Sports
Courtesy of Big Eight media services
Kansas kicker Dan Eichloff attempts a field goal in a game last year. The
No. 13 Jayhawks will play Nebraska Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Lax, rigid game plan
may meld for Jay hawks
By Tony West
Staff Reporter
Although the play of the Kansas football
team has been somewhat of a surprise this
season, Dan EichlofPs kicking has never
been in question.
Eichloff, a junior kicker and punter for
the Jayhawks, may be the best double-duty
man in the country.
He holds the school record for the longest
and second-longest field goals in school
history. His 61-yard field goal against Ball
State earlier this season was the longest
in the conference this year.
Last season, Eichloff connected on a 52r
yard field goal against Nebraska in the
Jayhawks’ 59-23 loss to the Comhuskcrs.
The year before, he gave Kansas an early 3
0 lead that Nebraska quickly overcame in a
41-9 victory.
Eichloff said it would take more than a
strong kicking game for 7-1 Kansas to slop
Nebraska this Saturday in Memorial Sta
dium.
“Nebraska is a great team and always
great in the Big Eight,’’ Eichloff said. “We
m ight have a shot i f we show up and play our
best game.”
Kansas stands atop the Big Eight stand
ings with a 4-0 conference mark, but the
Jayhawks haven’t come within 36 points of
Nebraska in the last five years.
The Jayhawks haven’t beaten the
Comhuskers since recording a 23-13 win at
Lincoln in 1968.
But Kansas — with a 27-10 win over
Oklahoma two weeks ago — established
itself as a force in the conference, Eichloff
said.
“The reason for our success this season is
a real, solid team effort,” Eichloff said. “We
can’t point at one certain person or area,
because everyone has done well on defense
and offense.”
Eichloff said the Huskers’ 52*7 win over
Colorado last Saturday was enough to im
press anybody.
“That game really showed who’s big in
the Big Eight,” Eichloff said.
Although the game will be the Jayhawks’
first road test against a ranked team this
season, Eichloff said Kansas had taken a
“just another game” altitude into practice
this week.
“We arc on a plan and we will practice the
same way we practice for the other teams
like Kansas State or Ball State,” Eichloff
said. “We just have to practice hard and hope
wc can beat the Huskers on Saturday.”
Narrow win gives
Nebraska piece
of conference title
By Jeff Singer
Senior Reporter
Just as in the previous 16 years, the Big Eight
volleyball crown will be worn by Nebraska.
But it wasn’t easy lor the Cornhuskcrs, who
had to play five games Wednesday night to beat
Colorado 15-5, 15-10, 9-15, 8-15, 16-14 in
front of 2,879 fans in Boulder, Colo.
With the win, Nebraska clinched at least a tie
for its 17th straight conference title, and the
Huskcrs need a victory over cither Kansas State
or Iowa State later this month to win the Big
Eight outright.
Nebraska assistant coach Cathy Noth said
the Huskcrs knew Wednesday’s match would
be a battle.
“This wasn’t a walk in the park,” Noth said.
“After wc played Colorado in Lincoln, wc were
preparing for them at their place and knew
they’d have a lot of emotion going into the
match.”
Noth said intensity was the key ingredient in
the Nebraska victory.
“Wc got wrapped up in emotions — wc
started to get emotional and when wc get
emotional wc have to keep it under control,”
Noth said.
The fifth-ranked Huskcrs improved their
record to a perfect 10-0 in Big Eight play while
raising their overall mark to 16-2.
The Buffaloes dropped to 17-5 overall and
7-2 in conference play, with both Big Eight
losses coming to Nebraska.
The loss also deprived No. 13 Colorado from
registering its first-ever win against the Husk
ers. Nebraska holds a 15-0 career mark over the
Buffaloes.
The Huskcrs seemingly had an easy victory
in their hands following the match’s first two
games. Nebraska’s win in the second game was
its 36th straight win — a new school record for
games won in a row. But then the momentum
switched to the Buffaloes’ side of the net.
Colorado went on to win the next two games
by holding the Huskcrs to single digits, but a
Scon Maurer/ON
hard-fought fifth game helped Nebraska win its
14th consecutive match and 55th straight in the
Big Eight.
The Huskers had a. 168 hitting percentage in
the victory while limiting the Buffaloes to just
.091).
But the biggest statistical edge held by the
Huskers Wednesday evening was in team blocks.
Nebraska outblockcd the Buffaloes 23-3, as
Nebraska middle blocker Stephanie Thaler lied
a Big Eight record with eight solo bolcks of her
own.
Thaler’s 21 kills were also a team high, but
Noth said the grueling five-game victory was a
team effort.
“You have to give it to the whole team — it
was a team win,” Noth said.
Noth said Wednesday’s win was vital for the
H uskers.
“This is the biggest win for us on the year,”
Noth said. “Knowing the Big Eight was on the
line for us — it was crucial for us.”
Runner’s Big Eight title win
starts stride toward nationals
By Tony West
Staff Reporter___
David Ilcffa battled competition and the
altitude to grab the Big Eight individual men’s
cross country title last Saturday in Boulder,
Colo.
The win made Ilcffa the first Nebraska man
to win the Big Eight title since 1970.
“The altitude was a big factor in running the
race,” Ilcffa said. “You can’t make surges in the
altitude, you have to run the same pace for
entire course.”
Ilcffa said runners went through oxygen
more quickly in the ihin mountain air, so he
figured out a way to conserve energy and battle
the rest of the field.
“There were runners capable of beating
me,” Iteffa said. “The only thing is to do the best
you can and hope.”
Iteffa, the only top ten finisher for Nebraska,
won the title with a time of 24:49 on the 4.8*
mile course, beating out Oklahoma’s Conor
Holt. As a team, the Comhuskcrs finished sixth.
The win highlighted a reason of steady
progress for Iteffa. He placed seventh in the
See ITEFFA on 14
Magic’s critics send out frightening message
So what have you done for me
lately?
In essence, that’s the question the
National Basketball Association was
asking Earvin “Magic” Johnson when
pushing him into re-retirement Mon
day.
Johnson, the Los Angeles Lakers
superstar who retired from profes
sional basketball last year after he
lound out he was HIV positive, came
out of retirement this summer when
he knew he would be able to handle
the rigors of the NBA.
But numerous critics — ranging
from NBA executives to fellow pro
fessional basketball players—thought
it would be unsafe to other players and
hurt the league if Magic played in the
N B A while being HI v-ppsi t ivc.
Magic, the 6-foot-9 point guard
who is the NBA’s all-time career as
sist leader, transformed the NBA from
an obscure, financially problematic
\
league to professional sports’ biggest
success story.
But that didn’t seem to concern
those selected individuals who thought
Magic should stay away from the
game that he loves and cherishes.
One of those people who has made
it public that Magic’s presence on the
court would be a hazard as well as a
distraction was Utah’s All-Star for
ward Karl Malone.
Malone, who played with Magic
on the U.S. men’s basketball team in
this year’s Summer Olympics, said it
would be best if Magic remained in
retirement for the sake of the players
in the NBA.
But until Malone receives his de
gree as a licensed physician, it prob
ably would be best if he kept his
comments to himself and let the ex
perts decide if Magic causes a threat
to his NBA counterparts.
Medical experts have said that
there’s more of a chance that someone
will gel hit by lightning than contract
ing AIDS through athletic competi
tion, but this fact still didn’t seem to
silence Magic’s comeback critics.
When Magic came out of college
following his sophomore year at
Michigan Slate in 1979, his dynamic
play and enthusiasm for the game
helped bring more interest into the
lackluster NBA of the hHOs.
And he is one of a handful of
people given credit for resurrecting
the league from financial ashes to a
popularity level that can’i be matched.
While I was grow ing up in the Los
Angeles area, I hated the Lakers with
a passion and was a fan of their cross
town rivals, the L.A. Clippers.
And no,I wasn’tmeniallydcrangcd
as a kid for liking a Clipper team that
could be beaten by most high school
teams while the Lakers were across
town w inning NBA titles in the City
of Angels.
But what made going to the Forum
and watching the Lakers play so spe
cial was Magic, whose dazzling play
on the court could only be matched by
the high level of class he exhibited off
the hardwood.
Magic has shown he’s able for
high-level competition with his ac
complishments just this year.
He won the NBA All-Star game’s
Most Valuable Player award in Feb
ruary; he helped lead ihc U.S. men’s
baskciball learn to a gold medal in the
1992 Summer Olympics; and he was
competing in a vigorous prcscason
Laker schedule the past few weeks
during the NBA’s exhibition season.
But Magic, arguably the greatest
player to ever compete in profes
sional basketball, just wanted to con
tribute one more time to the game he
loved so much.
The problem is, it doesn’t seem the
NBA is showing its love as affection
ately back to Magic.
But the scariest message that
Magic ’scritics have sent to those who
arc HI V-posili vc and/or have AIDS is
that if you have the disease and arc
playing sports, then hide it and let the
chips fall where they may.
Singer is a senior news-editorial and po
litical science major and a Daily Nebraskan
sports senior reporter.
