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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1995)
___> Sports Thursday, November 2, 1995 Page 7 ToddWalkenhorst Retired Cub can’t ignore ballpark’s call Dunston to Sandberg to Grace. These words once again may be mumbled out of Harry Caray’s mouth this spring as Ryne Sandberg announced that he would come out of retirement and rejoin the Chicago Cubs. Sandberg’s return — along with Shawon Dunston and Mark Grace — may be just what the Cubs need to make it into the postseason in 1996. In Sandberg’s-book, “Second to Home,” he said that the one thing he regretted was not ever playing in the World Series and winning it all. When he surprised the nation on June 13,1994, with his retirement, the Cubs were in last place, and Sandberg said it became apparent that the Cubs were not going to the postseason in 1994. But things are different in Chi cago now. More specifically, general man ager Larry Himes was fired and replaced with Andy MacPhail from the Minnesota Twins. In Sandberg’s opinion, Himes had ruined the team. Maybe one of the biggest examples was Himes not re-signing Greg Maddux after the 1992 season. All Maddux did was win the Cy Young award with one of the worst teams in baseball. Since then, Maddux has made a bid with the Braves to have the Cy YoungAward renamed the Greg Maddux Award. Sandberg began to feel the urge to make a comeback when he watched with the rest of the nation as Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak. “Pretty awesome,” Sandberg said. “That made me miss it.” Then in a private suite at Wrigley Field, he watched the Cubs make a run at the playoffs on the final weekend of the season against the Houston Astros. His decision was made. He sat down with his new wife Margaret, and there was not much discussion. “He’d been busy all morning,” Margaret Sandberg told The Asso ciated Press. “So finally when we had a chance to sit and talk, he said, real calmly, ‘Everybody’s asking me if I’m coming back.’ And he had a huge smile on his face. I looked at him and said, ‘Ryne, you’re going to go back and play.’ And he goes, ‘I am?’ I just knew that’s what he wanted to do.” Tuesday he made it official. Things are changing in Chi cago, and there should be a hew excitement at Wrigley Field next April. “I liked what I saw,” Sandberg said. “The change of attitude was something that I liked. I missed being at Wrigley Field every day, being part of the team, having fun. That’s what I’m going back for.” Welcome back. Walkenhorst is a senior advertising and broadcasting major and a Daily Ne braskan sports reporter and columnist % Jay Calderon/DN Nebraska’s Jaime Krondak digs the ball during the Huskers’ victory over Kansas State Wednesday night at the NU Coliseum. NU wins 19th consecutive match By Trevor Parks Senior Reporter The Nebraska volleyball team took advantage of another team that wasn’t as talented as the Cornhuskers are Wednesday night. But that is about to end as the Huskers prepare to play three top 15 teams in the next 10 days. The Cornhuskers improved to 20 1 and 10-0 in the conference with a 15-4, 15-9, 15-5 victory over Kansas State, 16-8 and 3-6, in front of a crowd of 2,188 fans at the NU Coli seum Wednesday night. Coach Terry Pettit said the Husk ers needed to make some adjustments before playing at No. 7 Texas Satur day. “We’ve been playing very good teams that I don’t think believed they could beat us,” Pettit said. “We haven’t gotten the competition we’ve needed.” In the meantime, Nebraska has won 57 straight games and 19 straight matches. Wednesday night, the Husk ers continued to roll along, holding the Wildcats to a hitting percentage of -.009. Kansas State also made many errors that led to Nebraska points. In the first game, Nebraska scored seven points on Kansas State miscues. After leading 3-2, Nebraska closed out the game by outscoring the Wild cats 12-2 to win 15-4. In the second game, Nebraska struggled. With the score tied at four, Nebraska scored four straight points to take an 8-4 lead. But the Wildcats clawed back on Husker hitting errors. Allison Weston hit a shot long, followed by two Lisa Reitsma shots that went wide, closing the game to 8-7. Then Nebraska put together a run. Weston would go on to have a match-high 16 kills. After pulling ahead 9-7, the Husk ers scored four straight points with Weston serving. It started with a block by Jen McFadden and Christy Johnson. Another Kansas State error led to Nebraska’s 11th point, and af ter an ace by Weston, Toie Young hit a shot wide to give the Huskers a 13 7 lead. Nebraska eventually won the game 15-9 on Jaime Krondak’s only kill of the match. Kansas State coach Jim Moore said his team didn’t play well in the first two games, especially in the sec ond game. “I was angry in the beginning be cause they rolled over and died,” Moore said'. “That was an ugly game.” The third game began with Ne braska taking a 9-0 lead. After that, Kansas State put up a battle. Nebraska scored one point in the next two rota tions to take a 10-2 lead. Two more Wildcat errors gave the Huskers a 12 3 lead, and the match ended with Kate DeClerk hitting the ball into the net. Moore said the only time his team played well was when Nebraska took a 9-0 lead in the third game. “We did some silly things to get down 9-0,” Moore said. “After that they outscored us 6-5, and we made a lot of sideouts. If we sustain that level, we will play better.” NOTE: — Freshman Renee Saunders sat out Wednesday’s match with a pain in her right foot. Pettit said X-rays were taken, but were negative. Saunders also missed practice Tues day. Top running back Davis to test Nebraska defense By Derek Samson Senior Reporter Nebraska fans will get a chance to see the best running back in the coun try Saturday. And it is not Lawrence Phillips, who will return after being suspended for six games. Rather, it is Iowa State’s Troy Davis, who leads the nation with 1,526 yards rushing. Davis said the key to his success was his ability to keep going after an initial hit. “What I’m doing that’s special is that I have real good balance,” Davis said. “I stick my hand out and just push myself up. I just love to keep my legs moving.” Last week, Oklahoma State’s de fense was Davis’ latest victim, as the sophomore from Miami rushed 37 times for 202 yards. Oklahoma State coach Bob Simmons said he thought the Cow boys would be able to slow Davis down. “We thought we had a good defen sive game plan for him,” Simmons With three games remaining, ISU's Troy Davis needs 474 yards to reach the 2,000-yard mark. Only four other running backs have rushed for more than 2,000 yards. Player Att Yards Barry Sanders 344 2,628 Marcus Allen 403 2,342 Mike Rozier 275 2,148 Rashaan Salaam 298 2,055 Troy Davis 252 1,526 said. “But the stats speak for itself. He deserves all the credit in the world for what he’s accomplished. He’s one of the best in the country.” But as Davis creeps closer to the 2,000-yard mark — a feat only four other running backs in NCAA history have accomplished — he still re mains somewhat concealed. Iowa State coach Dan McCamey blamed that on the Cyclones’ lack of national exposure. “We haven’t had the national ex posure we hoped to as a team,” he See DAVIS on 8 Basketball freshmen will play vital roles By Mike Kluck Staff Reporter Basketball fans will have to buy a program this year to tell who’s who when attending Big Eight games. Five Big Eight players were drafted by National Basketball As sociation teams. Oklahoma State’s Bryant Reeves, Iowa State’s Loren Meyer and Fred Hoiberg, Colorado’s Donnie Boyce and Kansas’ Greg Ostertag all made the jump to the professional ranks. Because of that, all the Big Eight coaches said freshmen may play a role in determining the conference’s champion. Nebraska coach Danny Nee said the Cornhuskers’ three redshirt and two true freshmen would have to contribute for the Cornhuskers to improve on last year’s seventh place conference finish. “Those freshmen, we think are talented enough to help our bas ketball team,” Nee said. “On pa per we think we have improved ourselves; now it’s just playing our schedule and seeing what happens when we get to conference.” One freshman who should see a lot of playing time. Nee said, is Tyronn Lue. Luc was selected as a Big Eight preseason freshman-of the-year candidate. Nee said Nebraska’s success, however, wouldn’t ride on fresh men alone. He said his seniors also would be vital to the Huskers’ suc cess this season. Jaron Boone, the Big Eight’s second-leading returning scorer, is back for the Huskers this season along with senior guard Erick Strickland. Strickland has been se lected by Athlon Magazine as first team All-Big Eight and named the Big Eight’s best defender by The See BIG EIGHT on 8'