole lot different,” he said.
“They have a new setter, but I think
the system they run allows (setter)
Nikki (Strieker) to step in like that
without Nebraska missing much.”
Dunning said that for the Tigers to
beat Nebraska, his team needs to serve
and pass well.
“We’rea really good serving team,
and that’s been our strength all year,”
he said. “And I don’t think that it’s
any secret to Nebraska that we plan to
serve them tough.”
Pettit agreed, but said his team has
not worked on any particular service
receptions this week in practice.
“They serve a tough ball and they
make very few errors,” he said. “Every
team works on that, but we haven’t
worked on receiving any particular
serves from Pacific.”
Another advantage for Pacific is
the friendly confines of the 6,000
seat Spanos Center, the Tigers’ home
court. With a home average of nearly
2,500 fans per match, Pacific ranks in
the top five nationally in attendance.
Nonetheless, Pettit said the Pa
cific fans are not “rabid.”
“ 11’ s a very pleasant place to play
Pettit said. “I think the fans will be
more interested in seeing what type
of team we are this year than they will
be anything else.” —
NU basketball squads to open seasons
Nebraska to use new equation
By Erik Unger -
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska men’s basketball team starts
the season with three new faces and one new
attitude.
The Comhuskers’ three newcomers will
experience first game jitters against Sam Hous
ton State at 7:35 p.m. Saturday at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center, Coach Danny Nee
said.
But he said all three —junior college trans
fers Michael Hughes and Derrick Chandler and
Prop 48 casually Jamar Johnson — are capable
of having big nights scoring.
Chandler averaged 18.9 points per game in
junior college last year, and Hughes averaged
18.9 ppg.
“(For) the three newest players, their prog
ress has been really steady and solid, and those
three guys are going to be an important part of
our program,” Nee said. “How quick and how
fast they mature and get to the level of Big
Eight competition is how good we will be.”
The Huskers’ also have a new attitude fol
lowing last year’s 26-8 finish, the most wins in
school history.
“A year ago it was a group of men, who,
generally speaking, had the bitter taste of los
ing, and there was a certain pride and effort for
a senior dominated team ... a commitment,
‘Hey, we are going to get it done,”’ Nee said.
“This year’s team doesn’t have that.
“It is a different type of team, and it will
develop it’s own personality as we go along,
but it doesn’t have that motive.”
But Nee also said the team doesn’t yet
understand what it takes to win.
The learning process will begin this week
end with the game against Sam Houston State
and a game Monday against Southern Cal. The
game against Southern Cal also will start at
7:35 p.m. at the Sports Center.
Nee said he is impressed with both teams.
He said Sam Houston State’s strength is speed.
“(The Bearkats) arc a small quick team,”
See MENon 8
D(n!i^SamHou!tonSt«irTn!^ov^3^!35 p.m. Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Husker coach says team special
By Chris Ho|ttensperger
Senior Editor __ _
Nebraska women’s basketball coach Angela
Beck sees something special in this year’s
team. *
The players are determined to win, she said.
They’re dedicated to the game.
“Of course we haven’t lost any games yet,”
Beck said, “so it’s easy to talk. But good things
are going to happen to the Nebraska basketball
team.”
Beck’s players get their first chance of the
season to stand behind their coaches’ hopes
tonight. Nebraska will play host to Creighton at
the Bob Devancy Sports Center at 7:05 p.m.
Offensively, Beck said, Nebraska has an
edge over the Blucjays.
“I think we can score on Creighton,” she
said. “I don’t think they can match up with us
at all.”
Nebraska’s inside game, led by Karen Jen
nings, will key the Huskers, Beck said.
Jennings, who averaged 20.5 points and 8.9
rebounds per game last year, scored 58 points
in Nebraska’s two exhibition games. Ihe 6
foot-1 junior will match up with Creighton’s
Shannon Struby. Struby, a sophomore, scored
16.1 points and grabbed 8.4 rebounds a game
last season.
“I don’t know how they can compete in
side,” Beck said. “Jennings has more speed
than Struby. They arc going to have match-up
problems, especially if they go man-to-man.”
But the Huskcrs may have problems of their
own against the outside-shooting Biuejays. Kathy
Halligan, one of the Biuejays’ three-point spe
cialists, averaged 20.3 points a game.
Nebraska shot only 99 three-pointers last
season, converting 25.
Creighton is a lot like the Huskers, Beck
said. Both teams like to run, but the Biuejays’
bench isn’t as deep as Nebraska’s.
Yet the Husker bench may not be as deep as
Beck would like.
Sophomore Mcggan Ycdscna sprained her
ankle in the first half of Nebraska’s 98-85
exhibition loss to Athletes in Action. Yedsena
~See WOMENon 8
NU v. Cflqhton Fri. Nov. 22, 7 p.m. Bob Devaney Sports Center.
PPO RPQ ppQ RpG
Q 24 Moggan Yadsena 5*8 So. 7.3 3.1 0 20 Mindy Handrickson 5*4 Jr. 2.8 1.0
F 42 Sue Hesch 6-1 Sr. 8.0 5.8 F 30 Kattiy Halligan 5-10 Sr. 20.3 7.91
4 6-2 Jr. 20.5 8.9 C 44Kri»Kugal , 8-2 So, 3A
6-1 Jr. 4.1 3.0 F 43 Shannon Struby 6-1 So. 16
] Q 25 Sara Ottringa 5-10 Jr. 2.4 0.8 Q 22 Melissa Sanford 5-1Q Sr. 1§.
..■»»*».■■......■■■»—...«.*.
Brian ShaMto/DN .