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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 1995)
Sports Monday, October 16, 1995 Page 6 | Game Day 1 notebook 1= , . g- Nebraska Missouri 157 0 • Suspended I-baek Lawrence Phillips spent part of the second half of Saturday’s game on the Ne braska sideline. Phillips, who was indefinitely suspended on Sept. 10, was accompanied by former Husker linebacker Ed Stewart. Does the appearance of Phillips —who hasn’t been seen at Memo rial Stadium during any of the other three games since he was suspended — mean he will soon rejoin the team as Nebraska prepares for three top 10 foes in the next four weeks? We may find out this week. On Friday, Phillips was cleared by the NCAA of any wrongdoing associ ated with accepting a car and money from the the owners of a group home in which Phillips lived as a teenager. Before returning to the practice field, Osborne said Phillips still needed to get the approval of his doctors, the coaches and the uni versity. A decision on the former Hcisman Trophy candidate’s pos sible return could be made soon, Osborne said. * * * • Quarterback Tommie Frazier’s five touchdowns against the Tigers eclipsed Steve Taylor’s school record for touchdowns in a career. Taylor, who played from 1985 to 1988, accounted for 62 scores, 32 rushing and 30 passing in his career. Frazier now has 64 touchdowns, 31 rushing and 33 passing. “Records don’t mean anything,” Frazier said. “That’sjust something that I’ve never paid attention to. Maybe live or 10 years from now, it will be nice to say that 1 hold the record for the most touchdowns in Nebraska history.” * * * • Junior SAM linebacker Terrell Farley’s blocked punt that resulted in a safety gave Nebraska a 30-0 lead and gave Farley his 13th and 14th points of the season. The llrst ycar transfer from Independence (Kan.) Community College re turned interceptions for touchdowns against Oklahoma State and Ari zona State. * * * • Nebraska’s 57-0 win was the Huskers’ first shutout since a 31 -0 blanking of West Virginia last sea son in the Kickoff Classic. It was the 18th Husker shutout in the Ne braska-Missouri series, but the first since 1981, when Nebraska won 6 0 in Columbia, Mo. The win was also Nebraska’s 17th straight over the Tigers. * * * • Injury report: No. 1 left guard Aaron Taylor rcaggravated a sprained ankle that has limited him in practice much of the past two weeks. Frazier was treated for turf toe after the game, Farley bruised hishand, tackle AdamTreu sprained an ankle and rush end Mike Rucker strained a knee. Osborne said quarterback Brook Berringer, who did not play against the Tigers, was showing improve ment after injuring his knee against Washington State. The injury, Osborne said, was much more seri ous than originally diagnosed. Berringer is just beginning to re gain mobility, Osborne said. “He couldn’t function today,” he said. “He hasn’t run a step in practice.” Notes compiled by Assistant Sports Editor Mitch Sherman and Senior Re porter Derek Samson. Husker defense shines at same By Derek Samson Senior Reporter Quarterback Tommie Frazier planted his name in the Nebraska record book. True freshman Ahman Green started at 1-back and led the Cornhuskers with 90 yards rushing. But Saturday, the Nebraska defense was the highlight of the Huskcrs’ 57 0 shutout of Missouri in front of75,552 fans at Memorial Stadium. “Defensively, we really did a nice job,” Coach Tom Osborne said. “It was really a good performance. Some of the second- and third-unit guys who don’t seem to get a lot of practice repetition seemed to hold up pretty well later in the ballgame. So overall, defensively, it was probably our best performance.” But the offense wasn’t too shabby, either. Nebraska totaled 475 yards, com pared to Missouri’s 122 yards. The Huskers took their first drive 43 yards to the Missouri 3-yard line. The Tigers, however, denied Nebraska the score when they stopped Green on a fourth-down-and-1 run. That was about the only complaint coming out of Nebraska’s locker room after the game. “That4th-and-l was bad,” Osborne said. “Then 1 started second-guessing myself, thinking,' 1 should have gone wide or I shouldn’t have done that.’ But we did sputter a little bit offen sively at times. We just have to take into account who we were going against — and Missouri does have a decent defensive football team.” Missouri’s defensive stand lasted only two plays on Nebraska’s next possession, as Frazier scored on a 29 yard run with 7:08 remaining in the first quarter. After trading punts, the Tigers gained possession at the Nebraska 35 yard line. But penalties helped the I Tigers move backwards, and the drive ended when Tony Veland intercepted a Corby Jones pass and returned it 43 yards. Veland said there wasn’t a better 'time to make a big play than on Missouri’s biggest scoring threat. “We felt like we had been giving up way too many points,” Veland said. “The whole season, people have been scoring points on us. We thought we had a lot to prove today. We wanted to keep them from scoring.” But Nebraska couldn’t manage any points after the interception and again punted to the Tigers. Once again, the defense came up with a big play when Jared Tomich recovered a Brock Olivo fumble at the Missouri 27-yard line. From there, Green and Frazier com bined to rush on all six plays, and Frazier capped the drive off with a 1 yard touchdown run. On the Huskers’ n$xt possession, Jeff Makovicka plugged ahead for 28 yards, and tight end Mark Gilman hauled in a 33-yard pass from Frazier to set up another 1 -yard touchdown run by Frazier with 3:00 left in the second quarter. usoorne said me tigers dctense finally started to wear down late in the first half. “Offensively, we were going against the strongest part of Missouri’s football team in its defense,” Osborne said. “Their defense is probably a solid, respectable defensive unit.” Nebraska drove the final nail in just before half time after regaining possession at the Missouri 38-yard line with only 25 seconds remaining. Frazier lofted a pass for Jon Vedral, who was cutting toward the middle of the field at the goal line. The pass was tipped off Vedral and Missouri de fender Clayton Baker and caught in See MISSOURI on 8 I Women runners first, men second in Texas prom statt Reports The Nebraska men’s and women’s cross country teams par ticipated Saturday in the Texas A&M Invitational at College Sta tion, Texas, and both performed admirably. The Husker women’s team took first place with 44 points. Sopho more Nora Shepherd placed first with a 5,000-meter time of 17 min utes, 30 seconds. Freshman Heather McMahon finished fourth with a time of 17:56. Junior Lindsey Miller’s 18:11 finish was good for 12th place. Fin ishing 15th for Nebraska was jun ior Sherri Elwood with a time of 18:14. Rounding out the top Husker women runners were junior Sandy rein at 17th and freshman Melissa Wilson at 23rd, with times of 18:20 and 18:30, respectively. The Nebraska men’s team fin ished second behind Texas-San Antonio with 98 points. Leading the Husker men’s squad, senior Brady Bonsai 1 placed third, and junior Balazs Tolgycsi finished fourth in just his second meet of the season. Bonsall finished with a time of 24:19, and Tolgycsi had a time of 24:32. Sophomore Jim Vance was 24th with a time of 25:21. Right behind Vance at 25th was junior David Olson at 25:24. Freshman Lou Petricca’s 25:49 fin ishing t ime was good for 42nd, and redshirt fresh man Aaron Sheer placed 56th with a time of 26:00. wUI I YVdlltJF/UMV Nebraska linebacker Jared Tomich holds up the ball after recovering a Missouri fumble in the second quarter with the Huskers up 7-0. Nebraska on guard after hollow victory By Mitch Sherman Senior Editor The Nebraska volleyball team had one eye on Missouri Saturday night at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo., and one eye on three future nonconference opponents. The Cornhuskers, who trampled the Tigers 15-8, 15-7, 15-2 before a crowd of322 fans, experimented with a variety of lineups. The 16-1 top-ranked Huskers, 6-0 in the Big Eight, used 6-foot-2 Jen McFadden and 6-foot Stacie Maser in the front row at the same time with Allison Weston at outside hitter. Mis souri fell to4-16 and 1-4 in the confer ence. In an eight-day span from Nov. 4 to Nov. 12, Nebraska plays Texas, Notre Dame and Florida, three teams ranked in the top 15. “Some of those things we might be able to use down the road,” assistant coach Cathy Noth said. “But right now, they tend to disrupt our momen tum.” Noth said Nebraska would like to use the tall lineup more often, but because of McFadden’s health, the opportunities had been limited. The junior from Dubuque, Iowa, tore an anterior cruciate ligament last season and had off-season back sur gery. She has been hampered for much of the fall, but recorded four kills and assisted on four blocks against the Tigers. , * “Weplan touse McFadden asmuch See VOLLEYBALL on 8 Soccer team disheartened by weekend loss By Mike Kiuck Staff Reporter Don’t tell Nebraska soccer coach John Walker that his second-year program started five sopho mores and six freshmen against Southern Method ist University, which started four seniors. Walker also doesn’t want to hear about how the Comhuskers outshot the No. 4 Mustangs 21 -12 or how the future looks bright for Husker soccer or even how the team’s No. 1 scorer, Jamie Riley, wasn’t able to play at 100 percent health. None of that makes up for the disappointment of the Huskers’ 3-1 loss to SMU, which improved to 15-0-1, Sunday at the Abbott Sports Complex. The loss ended 8-5 Nebraska’s school record seven game win streak. “If we’re good enough to get on the field and compete with them today, then we’re good enough to win,” Walker said. “We didn’t do that, so I feel disappointed. I know maybe long term after I sit back tonight or tomorrow and I think about it, I’ll think we did OK, and it does look good for the future.” Walker said one of the areas he wasn’t disap pointed in was the play of Riley, a sophomore striker. Riley hadn’t played in the Huskers’ last two contests because of a busted bursa sac. Even though Riley hadn’t practiced all week and only played in limited action Sunday, she scored the Huskers’ lone goal on a 25-yard kick off an assist from freshman Erica DcVitis in the first half. “It was a surprise she was actually able to play,” Walker said. “I thought we could use her in spurts, and that’s what we tried to do, use her at 10 to 15 minutes a time.” Riley said she had spent the past week working out in the swimming pool and on a stationary bike to get ready for the game, but she felt she was only 85 percent healthy. Even though she wasn’t at full strength, Riley said she knew she had to play against the Mustangs. “We’ve been working very hard and had a good winning streak, and I didn’t want to let my team down,” Riley said. “Even if I should have rested (my knee) more, I needed to play. It’s disappointing because you have to say we could have, but we just have to keep our head up.” SMU scored a little more than one minute into the game on a shot by Courtney Linex, but Riley tied the score 1-1 before halftime. But in the second half Linex scored nine minutes into the half to give the Mustangs a lead they would not relinquish. Linex is second in the nation in points scored with 49, while teammate Danielle Garrett leads the nation with 57 points. Garrett scored the Mustangs’ final goal with a little less than 12 minutes left in the game.