Sports
Mistakes devastate CU, McCartney says
By John Adkisson
Senior Editor
No last-second miracles or even a
fifth down could have saved Colorado
and coach Bill McCartney on Satur
day.
For the first time in four years,
McCartney’s Buffaloes losta game to
a Big Eight opponent—a convincing
52-7 Halloween day blowout at the
hands of No. 8 Nebraska at Memorial
Stadium.
And after the game, McCartney
offered no excuses.
“Obviously, it’s a real decisive
defeat,” McCartney said. “But I’m
not in a state of shock. 1 watched the
whole thing happen.”
The whole thing must have seemed
like an eternity to McCartney, whose
team had won three consecutive Big
Eight titles.
He watched Colorado freshman
quarterback Koy Detmer throw two
first-half interceptions and fumble
once, resulting in 17 Comhusker points
and a 24-7 Nebraska lead at the half.
“Mistakes killed and they multi
plied,” McCartney said. “Guys gel
frustrated and they do things to com
pound the problem. It’s really frus
trating and disappointing to fall be
hind like that.”
Buffalo senior linebacker Greg
Bickcrt said the severity of the half
time deficit surprised most of the
Colorado players.
“Some of the guys got down,”
Bickcrt said. “I know no one’s been in
that position since they’ve been here.
What do you do when you’re in that
- it
It hurts the program to
- lose like this. I don’t
know if it sets our
program back, but it’s
really a kick in the
side.
Biekert
Colorado linebacker
-ff "
position?”
Colorado didn’t do much.
After Dctmcr threw his third inter
ception of the game midway through
the third quarter, McCartney replaced
him with sophomore Kordcll Stewart.
On Stewart’s first drive, he ran for
no gain, was sacked for nine yards and
threw an incomplete pass.
“When I came in, those (Nebraska)
guys were coming up the field fast,”
Stewart said. “If I tried to scramble,
they were there. I could understand
what Koy was going through.”
The list oflhc Buffaloes’ second
half possessions read like this: Punt,
interception, punt, punt, punt, fumble,
fumble. By the time the fourth quartet
had come, Nebraska had taken a 31 -7
lead and pul the game away.
“They thoroughly beat us in all
phases of the game,” McCartney said.
“They dominated us.”
The final statistics reflected the
domination. Colorado managed only
six yards rushing and turned the ball
over six times while Nebraska didn’t.
But the biggest statistic of the day,
McCartney said, was time of posses
sion. The ground-oriented Nebraska
offense kepi the ball for nearly 43
minutes and gradually wore down the
Buffalo defense.
“You get beat badly because you’re
not controlling the clock at all,”
McCartney said. “A team that strong
with those kinds of players is going to
make a lot of hay in a situation like
that.”
The pain of the loss — Colorado’s
first to Nebraska since 1988 — may
take some time to heal, Bicker! said.
“Now that we’ve been the Big
Eightchampions.ithurlsthc program
to lose like this,” Bickcrt said. “I don’t
know if it sets our program back, but
it’s really a kick in the side.”
Stewart agreed.
“Thai’s how Halloween is, I guess,”
Stewart said. “But I don’t want to
have any more like this one.”
Huskers practice
for future foes
in Tiger match
By Jeff Singer
Senior Reporter
Nebraska used the M issouri vol
leyball learn as guinea pigs Satur
day night.
The Comhuskcrs pounded the
Tigers in a tuncup for five straight
upcoming matches against ranked
teams with a 15-1, 15-13, 15-10
win at the NU Coliseum.
After defeating the Tigers by 14
points in their first game, the
Comhuskcrs experimented with
offenses that Coach Terry Pettit
said would be used against Colo
rado, Texas Tech and Texas in the
week ahead.
“If our goal had been to beat
Missouri bad, we would’ve set the
ball to the left side,” Pettit said.
“We were running a lot of right side
even though we didn’t need to —
we did things that weren’t exactly
used to beat M issouri, but to help us
against other teams.”
Huskcr middle blocker
Stephanie Thaler agreed with Pettit.
“The first game was a blowout,”
said Thaler, who had nine kills in
17 attacks for a .235 hitting per
centage. “We started working on
things for the ncxicouplc of'weeks.”
Nebraska seller Nikki Strieker,
who had 31 assists in the match,
said it was lough letting the Tigers
come back in games two and three
while trying to run different of
fenses.
“It’s kind of frustrating when
you know you can beat a team w i th
your own thing, but you have to
work on other things,” Slicker said.
After pounding Missouri in game
one, the Huskers were challenged
in the next two games.
Nebraska had loeome back from
a deficit of 8-4 in game two and
squandered an eight-point lead in
game three as the Tigers closed the
gap to 9-6 be lore Nebraska scored
the five-point win and the match
sweep.
The sweep helped the Huskers
tic a school record from 1976 as
Nebraska won its 34th game in a
row.
Missouri volleyball coach Craig
Sherman said the Tigers’ lack of
size helped the Huskers lie the
record.
“To play with Nebraska with
our size, we’ve got to run a quick
offcnso,”said Sherman, whose start
ing lineup averaged 5-foot-9, three
inches shorter than the Huskers.
“We weren’t real sharp tonight.”
Missouri middle blocker Yvette
Buhlig, who is considered a front
runner with Thaler for Big Eight
Player of the Year honors, said the *
Tigers weren’t quick enough to
play with Nebraska.
“They were saying to hit it over
our setter (5-foot-6 Cindy
Atlcbcrry)—we’ vc got to make up
for that with our speed and we
didn’tdo that tonight,” Buhlig said.
The fifth-ranked Huskers im
proved their record to 15-2 and 9-0
in conference play, while Missouri
dropped to 15-9 and 4-6.
The Tigers lost before their big
f;csl crowd of the season, as 3,192
ans filed into the Coliseum.
Missouri’s average attendance for
all matches this year has been 157
people.
_ mm —
Travis Heying/DN
Nebraska middle blocker Stephanie Thater hits over
Missouri’s Yvette Buhlig in a match at the NU Coliseum
Saturday night.
Freshman hitter shines during first season
By Tim Pearson
Staff Reporter __
On Saturday, there was fresh
man quarterback Tommie Frazier
against Colorado.
There was the highly touted re
cruiting class of Danny Nee’s on
display at the Cornhusker basket
ball team’s first practice of the
season.
And then there was freshman
Billie Winsctl’s performance
against Missouri.
On a weekend in which high
profile Nebraska freshmen were
shining, Winsett remained a quiet
contributor for the Nebraska vol
lcyball learn.
Winsctl started two of the three
games in the Huskers’ 15-1,15*13,
15-10 victory over Missouri, and
she has played in every match this
season.
Assistant coach Cathy Noth said
she looked for W insctl “to come in
and make a difference.”
Against the Tigers, Winsctl, an
18-year-old, 5-foot-l 1 outside hit
ter from Boonvillc, Ind., did just
that, recording two service aces
and four digs.
“Her strength is in her ball-han
dling. She was very consistent in
her play tonight,” Noth said. “We
were pleased with her defense.”
Despite Noth’s praise, Winsctl
said she only played “average”
againsl Missouri.
“I usually remember ihc things
I need to work on,” she said. “This
sometimes overshadows the good
things.”
Noth said Winsett has improved,
increasing her level of play as the
season goes on.
Winsett has played inallbutonc
conference match for the Huskers
this season.
“Her improvement comes in
practice,” Noth said. “When ev
erybody else is gone, she’ll still be
in the gym practicing.”
Even though this is her first year
at Nebraska, Winsett hasn’t been
surprised with her success so far
this season.
“ Ai the beginning of the season,
coach (Terry Pctlii) said to not
worry about how old you arc,” she
said. “I’m really happy that I’m
playing.”
Noth said she hadn't been sur
prised by Winscu’s success.
“When we recruited Billie, we
knew she was going to be a player
thatcould help us in ball-handling,”
she said.
Noth said Winsetl was begin
ning to feel more comfortable on
the court as the season progressed.
“The more she plays, the more
she’s going to get comfortable out
there.”
~ (
Comhuskers
hoop it up
at practice
By Jeff Singer
Senior Reporter
College basketball practiced offi
cially began Sunday, and the Ne
braska men’s basketball team didn’t
waste any time getting started.
The Cornhuskcrs kicked off the
1992-93 season with their own ver
sion of Midnight Madness, called
“Haunted Huskcr Hoops” at 12:01
a.m. Sunday at the Bob Dcvancy
Sports Center.
The evening included the unveil
ing of the Nebraska squad, which has
been picked as high as 11th in the
nation in preseason rankings.
The Huskcrs played two 15-minute
scrimmagcsand had a slam-dunk con
test in between the games.
For the two scrimmages, the teams
were divided by returning players and
newcomers. The starters from the black
team that comprised members of last
year’s 19-10 Huskcr team included
Jamar Johnson, Jason Glock, Eric
Piatkowski, Bruce Chubick and Der
rick Chandler.
The white team was highlighted by
a 1992 recruiting class that many con
sider to be the best in school history.
The freshman class of Andre
Woolridgc, Erick Strickland and Jaron
Boone practiced for the first time as
Huskcrs, while redshirt Terrance
Badgctt and transfer Tom Best also
played for the first time at Nebraska.
The returners edged out the new
comers in both games. In the first
scrimmage, the black team won 25
23 and they again beat their younger
counterparts 35-32 in the second game.
Jonnson, a junior Irom Elkhari,
Ind., led the returners in scoring with
23 points in the two games. Woolridgc,
an Omaha native, led the newcomers
with 12 points in front of 5,714 fans at
the Dcvancy Center.
Chandler, the only senior on this
year’s Husker team, said Nebraska’s
initial practice went well despite many
of the Huskers not being in mid-sea
son form.
“It went pretty good, and it gave
our fans a chance to witness our bas
ketball team,”Chandler said. “Coach
is really going to stress conditioning,
because a lot of people were sucking
wind.”
Nebraska coach Danny Nee said
even though many of the Huskers
weren’t in lop form, he was satisfied
with his team’s performance in its
first practice.
“We have a five-month season, so
you can’t maintain that lop level all .
year; this is where we should be at this
time of the year,” Nee said.
The festivities Sunday morning
capped a successful day of Nebraska
sports, following the Husker football
team’s 52-7 win over Colorado on
SaturdayrTMCC said.
“The Huskers had a great win this
altcrnoon, and we had a great start to
the basketball season,” Nee said.
