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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1992)
NU takes underdog irole in UCLA match Huskersfocus concerns Pettit By Jeff Singer Senior Reporter One of this weekend’s Nebraska volleyball matches will pit a heavy favorite against a big underdog. But for a change, the fifth-ranked Comhuskers will be the latter. Nebraska will face No. 1 UCLA at 9 p.m. Saturday in the Pacific 10-Big Eight Challenge in Los Angeles. The Huskers will open the tourney by play ing No. 10 Southern California to night at 8. Colorado, the second-place team in the Big Eight, will also participate in the tournament. Nebraska, which has already won its 17th consecutive Big Eight title, will try to beat a Bruin team that has compiled a 23-0 record so far this season. Husker volleyball coach Terry Pettit said even though his team is the underdog against UCLA, Nebraska : will give the Bruins a good match. “I’ve never seen us not play well in a match like this—we will compete,” Pettit said. Nebraska outside hitter Eileen Shannon said she doesn’t mind not /C being the favorite for a change. y* “There might be less pressure go ing up against a team that’s No. 1 than a team that’s No. 6 or 7 — it doesn’t look as bad if we get beat. ' “I like being the underdog — you get a bigger satisfaction out of win- s| ning,” Shannon said. The match against UCLA is im portant in showing how legitimate the Huskers* 18-2 record is this year, H Shannon said. in Nebraska at Southern Cal N&XZfZ&LA _ 9 p.m. Saturday Pauley Pavilion, Loa Angeles Nebraska (18-2) Stephanie Thater 6-2 MB Eileen Shannon 6-0 OH KimTonniges 5-11 OH Laura Luther 6-0 OH Allison Weston 6-0 OH Nikki Strieker 5-10 S Southern Cal (16-6) Laura Wamock 6-2 MB Melka Wagner 6-0 MB Kelly Kuevler 6-0 OH Clca Baccelli 6-5 OH Katie Haller 5-9 OH Missy McCaw 5-10 S UCLA (23-0) ... Marissa Hatchett 6-1 MB Lisa Hudak 6-0 MB Jenny Evans 5-11 OH Elaine Youngs 6-0 OH Natalie Williams 6-1 OH Julie Bremner 5-10 S r-i “It will show what we’re made of,” le said. The Bruins got the best of Ne aska last year when UCLA beat the uskers 12-15, 15-10, 15-10, 17-15 front of 11,032 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports Center— the largest crowd to ever watch a NCAA volley torffmatchr--—-—— -—_ Saturday’s Huskcr-Bruin rematch won’t only highlight two of the nation’s best teams, but also two of the country’s top players as well. Nebraska middle blocker Stephanie Thaler and UCLA outside hitler Natalie Williams have led their respective teams to high national rankings. Thaler, the 1991 Big Eight Player of the Year and an All-American se lection last season, leads the Huskers with her .371 hitting percentage and is among the conference’s leaders in several categories. Williams has been named the NCAA Player of the Year twice in her career and is leading the Pacific 10 in hitting with a .437 percentage. Pettit said he’s looking forward to watching the two players match up against each other. “Their (UCLA’s) strength is in their players, and Natalie Williams is a great player, but Stephanie Thater is equally as good,” Pettit said. The two matches this weekend will be the fourth and fifth straight that the Huskers have played against oppo nents rated in the Top 20. Last week, Nebraska beat Colorado, Texas Tech and Texas. Pettit said his major concern for the weekend was having the Huskers not focus enough attention to their match with the Southern Cal on Fri day. The Women of Troy come into Friday’s match with a 16-6 record, and are third in the Pac 10 standings. Two players for Southern Cal—Katie Haller and Cica Baccelli — are aver aging more than four kills per game. “I think the first match is very importanu” Petti t said. “We can ’ t look past USC and we have to take care of business.” Cyclone Continued from Page 10 “We really have to figure we’r< going to get their best shot. There’s n< reason to believe we won’t,” he said “They’ve got a lot of Nebraska play ers playing for them. A lot of thos< kids are going to play their very bes game against us and obviously thej can in some respccif satvafe' thei season. We’re going to get a tremen dous effort out of Iowa State.” At the same time, Osborne is con cerned with t))p tight end position or his own team. Starter William Wash ington is doubtful for the game anc backup Gerald Armstrong is ques tionablc. That leaves third stringei Mike Vedral as the only tight end with considerable experience. , “Thetightend thing naturally con cerns us because those are two reall) key players for us,” Osborne said. Osborne also expressed concern about the ability of the Husker de fense to again play with the emotion it has in the past two games againsl Colorado and Kansas. “ “We’re going to have to try tc maintain that focus this week,” he said. “I have no reason to believe thai we won’t. I think we’II play well, bul we’ll need to play well.” Notes: • Nebraska is 71-13-2 all-time against Iowa State. The Huskers have not lost to the Cyclones since 1977 when Iowa Slate won 24-21 in Lin Daily Nebraskan staffers pick , the winners of the ten major J college football games this weekend, with winners in bold: * Colorado at Kansas [ Oklahoma at Oklahoma State j r Kansas State at Missouri r - Alabama at Mississippi State I— Georgia at Auburn Syracuse at Boston College Penn State at Notre Dame Illinois at Michigan A i Washington State at Stanford Arizona at Southern Cal L % i f j p, Nebraska 52, Iowa State 7 Last week: 10-0 Season: 64-25 (.719) coin. Nebraska won last year’s meet ing 38-13. • Among the 16 Cyclones from Nebraska are halfback James McMillion.oneof the top punt return ers in the country, and Chris Spencer, who ranks eighth on the Cyclones’ all-time reception chart. • Nebraska has not had a turnover in the past 18 quarters. The Huskers currently lead the nation in turnover, averaging two more takeaways than giveaways. Nebraska’s last turnover was an interception just before half time against Arizona State Sept. 26. Swimming, diving teams opening home seasons From Staff Reports The Nebraska men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will open their home seasons with a dual against South Dakota at 1 p.m. Saturday at the BobDevaney Sports Center. Last week, the Nebraska women opened their dual season at Colo rado State, winning 162-138. Fresh man Melanie Dodd set a record in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 52.72. In addition, sophomore Julie Grimmer captured first on both the 1 and 3-meter springboards. The men opened their season last weekend as well, winning a dual Saturday against Wyoming. JN U women hope to generate offense through good defense oy i ony west Staff flaoqrflpr Defense w ins championships. That adage is the philosophy behind this season’s Nebraska women’s basketball team. “We want to have the best defense in the league,” said Karen Jennings, a 6-foot-2-inch forward for the Comhuskers. “We want to win the Big Eight championship.” Nebraska is a team loaded with weapons, Jennings said. “We arc very defensive-oriented,explosive, quick and we get out and run the court well,” she said. “Our talent on the team is the strength of the team.” Jennings isonc of those weapons. Last year’s Big Eight Player of the Year, she averaged 25 points on a team that finished third in the conference. Jennings was the team leader in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and three-point percentage. Along with Jennings, junior Meggan Yedscna is another offensive weapon. Ycdsena, a point guard, averaged 11 points and six assists per game last season. With the emphasis on defense, the women are using a new tactic: scrimmaging against P" W * m -m ^ - 44 We are very defensive-ori ented, explosive, quick and we get out and run the court well. —Jennings NU forward -ft “ men. The Huskcrs arc scrimmaging a group of men on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the last 20 minutes of practice. “This type of scrimmage allows us to have an opportunity to go against stronger, quicker and more physical opponents,” said coach Angela Beck. “The intensity level and the thought process increases just because of the challenge.” With the emphasis on the defensive end of the court, Jennings said the women won’t forget about the offensive end completely. “We have great ability to score on this learn,” Jenn ings said. “We want to generate our offense through our defense this year, though.” iwo tight ends to miss game; wind conditions may be factor From Staff Reports_____ The Nebraska football team will be without he services of their top two tight ends against Iowa State on Saturday, Comhusker coach rom Osborne said Thursday. “It doesn’t look like Gerald Armstrong or William Washington will go to Iowa Stale,” 3sborne said. “Gerald will probably be able to jo against Oklahoma, and we hope William is )ack by then, too.” Husker backup tight ends Mike Vedral, Matt >haw and Mark Gilman will be counted on to :ompcnsatc for the loss of Armstrong and W ashington. —'— “We hope there isn’t that much dropoff,” Osborne said. "We know they will play hard, and I hope they play well." Osborne also said that 5-foot-11,210-pound wingback Vincent Hawkins may also see ac tion at tight end. The weather forecast for Saturday afternoon calls for partly sunny skies in Ames, Iowa, with a high temperature in the lower 40s, according to meteorologist Connie McBurnie of KCCI TV in Dcs Moines, Iowa. The biggest weather concern for the coaches and players may be the windy conditions pre dicted for the game. *‘Thc wind could be a factor," McBurnie said. "It should continue to be very windy through the weekend." ~WUiam*epi LADIES AUTO CLUB You are cordially invited to apply for free membership into Williamson's Ladies Auto Club. 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