Sports
Fiery freshmen lead rejuvenated Sooners
Kiley Timperley/ON
Nebraska’s Rissa Taylor (left) fights for the ball with Kansas’ Terrilyn Johnson in Saturday’s
54-51 Jay hawk win. The Cornnuskers will try to get back on the winning track today when they
face Oklahoma at 7 p.m. in the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Men’s volleyball seeks varsity status
By Thomas Clouse
Senior Editor
When someone mentions Nebraska
volleyball, names such as Stephanie
Thater and Janet Kruse come to m ind.
However, another group of Ne
braska volleyball players is trying to
make a name for itself nationwide.
The Nebraska men’s volleyball club
has started its first-ever collegiate
schedule and plans to compete against
teams in the Big Eight, the team rep
resentative said.
Jack Macy, a biology graduate
student, said he hoped the team would
improve on last year’s 29lh-place finish
in the National Collegiate Club Vol
leyball Championships.
“This is probably one of the strong
est teams we have ever had,” Macy
said.
He said the volleyball club had
been strong through most of the 1980s.
“But in the last couple of years, the
team has developed a step further,”
Macy said.
The team worked with the Office
of Campus Recreation to contact other
sports club directors at different uni
versities to arrange matches, he said.
Before this year, the team only
played in United States Volleyball
Association matches in or around the
state, Macy said.
“Setting up matches is really on
our own because we have no set coor
dinator or Big Eight division,” he
See VOLLEYBALL on 8
By Chris Hopfensperger
Senior Editor
A blue-chip recruiting class has
helped the Oklahoma women’s bas
ketball team bounce back from last
season’s dismal 10-18 performance.
Freshmen Angi Guffy, Sheri Black
and Mandy Wade were members of
the group that was named the 13 th
best in the nation by Blue Star Report.
Already this year, the Sooners have
one more win than last. With another
win in the Big Eight, Oklahoma will
equal the number of league wins from
last season.
Tonight, Nebraska meets the Soon
ers, 11-4 overall and 3-1 in the Big
Eight, at 7 p.m. in the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
The two teams, as well as Kansas
and Oklahoma State, are tied for the
conference lead.
The Huskers, 13-4 and 3-1, are
coming off Saturday’s three-point loss
to No. 20 Kansas at home.
Guffy, who is averaging 14.6 points
per game, and Black, 13.1 ppg, are
second and third on the team in scor
ing. A total of four Sooners average in
double digits, and Wade is posting
9.9 points a game.
That even scoring has pushed
Oklahoma to the top of the charts in
offensive production. The Sooners are
scoring 88.9 points a game, well ahead
of Nebraska’s second-place 74.2 point
average.
The Sooners, the only Big Eight
team to break the century mark, have
scored more than 100 points four times
this season.
Oklahoma is led, however, by senior
Carin Stites. The Big Eight’s fourth
leading scorer, with a 16 ppg average,
Stites leads the conference in three
point field goal average.
The Sooners and Huskers have two
common opponents. Oklahoma’s only
Big Eight loss came to Kansas State
at home. Nebraska beat the Wildcats,
87-82. Missouri, a team the Huskers
beat by 10 on the road, lost, 74-72, at
Oklahoma.
Nebraska is led by Karen Jennings,
whose 25.9 ppg is first in the Big
Eight. The 6-foot-2 junior forward
also leads the league in shooting, by
converting 62.1 percent from the floor,
and is fifth in free throw percentage,
hitting 81.4 percent from the line.
Nebraska 13-4 (3-1) ppgrpg
G 24 Meggan Yedsena 5-8 So. 10.5 3.4
F 42 SueHesch 6-1 Sr. 6.5 4.1
C 51 Karen Jennings 6-2 Jr. 25.9 9.3
F 22 Rissa Taylor 6-1 Jr. 9.5 4.8
G 20 Kim Yancey 5-6 Sr. 4.4 2.0
Oklahoma 11-4 (3-1) ppgrpg
F 44 Angi Guffy 6-2 Fr. 14.6 7.8 ,
F 43 Sheri Black 6-0 Fr. 13.1 5.5
F 40 Kelli Epps , 5-11 Sr. 9.1 4.3
G 23 CarinStites 5-9 Sr. 16.0 2.1
G 22 Angie Alexander 5-11 Sr. 10.3 3.9
Scott RSurSPCfN
Football, basketball teams alike in bad ways
In case nobody’s noticed, the
Nebraska men’s basketball team is
doing exactly what its big brother —
the football team — has been doing
for the past decade: losing the big
games.
Last season was too surprising to
critique, as the previously lackluster,
basement-dwelling Comhuskers ex
celled to win 26 games and a berth in
the NCAA Tournament. But if the
Huskers want to be known as a power
like their counterparts in football,
they’re going to have to accept criti
cism just like the football team.
After Monday’s 79-76 loss to
Oklahoma, the Huskers are 1-3 in
conference play and 0-4 against ranked
teams, showing that the basketball
team needs the Heimlich maneuver
as much as or more often than the
football team.
But according to Nebraska Coach
Danny Nee, starting the Big Eight at
1-3 isn’t so bad, considering it still
allows the team to reach its season
goal of going .500 in conference play.
Wouldn’t it be great if all Husker
coaches had the same “break-even”
philosophy as Nee?
Take Nebraska men’s gymnastics
Coach Francis Allen. Instead of guar
anteeing national championships, he
could make things more exciting and
say he wants to finish among the top
half of the Big Eight schools (remem
ber, currently three conference schools
compete in men’s gymnastics).
And then there's Tom Osborne,
our legendary football coach, who, if
he said wanted to go .500 in the Big
Eight, would’ve been back in Hastings
15 years ago leaching the fundamen
tals of quarterbacking at Hastings
College, far removed from the now
titled Tom Osborne Expressway.
Speaking of Osborne, he is the
only aspect that is totally different
between Huskcr football and basket
ball.
Osborne is the type of coach, with
his pleasant demeanor and sports
manlike attitude, that you have to like
whether you’re a Huskcr fan or not.
On the other end of the spectrum is
Nee, who is as flamboyant as his
flashy ties, and whose aggressive
behavior is only outplayed by his
arrogance on and off the court. Here
is a coach you don’t have to like, but
must respect, in the same way one
might respect Jimmy Johnson, Al
Davis, Howard Cosell, Benito Mus
solini, etc.
Yet a blatant similarity between
Nee and Osborne is their respective
tactics in scheduling.
Both schedule one difficult team
in the non-conference, and then Fill
the rest of the schedule with Jerry’s
Kids-typc teams and attempt to call ii
respectable.
Football has its Washington and
basketball its Michigan State, but aftci
that it’s a joke. When Osborne i>
signing up the Fighting Aggies from
Utah State, Nee is on the phone set
ting up an exciting home-and-homc
scries with mighty Toledo. Wow.
One needs to attend just one game
to realize some of the other faults ol
Nebraska basketball. First of all, the
breakdown of the fans is easily d istin
guishablc by section, just like al
Memorial Stadium.
In the A section of the Bob Deva
ncy Sports Center arc the fickle stu
dents. In the B section are the elderly
season-ticket-holders who arc afraid
to cheer because of the possible car
diac problems that might follow. And
"in the C section are people too high up
to see anything, and therefore care
more about whether they’re going tc
win the Valentino’s pizza give-away
than what actually happens on the
court.
But back to the students, who can
be amusing as well as offensive,
depending on how the Huskcrs are
playing. This phenomenon was clearly
evident during the Oklahoma game.
When Nebraska was winning, stu
dents could be heard yelling such
humorous things to Oklahoma Coach
Billy Tubbs as, “Billy, weren’t your
parents cousins?” But on the other
hand, when Nebraska eventually lost
the game, such distasteful remarks
f
came from the student section as,
“God hates you,” to Oklahoma for
ward Jeff Webster after he fouled out
of the game.
What class.
One Huskcr tradition that can be
eliminated instantly to improve the
quality of the games is the gymnas
tics demonstrations at halftime. Once
in a while they’re cute, but when done
continually, they’re as entertaining
as an insurance seminar.
One consolation, though, is Coach
Allen, who tends to be humorous when
doing the play-by-play of these gym
nastics spectacles. For example, at
halftime of the Missouri game, after
another thrilling gymnastics perform
ance, Allen welcomed the Huskers
back onto the court by saying over the
public address system, “When the
Huskers come out of the closet, let’s
give them a big round of applause.”
No real Tine line exists between
our “big-game tanking” football team
and our “overachieving, wonderful”
basketball team. The question is, will
the basketball team fans’ optimism t
cross over to the gridiron? Or will the
realization that the basketball squad
can blow a big game as well as any
one finally shed some light upon the
fact that Memorial Stadium and the
Devaney Sports Center aren’t as far
apart from each other as they might
seem?
Sinner is a junior news-editorial and po
litical science major and a Dally Nebraskan
staff reporter.