Sports
Kitey Timperley/DN
Nebraska’s Nikki Strieker, left, and Stephanie Thater try to block a hit of Iowa
State’s Stephanie McCannon in the second game of the Comhuskers’ win
over the Cyclones Wednesday.
Volleyball team
halts Cyclones’
winning streak «
By Jeff Singer
Senior Reporter__
It was just another night at the office for the
Nebraska volleyball team Wednesday night.
The Comhuskers beat Iowa State 15-3,15
5 and 15-5 to improve their Big Eight record to
2-0 for the season and extend their Big Eight
consecutive winning streak to48 matches at the
. NU Coliseum.
Nebraska disposed of the Cyclones, who lost
for the first time in 10 matches, in just 58
minutes as the fifth-ranked Huskers improved
their overall record to 8-2.
The Huskers had nine unanswered point
streaks in the first game, eight in the second
game and another nine in the third game. The
Huskers improved their career record against
Iowa State to 40-0.
In win No. 40, Nebraska netted 13 total team
blocks to Iowa State’s one. The Huskers also
outhit Iowa State .414 to minus .070 as the
Cyclones registered more errors than kills in the
match.
Leading the hitting charge for the Huskers
was senior outside hitter Eileen Shannon, who
had a .429 hitting percentage in the victory.
Shannon gave credit to her teammates for
her success in the win.
“I thought I played well in the backcourt,”
said Shannon, who added a team-high 11 digs.
“I have to give credit to everybody for doing
their job.”
Nebraska coach Terry Pettit said Shannon
and middle blocker Stephanie Thaler had been
the reason for the Huskers’ current six-match
winning streak.
“Everybody’s improving, but in the last
couple of weeks our left-side players — Shan
non and Luther — have improved dramati- ,>
cally,” Pettit said.
Another player who aided in the Husker
victory was reserve outside hitter Kelly
Aspegren. The sophomore from Callaway reg
istered two kills in the third game to help the
Huskers improve their all-time Big Eightrecord
to 221-6-1.
Aspegren, who had played in a total of two
gamesentering the match, said it was nice to get
the opportunity to compete.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Aspegren said. “I haven’t
played all that much this year, so it was nice to
go in and make an impact.”
Iowa State started lour freshmen in its con
ference opener against Nebraska. Cyclone vol
leyball coach Vicki Mealer said her young team
was overwhelmed by the crowd of 2,981 fans at
the Coliseum.
“Nebraska’s got a great team and the atmo
sphere was intimidating for my team,’.’ said
Mealer. “The atmosphere got the best of us.”
Pettit said the Nebraska crowds make the
Coliseum one of the toughest places for an
opponent to play.
“This is a truly unique college volleyball
environment,” Pettit said.
Starter faces Cyclones
By Derek Samson
Staff Reporter
Peggy Meyer didn’t let the pressure or her
nerves get to her in Nebraska’s 15-3,15-5,15
5 victory over Iowa State Wednesday night.
The 6-foot-1-inch sophomore volleyball
player from Moorhead, Minn., started her first
game in a Comhusker uniform against the
Cyclones and said she thought she passed her
first test as a starter.
“I think I played pretty well. I wasn’t pleased
with my blocking, but overall I think I played
well,” Meyer said.
As usual against Big Eight opponents, Ne
braska controlled the Cyclones throughout the
night. Meyer said that was important for the
team.
“It was very essential for us to have a good
game so we know that we are improving,” she
said. “We really needed to work on our mis
takes tonight. We weren’t as worried about
Iowa State as we were about ourselves making
fewer errors.”
Meyer’s night included registering five kills
in eight attacks for a .625 hitting percentage.
She also had two serving aces.
“I knew I was doing OK, but it surprised me
to start,” Meyer said. “I hope I can continue
starting and help the team to a national cham
pionship.”
Shocked or not, Meyer was a big factor in
helping Nebraska improve to 8-2.
“Everyone realizes the roles that everyone
has to play,” she said. “The team chemistry is
good and seems to be getting better.”
Strong game needs pitching depth, coach says
oy i im rearson
Staff Reporter
Rhonda Revelle jumped at the
chance to become Nebraska’s soft
ball coach last July.
Now she hopes to help her team
achieve the same success she enjoyed
when she was a Comhusker.
“After 1 played here, I decided that
if I ever had the opportunity to coach
here, that’s what I wanted to do,”
Revelle said.
Revelle, who was an all-confer
ence performer at first base for NU in
1983, helped to lead the Huskers to
their first-ever postseason berth in
1982.
“I enjoyed the support the athletes
got when I was here, she said.
So far this season, the Huskers are
off to a 1-3 start,
wins and lossesaren’ton Revelle’s
mind right now.
“Our primary goal is to establish
my system,” she said. “It’s a time to
assess our talent and see who our
pressure players are.”
This year’s team returns two hon
orable mention Big Eight picks from
last year, Kris Vucurevic and Shae
Sloan.
Vucurevic, a senior catcher, hit
.292 last year, the highest of all re
turning Huskers.
Vucurevic will help tutor a young
pitching staff this year.
Jody Splichal is the Huskers’ only
reluming pitcher. She compiled a 2-4
record with a 2.53 earned run average.
With the lack of pitching depth,
Revelle said the Huskers must build
strength in other areas.
Our infield defense is strong,” she
said. “We also have good team unity;
they have a tremendous work ethic.”
As for the spring season, Revelle
said she hoped to field a “scrappy”
team.
“Our goal for the season is toestab
lish a personality of being scrappy
and stubborn on the field, but relaxed
and intense at the same time,” she
said.
pigEightfootball rallies the good, the bad and the ugly
Now that the Nebraska football
team and the rest of the Big Eight has
completed the non-conference schcd
jIc, there’s good news and bad news
to i rt for the Comhuskers.
good news is that Nebraska
will make a return trip to the Orange
3owl with a 1992 Big Eight title to
accompany them.
The bad news is that the Huskers
will win one of the weakest confer
ences in the nation.
After a horrendous non-conference
performance by the Big Eight’s top
teams — Nebraska, Colorado, Okla
homa and Kansas—it seems the only
difference between Big Eight football
and the Titanic was that the Titanic
had shuffleboard.
The Huskers, Sooners and
Jayhawks have had their difficulties
in non-Big Eight play as all lost to
Pac-10 Conference opponents within
the last two weeks (NU 29-14 to
Washington, OU 20-10 to Southern
California and KU 27-23 to Califor
nia).
Only the Buffaloes managed logo
through the first four weeks unscathed,
but Colorado still had their troubles in
a one-point win over lowly Minne
sota.
A perfect indicator of the weak
ness of the Big Eight is the New York
Times’ computer rankings. The Husk
ers are rated sixth in this week’s poll,
but you won’t find another league foe
among the rankings’ top 20 teams.
Big Eight football has consequently
fallen behind other conferences —
the Pac 10, Big 10, Southeastern, Big
East, Atlantic Coast and Catholic
(Notre Dame).
So here’s a look at how the Big
Eight's men of the gridiron compare
with various conferences throughout
the country.
The Good: The Pac 10 is simply
the best football conference in the
country, as all 10 of the league’s
schools can compete with any oppo
nent on any given day.
The Bad: OK, so there is one Divi
sion 1-A conference worse than the
Big Eighk It’s the Southwestern.
The SWC is so crooked that the
reason Arkansas probably left it last
year was because the Razorbacks felt
left out since they couldn’t keep up
and commit as many NCAA infrac
tions as the Texan schools.
The Ugly: Despite having too many
teams (a total of 12 at last co«nt) the
Southeastern Conference is one of the
top leagues in college football.
The problem the SEC has is that
with so many quality teams compet
ing within the conference, Southeast
ern squads usually beat each other up
throughout the season, making the
chances of a SEC-team winning a
national title slim.
The Spoiled: Notre Dame is a good
football team, but they’re treated as
immortal.
.«r
The Fighting Irish have their own
television network (NBC — Notre
Dame Broadcasting Company) to tele
vise home games in South Bend, Ind.,
as well as a guaranteed spot in the
newly formed national championship
bowl coalition.
Next thing you know, Notre Dame
administrators will ask to have Irish
football coach Lou Holtz elected pope.
W ilh all of the quality college foot
ball conferences in the country, it’s
obvious the Big Eight is a notch below
the majority of the pack.
But at least Husker fans can say
they’re the best of the rest.
Singer is a senior news-editorial and po
litical science major and a Daily Nebraskan
sports senior reporter.
i