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Jeff Haller/DN
Nebraska middle blocker Stephanie Thater was named Big Eight Player-of-the-Year last
season, and she will try to lead the Cornhuskers to their 17tn straight conference title this
season. Thater, a senior from Union, Mo., led the team with a .353 hitting percentage last
year.
Volleyball leader emerges
All-American senior has experience to head this year’s team
By John Adkisson
Senior Editor
Stephanie Thater sat in the
stands at last year’s NCAA volley
ball Final Four, absorbing the fact
that she wasn’t playing.
She could only watch as Ohio
State — the team that had ended
Nebraska’s season in the Midcast
Regional final just a week before —
got hammered by eventual national
champion UCLA.
"People were coming up to me
and asking me why I wasn’t out
there, how Ohio State could have
beaten us,” §hc said. “I really didn’t
have an answer.”
T*L a •• i ....
i Metier, an /\u-/\mcrican miaaic
blocker from Union, Mo., who is
entering her senior season at Ne
braska, had the answer to just about
every other question that opponents
threw at the Cornhuskers last year.
She racked up huge numbers and
led her team in almost every cate
gory: 426 kills, a .353 hilling per
centage, 28 solo blocks and 157 y
blocking assists. Add to that the
title “Big Eight Player-of-lhe
Ycar,” and it was an incredible
season for Thater, right?
Almost.
“Some people say we needed the
Ohio State match because we
needed to lose or because we didn’t
think we could lose,” Thater said.
“We didn’t think that. They just
raised their level of play, and I
don’t know what happened on our
side of the court.
“But you’ve got to go on,” she
said. “It’s just a memory now.”
Bui lhal memory, combined with
a desire to continue playing
volleyball internationally after her
senior season, will help her push the
Huskers this fall, she said.
With fellow seniors Eileen Shan
non and Debbie Brand, Thaler is
now a leader on a team where she
has always been the understudy.
In 1989, she received little
playing time but valuable experi
ence behind All-American Virginia
Stahr. In 1990, she played on a
team lhal reached the national
semifinals. And last year, she piled
up the statistics but yielded most of
the limelight to seniors Janet Kruse
and Cris Hall.
1 l diwdp uiuu^m ui
myself as a leader, but it’s true lhai
seniors are expected to do more,"
Thater said. “I’m ready to be the
one to put it away.”
Her coach is ready for that, loo.
“1 think there are three dominant
volleyball players in the country,”
said volleyball coach Terry Pettit.
“Natalie Williams (from UCLA),
Bev Oden (from Stanford), and
Stephanie.
“She’s much more versatile than
the average middle blocker.”
Pettit said consistency was the
only element that Thaler needs to
lake her game to another level.
“She has raised her level of play
every year she’s been here,” he
said. “And now it’s not really a
matter of raising her level. It’s
being more consistent”
And it’s being modest, a Thater
trademark. Raised in Union, a town
of about 5,000 people, Thaler said
that coining to a high-profile vol
leyball program and becoming a
big-time player could have blinded
her.
“You come up here from a small
town and it’s unbelievable,” she
said. “But I really don’t concern
myself with stuff like ‘I want to gel
the most interviews’ or anything
like that.”
“I’m just not like lhat.”
Thaler looks at this year’s sched
ule and secs dates with teams that
beat Nebraska last season. Teams
such as Pacific, teams like New
Mexico, teams like Ohio State on
Sept. 12.
“All the teams that didn’t sec the
real Nebraska, a lot of them we play
this year,” she said. “This season is
just total redemption." „
And after this season, she
doesn’t want to pul the volleyball
down. Whether it be in Europe, on
the beach, or competing for an
Olympic spot in 1996, Thaler is
sure she will continue to play —
somewhere.
Thater said watching former Ne
braska setter Lori Endicott play on
the United Slates Olympic team in
Barcelona helped seal her decision
to try out for the Olympic “B” team
next January.
“I used to never think I’d want to
keep playing," she said. “But now I
know I do. I want to play.”
Pettit said she was ready right
now.
“All she needs to do is step onto
the court,” he said.
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