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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 1994)
Sports Monday, September 12, 1994 Page 7 Volleyball team wins FirsTler Invitational Husker coach says serving, defense led to weekend victory By Mitch Sherman Senior Reporter For the first lime in Nebraska volleyball histo ry. the Comhuskcrs won their first five matches of the season without losing a single game. In itssixth matchof the ycar.Nebraskadroppcd a game but still rollcdovcrcighlh-rankcd Arizona State before a crowd of 3,281 at the University of Nebraska Coliseum on Saturday night. The second- and fifth-ranked Huskcrs, 6-0, lopped the Sun Devils 15-12,15-7,11-15,15-9 in the final game of the FirsTicr Invitational. On Friday, Nebraska beat Bowling Green State 15-1, 15-0, 15-9. The Huskcrs defeated Wyoming 15-7, 15-9,15-6 earlier Saturday. Despite the lopsided wins, Husker coach Terry Pettit said Nebraska was not playing at the top of its game. “We didn’t connect on middle attack,” Pettit saidd'Wc arc a great middle attack team. We did not connect on blocks, and we arc a great blocking team. And yet we still won. We won with defense, and we won with serving. “It was a real good tournament. The level of play was much higher than last week. 1 saw some good things.” Junior All-American Allison Weston, who was named the invitational’s most valuable play er,said the Huskersdidnolcxpcct to win so easily. “We were real confident,” the 6-foot-3 middle blocker from Omaha said. “We had a real good week of practice, so we came into the tournament feeling real strong about the way we were playing. “But we didn’t expect to walk ail over the first two teams, and we expected a I idle more fire from Arizona State.” With the efforts of all-tournament selections Kelly Aspcgren, Christy Johnson and Weston, Nebraska opened Saturday evening’s contest against the Sun Devils strongly. Nebraska established an early 5-0 lead in the first game before the Sun Devils scored four straight points. With junior outside hitter Billie Winscll serving, Nebraska scored three points to take an 8-4 lead and cruise to a 15-12 win. See FIRSTIER on 8 Nebraska setter Christy Johnson goes for a kill in the Huskers’ win over Arizona State on Saturday night. Johnson, who had 58 set assists, was named to the all-tournament team. _ ASU coach says ‘comedy of errors’ contributed to loss By Todd Walkenhorst _ Staff Reporter Arizona State volleyball coach Patti Snyder said her eighth-ranked Sun Devils did not have enough to beat a balanced Nebraska team. No. 2 Nebraska completed a three-match sweep this weekend in the FirsTicr Invitational, despite losing its first game of the season. The Comhuskcrs defeated Arizona State in the final match Saturday night 15-12, 15-7, 11 15,15-9 to raise their record to 6-0. Arizona Stale dropped to 5-2. “They arc a very balanced team,” Snyder said. “They have got one of the nation’s finest players in Allison Weston.” Weston was named the invitational’s most valuable player. She collected 37 kills, including 16 against Arizona State. Snyder said junior outside h i Iter B il 1 ic W insett was another impact player for the Huskcrs. “She passes, she digs, she hits the shots—she is just really consistent,” Snyder said. Winsett, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter from Boonville, Ind., had 16 kills and a game-high .314 hitting percentage. Besides thcplayofWes ton and Winsett, Snyder said Nebraska benefited from a vocal home crowd. . “This is a tough environment to play in,” she said. “There’s wonderful fan support. It’s loud, it’s aggressive, and you can’t afford to make little errors.” Nebraska was aided in the fourth game of the match by Sun Devil miscucs, which allowed the Huskcrs to take a 7-0 lead. That was the story of the match, Snyder said. “We serve out, we get aced twice and make two hitting errors. We make all of the points for Nebraska,” Snyder said. “It was a comedy of errors on our side.” Injuries cause player shuffling Third quarter injury ends season early for starting free safety By Mitch Sherman Senior Reporter Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne said there were several players theComhuskcrs could not afford to lose to injury. With a little more than four minutes remaining in the third quarter of Thursday night’s 42-16 win over Tex as Tech, Nebraska lost one of those players. rrcc saiciy iviikc ..._ M inter, a 5-foot-10, Minter 175-pound sopho more from Lawton, Okla., fell out of bounds along the Texas Tech sideline while chasing a receiver downficld. When Minter hit the turf and the Raider wide receiver fell on his leg, the anterior cruciate ligament in Mintcr’s left knee snapped. The Huskers’ starting free safety and designated field general—Nebraska’s fastest player in both the 10-yard dash and the 40^yard dash — is out for the season. Coupled with the loss of Scdric Collins, who quit the team last week, M inter’s injury leaves the Nebraska secondary in a bind. “That’s a very bad break for as,’’ Osborne said. “We have only three safeties who can play. Tony Vcland is probably only 85 percent, and he is going to have to play now.’’ Vcland. a quarterback until last spring, will assume the starting free safety spot. The junior from Omaha has been injured twice since arriving in Lincoln two years ago. He broke his collarbone after being penciled in as the No. 1 quarterback prior to the 1992 season. Last year, Vcland shared backup quarterback duties with Brook Berringer before rupturing his right patellar ten don irf the Texas Tech game. In the spring, Vcland switched to free safety and has seen significant play ing time in both of Nebraska’s games this season. Redshirt freshman Matt Aden will play behind Vcland. Defensive coordinator Charlie McBride said No. 3 right comcrback Erie Stokes will move to safely in order to add depth behind Vcland and Aden. Osborne said Stokes also might be used as a backup to Kareem Moss at the rover spot. In addition, McBride said, the No. 2 Huskers probably will be forced to play true freshman Octavious MeFarlin and Michael Booker, a first-year player. Booker, a sophomore, was academ ically ineligible to play last season. McBride said the coaches had hoped to redshirt both booker and Mcrarlm. “It will probably pull both of them out (ofa redshirt year),” he said. “M int er is a great defensive back and a real field general. It’s going to really put us in a pinch right now. “That will hurt us against UCLA. We are going to have to work hard with those young kids, McFarlin and Book er.’’ The top 29 teams in the Associated Press college football poll, with first-place votes In parentheses. Nebraska Is still No. 1 hi the CNN/USA today poll. Rank School Pts. Roc. 1 * < Florida (27) 1,482 2-0-0 i /ww 1mm 4 Michigan (2) 1,370 2-0-0 5 Miami, Fla. (1) 1,283 24K> 6 Penn St. (2) 1,239 2-0-0 7 Colorado 1,116 1-04) 8 Notre Dame 1,095 1-1-0 ?0 WteSnsf? ' 2-04) ft ^ Auburn ^918 24H) 12 Atabama (1) 877 2&0 16 North Carolina 582 1-04) 18 VuJwaTech 473 2?? % ssm. m m | K^oun9 1|| NU cross country teams have fresh look, potential By Clay Short Staff Reporter Nebraska cross country coach Jay Dirkscn has two teams with com pletely different looks. Experience is expected to an chor the men’s team, while Dirksen is look ing for youth to lead the women’s team to a berth in the NCAA cham pionships. A me r i can Theresa Stelling, last year’s Comhusker women’s team finished 20th at the NCAA championships. But Stelling is gone, and Dirksen is looking for a No. 1 runner to replace her. “It will be different this year, be cause last year we had one star and a supporting cast. This year it will really be a group competition.’’ The strength of the wome n ’ s team is youth. Five freshmen, three soph omores, three juniors and four se niors all have a shot to help the Huskers this season. Team captain Kris Ellcnbecker was the No. 2 runner last year but has been slowed by mononucleosis. “Kris is getting back into the run ning. By the end of the year, I look to her to be our catalyst,’’ Dirksen said. Seniors Julie Mazeitclli and 01 ivia i_i Sanchez also will compete for the No. 1 position. “We have four or five runners who will compete for our No. I posi tion. We recently ran a limed trial, and I was very impressed by the results,” Dirksen said. “We had times in our trial that were close to what our top runners ran last year.” The men’s team also will have a different look this season, Dirksen said. This year’s team doesn’t have one star runner; instead, it will oper ate with more of a team concept. “We don’t really have a front runner we traditionally have had, but we arc much stronger as a group,” Dirksen said. “Anybody that beats us is going to have to be good.” Returning from last year’s team arescniorsChad Jansen, Kevin Mill er, David Draheim and Rcnier Henning, along with juniors Brady Bonsall and Mike Myers. Dirksen said the experience of the men’s team could lead the Huskcre to a higher finish than their fourth place ranking in the Big Eight last year. “This is our best team since 1989, not only on the course but ofTas well. They arc as close of a team as any that I have had,” Dirksen said.
