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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 1992)
Sports r _ . Crowd din lends edge to teams Noisy fans may add point factor By Nick Hytrek Senior Reporter_ You won’t hear Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne asking for in creased crowd noise against Colorado Saturday. But Osborne left the impression that he would like to hear a lot of noise from the fans. “I don’t want to be in a position where I’m asking for anything,” Osborne said. “There’s no question that crowds and fans do make a d i f fer encc. It would be nice sometime to play in our stadium where I thought it was a 10-poinl stadium. That would be helpful.” Osborne said a noisy crowd was a big factor and, in some cases, it was like points on the scoreboard for the home team. Miami was one of those teams that benefited from such a crowd, he said. “I know (Louisville and former Miami Coach) Howard Schnellcnbcrgcr mentioned that he fell that the Orange Bowl, if you’re coaching at the University of Miami, is about a 10-point factor and 1 suspect that’s true.” I he Lomhuskers have played Mi ami in the Orange Bowl three limes since 1984 and has lost each time, most recently a 22-0 loss in January. It isn’t the only time Nebraska has been on the road and the home team’s crowd made a difference. In Nebraska’s 29-14 loss to Washington in Seattle this season, Osborne said the fans played a major role. “I suspect that the University of Washington stadium that night was worth a few points, and I think a fair number of points,” he said. Against Missouri last Saturday, however, the crowd noise didn T bother the Huskers, Osborne said. \ “Down at Missouri the other day I didn’t think that the crowd probably made that much difference,” he said. At Nebraska, it isn’t often that the fans have an impact on the game’s outcome, Osborne said. “Here in Lincoln, I don’t very of ten think that it’s a very significant factor,” he said. “There’s a lot of games when it’s not a factor at all. There’s some games when maybe it’s three points.” But that’s not to take anything away from Husker fans,Osborne said. “Our fans arc good Ians and I ap preciate the fact that they’ve shown good sportsmanship,” he said. - ' oiciu ivrcrvee/uiN Nebraska’s Nikki Strieker (12) and Stephanie Thater attempt a block against Colorado on Saturday at the NU Coliseum. The Cornhuskers host Kansas tonight in a 7:30 p.m. match. Pettit says Huskers can do better Kansas at Nebraska - 7:30 p.m. Wednesday - NU Coliseum Nebraska (13-2, 7-0) Stephanie Thater 6-2 MB Eileen Shannon 6-0 OH Kim Tonniges 5-11 OH Laura Luther 6-0 OH Allison Weston 6-0 OH Nikki Strieker 5-10 S Kansas (17-11, 1-5) Barb Bella 6-3 MB Kim DeHoff 6-1 MB Cyndee Kanabel 5-9 MB Julie Larkin 5-8 OH Jenny Larson 5-9 MB/OH Lesli Steinert 5-9 S w Coach looking for improvement against Kansas By Jeremy Fitzpatrick Staff Reporter _ Improvement. Thai’s what Nebraska volleyball coach Terry Pettit is looking for when his team meets Kansas at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the NU Coliseum. “I think there were some things we didn’t do as well as we liked against Kansas (in the two teams’ first meet ing on Oct. 7),” Pettit said. “Our match down there wasn’t particularly clean. “We played well for a couple of games, but in one of the games we let them into the match a little bit and then we went ahead and shut them out.” Pettit said he was pleased with the Comhuskers’ recent performance — including Nebraska’s sweep of Colo rado last Saturday — but said Ne braska needed to do even better be Iwecn now and December. “At this point, it’s just very impor tant for us to keep getting better and better all the time,” he said. “You have to play great volleyball in De cember, so you need to improve as much from Oct. 30 to Dec. 1 as you did from September to October. “It’s a lot of refinement — but I’m optimistic that we’ve had a lot of improvement over the last two or three weeks.” Nebraska won its Oct. 7 match against Kansas in three games — 15 12,15-8,15-10 — raising its all-time record against the Jayhawks to 49-0. Pettit said he was not expecting any surprises from 17-11 Kansas this lime. “They run a system very similar to Colorado,” he said. “They’ve run it for several years. Some of the people have changed, but the system is the same. “So from that standpoint, we know what they arc going to do.” Three Nebraskans — sophomore Janet Uhcr and freshmen Tracic Wall and Jenny Larson — play lor the Jayhawks. Former Husker All-Ameri can Karen (Dahlgrcn) Schoncwise is the Jayhawks’ .assistant coach. Pettit said those tics to Nebraska “ ft* - At this point, it's just very important for us to keep getting better and better all the time. Pettit Nil volleyball coach -99 ~ would work to the Jayhawks’ advan tage. “I think they have a lot ol pride,” he said. “Their assistant coach is one of the greatest players ever to play here — her jersey is retired. “She has a lot of pride, and I think they will want to play hard for her if nothing else.” Kansas player sees pal on other side of net By Tim Pearson Staff Reporter_ Tonight against Nebraska, Kansas outside hillcr/middlc blocker Jenny Larson will becoming home and see ing an old friend in the process. Larson, a freshman from Millard North, will be reunited with former high school teammate and current Cornhuskcr Christy Johnson in tonight’s 7:30 match at the NU Coli seum. The Jay hawks, 17-11 and 1-5 in Ihc Big Eight, will try to bring the Huskers’ 53-game conference streak to a hall. Earlier this season, the two teams met in Lawrence, Kan.,and the Husk ers prevailed in a 15-12, 15-8, 15-10 win. Larson said in that match, she ex perienced something different than what she was used to. “It was weird seeing Christy on the other side of the net,” she said. “1 tried to concentrate on my game.” Larson has gained a starting spot in the Jayhawks’ lineup. Her coach, Frankie Albitz, said he had been pleased with Larson’s play. “She’s done a real good job,” she said. “She’sa tremendous athlete with a great attitude.” In the first match against Nebraska, Larson recorded ten kills and a .147 hitting percentage. In high school, Larson set many records, including the record for kills in a season with 355 and digs in a season and career. Larson said lhai Johnson had been a good influence for her. “I really looked up lo her,” she said. “She was always the hardest working player.” Larson and Johnson teamed up one more lime last summer in the Comhusker State Games. “I noticed that Christy had stepped up a level, with a year of college behind her,” Larson said. “It was fun lo hit off of her sets. “I hope to have the same kind of improvement after a year in college.” McCartney and Bundy—separated at birth? — The comparison dawned on me sometime during Christmas break. I was relaxing al home, remote control in hand, flipping back and forth between the end of the Block buster Bowl and a rerun of Fox’s “Married ... With Children.” Just as Alabama was finishing off Colorado in a 30-25 victory, Al Bundy was about ready to take his family to bask in the air conditioning of a gro cery store. Click. Bill McCartney. Click. Al Bundy. And then — click! — it came to me: They’re one and the same. You can see the similarity easily by looking al them: Both arc average, ordinary guys. It’s easy to visualize each wearing a seed cap at the local coffee shop talking about the sky rockcling price of sorghum. Bui beyond ihc facial similarities, each has a big week ahead of him. This week, A1 (played by actor Ed O’Neill) will be dealing with hisdilzy kids or taking care of the brat that his John Adkisson wife’s relatives dropped off at their front door. McCartney, meanwhile, will be readying his eighth-ranked Buffaloes for their Saturday showdown against Nebraska at Memorial Stadium. A! has a job selling shoes. Bill will be trying to sell the lact— as he was to Big Eight sportswriters on Monday—that his team is banged up and that he doesn’t know if his Buffs arc “playing as good as we have to play to beat Nebraska.” Sorry, Al — cr, Bill — but we’ve heard that same song the last three years. Because his show is one of the funniest and lewdest on the air, Al has become one of the most popular guys on television. Because of the Buffs’ recent suc cess, McCartney has become a star in his own right. Al is surrounded by lop-notch ac tors and actresses like Christina Applegate, who plays Bundy’s daugh ter. McCartney, too, has been able to attract quality people. His list of re cruits includes brilliant guys like full back James Hill, who says in the Colorado media guide that he would have loved to live in the Stone Age “so I could live in a cave.” And then there’s Buffalo freshman offensive lineman Chad Hammond, who wanted to be the “guy on the road crew that turns the slow-stop sign” when he was younger. A1 has wacky neighbors. Bill has odd neighbors like Ne braska coach Tom Osborne, who is allowing starting quarterback Tommie Frazier to stay silent until he barks out the first signals of the Colorado game. It seems strange that Osborne is letting Frazier escape the glare of the pregame media,especially with other big contests — Kansas, Oklahoma and a bowl — not that far down the road. A1 was a former high school foot ball star and thinks back to his glory days regularly. Bill graduated from Riverview High School in Riverview, Mich., and earned letters in 11 sports. He was captain of both the football and bas See MCCARTNEY on 12