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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1994)
V Sports Monday, December 5, 1994 Page 7 No. 1 Huskers sweep George Washington Colorado to be NU’s next foe in NCAA meet By Mitch Sherman Senior Reporter The Nebraska volleyball team be gan the 1994 NCAA tournament with a bang on Saturday night at the NU Coliseum. The No. 1 Cornhuskers, 30-0, kicked off the tournament with their 25th sweep of the year, but the 17 15, 15-9, 15-8 victory over 32-4 George Washington was far from easy. Nebraska will play Colorado in a 6 p.m. match on Friday. Tickets for the NCAA Mideast Regional will go on sale today at 8 a.m. at the South Stadium ticket office. The first game, perhaps the most thrilling of the year, was played be fore what Nebraska coach Terry Pettit said was the loudest crowd to see the Huskers play in the last 15 years. After 45 minutes of digs, spikes and sets, Nebraska prevailed 17-15. But even the score doesn’t do the opening game justice. “It was a critical game for the match,” George Washington coach Susie Homan said. “I felt strongly that we needed to have a good show ing there. We really, really wanted to win that game.” Playing before a crowd of 4,218, the Colonials nearly did win the first game. E ! No team led by more than four points the entire game, and all signs indicated a battle when Nebraska outside hitter Billie Winsett rejected George Washington middle blocker Svetlana Vtyurina to tie the game at 3. Vtyurina, a 6-foot-4 native of Moscow, registered 48 kills — an NCAA tournament record — against Wisconsin on Wednesday in the first round of the tournament. Four times in the first game alone, Vtyurina was blocked. See WIN on 8 Shaun Sartln/DT Nebraska middle blocker Petty Meyer blocks a kill attempts by George Washington’s Ste fanle Francis Saturday night. Nebraska, 30-0, will play Colorado on Friday. Colonials proud of tough season, despite defeat By Trevor Park* Staff Reporter The best season in George Wash ington volleyball history came to an end Saturday night at Nebraska, but the Colonials proved they were no fluke. Coach Susie Homan said because of the team’s low seed in the NCAA tournament, many people didn't think the 32-4 Colonials could give the top-ranked Cornhuskers a battle. Homan’s Colonial team proved everybody wrong. Nebraska had to fight off George Washington, winning a tough three game match, 17-15, 15-9, 15-8. “It’s a tremendous lift for our pro gram,” Homan said, “coming in and playing in this type of environment against the No. 1 team in the coun try, really realizing and stepping on the court playing very competitively.” Last season, the Colonials lost to eventual national champion Long Beach State in the second round. Homan said the Huskers still had some work to do if they wanted to achieve what the 49ers accomplished I last year. “They have their work cut out for them,” Homan said. “They have proved themselves to this point, and they need to continue to play at a very high level. There are a few roadblocks ahead of them.” On Saturday, the Huskers cleared one major roadblock, George Washington’s 6-foot-4 Svetlana Vtyurina from Moscow. Vtyurina was coming off a 48-kill match in a five-game victory over Wisconsin, which set an NCAA tour nament record for kills in a match. Vtyurina had some success against the Huskers, getting 25 kills, but Nebraska’s blocking was a key fac tor in forcing her to make 16 hitting errors, she said. See GW on 8 Wrestling team loses 6 matches to Cyclones By Clay Short Staff Reporter Nebraska wrestling coach Tim Neumann thought Nebraska’s first dual of the season against Iowa State would come down to the last match at heavyweight. Unfortunately for the Comhuskers, the outcome was al ready decided before the heavy weights took the mat. The Cyclones stunned the Husk ers by winning six of 11 matches, two by pins. Nebraska’s Kenny Mbah was pinned at 190 pounds, and Joe Stephens also was pinned 3:42 into his match at 142. “I thought we were doing fine, then the pin at 142 was really unex pected,” Neumann said. “After that, I still thought we could win any of the next five.” Three of the last four matches had to be decided in sudden-death over time. Heavyweight Tolly Thompson was the lone Husker winner in "the extra period. The highlight of the night was at 167 pounds, when Chad Nelson met Cyclone freshman Sirrel Gissendanner. Nelson, coming back from a torn anterior cruciate liga ment, placed fourth at last week’s Mat Town Invitational in Lock Haven, Pa., and is ranked 10th nationally. Gissendanner came to Lincoln look ing for his 15th win. Nelson was down 6-2 before ral lying in the third period. At the end of regulation, the score was knotted at 8-8. After both were awarded stall ing points, Gissendanner took the leg of Nelson, giving him two points for an 11-9 overtime win. “That was a tough match, and it’s a tough loss for Chad. (Gissendanner) took a quick shot of oxygen, and that was all he needed,” Neumann said. “I’m not saying that is why Chad lost, but that’s not how that stuff is sup posed to be used.” Neumann said Nelson’s loss at 167 was a major blow. “The losses at 158 and 167 hurt us,” Neumann said. “Going into a match, you kind of figure what will happen; when that doesn’t happen, it really hurts.” Husker senior Steve Baer contin ued to impress, dominating Cyclone freshman Dwight Henson. Baer col lected three takedowns and allowed only one, notching his 14th win of the year. “Steve wrestled very well; he had a big match,” Neumann said. “When the new rankings come out, he will probably be No. 4; Henson should be No. 7. That’s a very big win.” Pep talk lifts Huskers to title By Mitch Sherman Senior Reporter Timely defense and hot shoot ing carried the Nebraska men's basketball team to a 98-72 victory over Idaho State on Saturday af ternoon in the championship game of the Ameritas Classic. The Cornhuskers, who won their seventh consecutive Ameritas Classic, earned the right to play in the final by defeating Morehead State 96-55 on Friday night. Playing before a crowd of 10,075 at the Bob Devancy Sports Center, Nebraska, 4-1, was paced by Erick Strickland. The junior guard scored 23 points, grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, dished out six assists and had six steals against 3-1 Idaho State. . But Strickland’s effect on the rest of the team’s mental state may have been just as important to the game’s outcome. During an early second-half Idaho State run, Strickland said he became disenchanted with the Huskers’ lackluster play. “I just got really upset,” said Strickland, who was unanimously chosen as the tournament’s most valuable player. “I just made it known to the team that we were in a hole.” 7 just got really upset. I just made it known to the team that we were in a hole. ” m ERICK STRICKLAND NU junior guard It has been an objective of this team, he said, to treat each half as a separate contest. “We were losing,” Strickland said. “The second half starts, it’s 0-0. I kept telling the team that we were losing this half.” During the Bengals’ run, in which they outscored Nebraska 9 2 in the first 4:15 of the second half, the Huskers’ intensity level was down, Strickland said: “We have got to step up defen sively, ajxf everything else will fell into place.” The period of time to which Strickland was referring began with a free throw by Bengal for ward Donell Morgan to open the second half. Strickland answered with a jumper, but Idaho State scored the next eight points to cut Nebraska’s lead to 55-48. “I don’t think we put 40 min utes together,” Nebraska coach Danny Nee said, “but I thought we played real solid basketball for ex tended periods of time.” In the first half, Idaho State played the Huskers closely until Jason Glock hit a three-pointer to spark an 18-8 Nebraska run. By the time the Bengals recovered, the Huskers were leading 42-25 with 4:11 left to play in the first half. Included in the Huskers’ spurt were two free throws by guard Tom Wald as a result of a techni cal foul on Idaho State coach Herb Williams. Williams received the penalty after arguing with the ref erees at the 8:04 point in the first half. Nebraska held on to that mo mentum for the rest of the half and went to the locker room with a 53 39 lead. See AMERITAS on 8