Sports
Thursday, December 1,1994 Page 7
QB question not yet answered [
By Jgff Qrle»ch
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska football team is 12
0 and ranked No. 1, but the starting
quarterback job in the Orange Bowl
is still up for grabs, Coach Tom
Osborne said Wednesday.
Osborne said Tommie Frazier and
Brook Berringer might have to com
pete for the starting position during
the next few weeks of practice. *
“If Tommie is able to scrimmage,
we’ll let him compete for the start
ing job,” Osborne said. “We will prac
tice and grade them and then have
an evaluation to decide who will
start.”
Frazier participated fully in the
Cornhuskers’ hour-and-15-minute
no-contact practice.
But if Frazier can’t scrimmage
during December, Osborne said
Frazier probably would be available
only in an emergency situation, simi
lar to Frazier’s status for the Okla
homa game.
“A guy can’t miss three or four
months and then come in and start
without scrimmaging,” Osborne said.
“If he can’t scrimmage, I have no rea
son to believe he would be any more
than he was against Oklahoma.”
Osborne said he would meet with
Frazier’s doctors later this month to
determine what Frazier’s status
would be.
In the meantime, Osborne is try
ing to downplay any thoughts of a
quarterback controversy.
“We will practice and
grade them and then
have an evaluation to
decide who will start. ”
m
TOM OSBORNE
NU football coach
“To me this really isn’t big news,”
Osborne said. “Having two quarter
backs doesn’t really concern me that
much. The real news is when you
don’t have any quarterbacks.”
Attitude driving volleyball team
By Trevor Parks
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska volleyball team has
the attitude that no one can stop it in
the NCAA tour
nament.
Last year that
feeling wasn’t
there, as Ne
braska limped
into the tourna
ment with a 24-5
record coming off
a loss to Colorado
in the Big Eight
Aspegren tournament.
Senior outside
hitter Kelly Aspegren said this year
the team’s psyche was improved from
last year.
“There is a drastic change,”
Aspegren said. “Everyone’s pushing
each other... we arc to a point of get
ting angry with each other, and that
just shows how much our team wants
this.”
The hunger for success has shown,
as Nebraska finished the regular sea
son 29-0 and regained the Big Eight
regular-season and Big Eight tourna
ment titles from Colorado.
Junior outside hitter Billie Winsett
agreed with Aspegren and said the
Cornhuskers had their attitude to
thank for their success.
“This team has a definite attitude
change,” Winsett said. “I think that
is what has gotten us so far this sea
Colonials to be NU’s opponent
From Staff Report*
George Washington got by its
first hurdle Wednesday night.
Now, after defeating Wisconsin,
George Washington has a bigger
hurdle against No. 1 Nebraska Sat
urday night.
The Colonials defeated Wiscon
sin 15-13,15-11,12-15,12-15,15
10 to improve their record to 32
3.
“Everything was on the line,”
GW’s Svetlana Vtyurina said. “It
was the biggest match we’ve
played all year.”
Vtyurina had 48 kills and a .494
hitting percentage to lead the
Colonials into the second round of
the NCAA tournament.
GW coach Susie Homan said
her team must now focus on 29-0
Nebraska.
“We understand they are good,”
she said. “We just wanted to get
through tonight, and we will be
gin to prepare early tomorrow
morning.”
But Homan knows that her
team is the underdog going into
the match.
“(There’s) a lot of pressure on
them because they are unde
feated,” she said. “We have noth
ing to lose.”
Homan said her team is better
than most people think, and Ne
braska could expect a few sur
prises Saturday night.
son.
“It’s an attitude that we are going
to do everything we can personally
and as a team to win, instead of just
hoping to win.”
Last year the team hoped to beat
Notre Dame in the NCAA tourna
ment. But the Fighting Irish beat
Nebraska in three games at South
Bend.
Winsett said the Huskers didn’t
want to look ahead, but down the
road, they wouldn’t mind a shot
against Notre Dame in the tourna
ment.
. “We just need to take one match
at a time," Winsett said. “I think that
would be a fun matchup if we get that
far.”
But before that, the Huskers are
focused on their second-round match.
“Were not overlooking any team
right now, because any team can rise
to the occasion," Winsett said.
See VOLLEYBALL on 8
Jeff Haller/DN
Nebraska’s Roquayyah Brown, loft, trios to got a hold on
the ball before Kent’s Amy Sherry Wednesday night at
Devaney Sparta Center during the Buskers’ 91-66 win.
Quick start propels
Huskers to victory
By Pwtk Saiwon
Senior Reporter
It didn’t take the Nebraska
women’s basketball team long to
establish dominance in its 91-66
win over Kent State Wednesday
night at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center.
In the first five minutes of the
game, Nebraska owned a 13-4
lead, and after the Huskers in
creased the lead to 25-14 with 9:09
remaining in the first half, Kent
was never able to pull within
single digits.
“It’s important (to get a good
start) because I’m still unsure of
how we’re going to play at times,”
Beck said. “We don’t understand
that there is about five gears to
every game. We think it’s about
third gear and when they kick it
into fourth and fifth, we’re not
quite ready to handle it.”
Freshman Anna DeForge, in
her first start, provided the first
half spark for the 3-1 Huskers,
leading all scorers at intermission
with 13 points.
See DEFORGE on 8
V
NUfans unite: NCAA volleyball madness to hit town
The fans huddled in the doorway
of the South Stadium entrance on
Monday morning impatiently wait
ing. As the clock inside the double
glass doors approached 8 a.m., the
line was long and wound like a snake
outside the ticket office windows and
into the chilly, late November air.
Soon the windows opened and so
did the wallets. Out came the check
books and credit cards. Phone lines
were swamped with orders, and fans
hoped to avoid being shut out, for
they had to act quickly — their team
had only six more days to prepare.
That’s right.
This is no time to think about the
Orange Bowl. Sandy beaches and 80
degree temperatures still are a distant
vision 31 days down the road. I’m
talking about the NCAA volleyball
tournament.
Cindy Bell, Nebraska’s ticket
manager, said reserved seats for Sat
urday night’s match sold out the first
day they were available.
“We sold 1,400 or 1,500 on Mon
day, and that’s what we expected for
a first day,” Bell said. “The reserved
seats were gone real quick, and right
now we are about halfway to a sell
out with our general admission tick
ets.”
That may not seem like a great
accomplishment to Nebraska fans,
who have seen a remarkable 201
straight sellouts in the 76,000-seat
building just down the street from the
NU Coliseum, but what the volley
ball team has done this year has been
remarkable in its own right.
They’ve had some sellouts this
year, too.
Four.
And now Nebraska has a 29-0
record and a No. 1 ranking in the
nation.
In 1978, Southern Cal finished 38
0. With five more wins, Nebraska
would be the second team to ever fin
ish a season as undefeated national
champions.
If you haven’t seen this team in
action, you should this weekend. The
Coliseum, like normal, will be
jampacked.
Minutes before the doors open —
11/2 hours before each match — stu
dents pile up outside the gates, wait
ing to run to the front row to get a
close-up view of Allison Weston’s
running right-handed slam into the
Coliseum floor amid a group of help
less defenders.
Many times, there aren’t enough
Mitch
Sherman
seats in the house to accommodate all
of the volleyball nuts. Dejected fans
have been seen roaming the grassy
area outside the Coliseum after be
ing turned away at the doors. Some
fans stand and watch from the rac
quetball courts at the opposite end of
the gym.
For the 'season, the Cornhuskers
rank third in the nation for atten
dance, averaging a Nebraska record
3,379 fans per game. Among schools
that charge admission to matches,
Nebraska is No. 1, almost 1,000 fans
per game ahead of second-ranked
Stanford.
It's been quite a season of Big Red
spikes, sets and digs. Saturday night,
the level of play takes on a new mean
ing. No more easy games. No more
unimportant matches.
Everything is do or die.
Forget about the Ameritas Clas
sic; the hottest ticket in town this
weekend should be December Mad
ness. So maybe it’s not exactly like
March Madness. Maybe the volley
ball tournament can’t be seen on na
tional television around the United
States.
Maybe every office in the country
isn’t filled to the roof with tourna
ment bracket sheets and complex
pools. But in Lincoln, December
Madness has a leg up on March Mad
ness, because it’s a pretty safe bet that
this team actually will win in the first
round.
What a concept.
These Huskers will win because
they know nothing else. That’s just
the way it is. They don’t lose, espe
cially at home in the friendly and
overwhelming confines of the Coli
seum — a place dubbed by NU’s All
Big Eight setter and team captain
Christy Johnson as “the most intimi
dating place to play inJhe country.”
“It feels like the crowd is right on
top of you,” she said. “I’ve never
played anywhere like it.”
Assuming the Huskers take care
of George Washington on Saturday
night, they probably will be paired up
against conference rival Colorado,
which Nebraska has whipped in nine
out of 10 games this season.
Coliseum or not, the Buffs want
another piece of Weston — affection
ately referred to as “The Big Dog”
by coach Terry Pettit—and company.
Despite being pummclcd with a
record-setting 37 kills by Weston in
the championship match of the Big
Eight tournament, CU is looking for
ward to seeing the Huskers one last
time.
“Sure, I’d want to take another
crack at them,” Buffalo Karrie
Downey said after the Big Eight tour
nament. “In the tournament, it’s
anybody’s game.”
But even Downey would admit
that it’s hard to win a match when
your team has to go up against a
crowd that’s like facing a seventh
player.
So, give the Buffs another crack.
When they arrive in Lincoln, the
Husker backers will teach them a
thing or two about December Mad
ness, bringing down the Coliseum
roof.
Sherman b a sophomore news-editorial
major and a Dally Nebraskan senior re
porter.
