Sports
Tuesday, November 7, 1995 Page 7
Derek Samson
Virginia win
may dampen
Husker hopes
When the polls came out Sun
day, I felt even more confident about
the prediction I made after Virginia
upset Florida State 33-28 Thursday
night.
The only team hurt worse than
Nebraska by the upset was Florida
State.
Nebraska gained most or the
Seminoles’ first-place votes to take
a commanding lead, but Ohio State
jumped into second.
The only other undefeated team
left is Florida, the team Ohio State
leapfrogged — and the team
Comhusker fans now must pledge
as their second-favorite team.
If Florida beats Florida State
Nov. 25, and then beats its oppo
nent in the Southeastern Confer
ence Championship game, then the
national champion will be the win
ner of the Florida-Nebraska game
in the Fiesta Bowl.
But if Florida State beats Florida,
it’s bad news for the Huskers.
Nebraska, if it beats Kansas and
Oklahoma, needs to beat an unde
feated team in the Fiesta Bowl to
gain an overwhelming number of
votes to Finish ahead of Ohio State.
Ifthe Huskers beat Notre Dame,
Tennessee or even Northwestern in
the Fiesta Bowl, it will be looked at
as equally difficult as Ohio State’s
probable win over Southern Cali
fornia in the Rose Bowl.
But an undefeated Florida in the
Fiesta Bowl would be a team that
had beaten Auburn, Tennessee,
Florida State and the SEC West
Champion (probably Arkansas).
If Nebraska can beat a team l ike
that, then Ohio State can give former
Penn State quarterback Kerry
Collins a call and ask him the most
effective ways to continually whine
on national television.
And Ohio State will be left with
the same results—a No. 2 ranking.
Penn State had no way to back
its cries last year, and — if the
Huskers would beat Florida in the
Fiesta—the Buckeyes would be in
the same boat sailing away on tears.
But the voters already have be
gun to show support to get Ohio
State in position for at least a split.
All they need is something to back
them up—like Nebraska beating a
questionable opponent in the Fiesta
Bowl.
Nebraska needed either Florida
or Florida State. Because of Thurs
day night’s contest, it may get nei
ther.
So if this whole thing plays out
the wrong way for the Huskers,just
look back to Nov. 2.
How much did you pray that
Florida State would not get in on
the last play of the game? How
many people did you give high
fives to when Warrick Dunn was
stopped inches short of the goal
line?
Now, how many people would
you complain to if Nebraska had to
split, or worse, lose the national
title after a Fiesta Bowl win?
✓ But it was still great to see Florida
State lose.
Samson is a senior news-editorial
major and a Dally Nebraskan senior
sports reporter and columnist.
NU fired up for No. 13 Notre Dame
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
The Nebraska volleyball team may
not know how to react if it loses a
game during tonight’s 7:30 match
against 13th
ranked Notre
Dame at the NU
Coliseum.
Seventy-three
days ago, the
Comhuskerslosta
game. Since then,
they have won 60
straight.
The Fighting
Irish, 22-5, present
No. 1 Nebraska with perhaps its big
gest obstacle since a four-game loss to
Stanford on Aug. 25 in the season’s
second match.
“Notre Dame is a solid team,”
Husker coach Terry Pettit said. “Their
strength is on their left side and in their
outside hitters. They are one of the top
programs in the country. We sched
uled this match so we would have a
tough match in November.”
Actually, Nebraska was supposed
to have three tough matches in No
vember. Saturday, the 21 -1 Huskers
visited Austin, Texas, home of sev
enth-ranked Texas. Nebraska pounded
the Longhorns 15-4, 15-13, 15-4.
“We were all really pumped to
play,” said sophomore outside hitter
Lisa Reitsma, who was Nebraksa’s
most potent offensive weapon against
Texas with 19 kills and a .485 hitting
percentage. “I think it just brought out
the best in us.”
Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum,
No. 3 Florida will provide the Husk
ers with another NCAA Tournament
style match. The 27-0 Gators—along
with second-ranked Hawaii—are the
only undefeated Division I teams.
“We are playing better competi
tion,” Reitsma said, “so we are going
to be playing better. We are still get
better and we are improving every
game.”
Nebraska last played Notre Dame
on Dec. 5, 1993, a second-round
NCAA Tournament match won in
three games by the Irish in South Bend,
Ind. The Huskers lost in four games to
Notre Dame earlier that same season
in the Notre Dame Invitational, but
Nebraska has won each of the other
three matches between the two teams.
Notre Dame, which practiced at
the Coliseum on Monday night, will
be familiar with its surroundings. The
Irish, 33-4 a year ago, lost to Penn
State in the semifinals of the NCAA
Tournament Mideast Regional at the
Coliseum last December. The next
day, Penn State ended Nebraska’s sea
son.
“Notre Dame has a team very simi
lar to what they had (in 1993),” Pettit
said. “It’s a very good ball handling
team.”
Notre Dame sophomore Carey May
is the nation’s seventh-leading setter,
averaging 13.55 set assists a game.
She is one of only 13 setters in the
country averaging more set assists a
game than Husker All-American
Christy Johnson.
“The better the teams we play, the
longer we have to play at a high level,”
Pettit said. “One of our goals will be to
not let them get into the match.”
Jon Waller/DN
Nebraska center Pyra Aarden participates in a passing drill with UNL sophomore Robert
Bell, who practices with a team against the Huskers.
Women’s basketball optimistic
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter “
The final Big Eight women’s
basketball trophy will be a heavily
coveted piece of hardware this year,
and Coach Angela Beck’s Nebraska
team is ready to go out in style by
dethroning the three-time defend
ing champion Colorado Buffaloes.
Beck and the Huskers are opti
mistic, to say the least, about this
season ’ s prospects. Nebraska opens
its exhibition season tonight at 7
with a game against Athletes in
Action at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center.
“It’s still too early to look at
rankings,” senior center Pyra
Aarden said. “But every team in the
conference has the potential to do
great things. Anyone who puts out
the effort can compete in this league.
“I want my senior year to be the
best one yet. This will be the last
Big Eight ring anyone will get to
wear.”
The Huskers definitely have the
tools to improve. All five starters
return from last year’s 13-14 team.
Beck said that Aarden would be
counted on much more this year.
“We really want to establish Pyra
inside this year,” Beck said. “Last
year we relied on our guards to take
too many shots.”
Feeding the ball into the 6-foot
4 Aarden will be the job of sopho
more guard Anna DeForge and se
nior guard Kate Galligan.
Last season, DeForge combined
with Galligan to average 23.1 points
a game.
Junior college transfer LaToya
Doage is expected to provide the
Huskers with the true point guard
they lacked last season.
The dominant feeling at the con
ference media day held Oct. 30 in
Kansas City, however, was that
Colorado would be the team to beat.
The preseason coaches poll lists
the Buffaloes as No. 1, followed by
Kansas, Oklahoma State, Okla
homa, Nebraska, Kansas State,
See BASKETBALL on 8
Phillips’performance shows absence
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
With 10:13 remaining in the first
quarter, Lawrence Phillips appeared
in a game at Memorial Stadium for the
first time since Nov. 5,1994.
Phillips, who was reinstated to the
Nebraska football team Oct. 24, re
turned to the playing field to a warm
reception from the 75,505 fans at
Memorial Stadium.
“I was trying to block it out be
cause I didn’t know what to expect,”
Phillips said. “I was blocking out as I
went into the game, but I didn’t notice
what happened.”
Once play began against Iowa State
Saturday, Phillips said he pictured
himself taking the ball in from the
Iowa State 25-yard line to the end
zone, but that didn’t happen. His first
carry was only for 2 yards.
But Phillips said his main goal now
was to use his 12-carry, 68-yard, one
touchdown performance to see where
he was after not playing in a game
since Sept. 9 at Michigan State.
“I just wanted to see how my con
ditioning was and how I moved on the
field; there is a big difference from the
game than in practice,” Phillips said.
“In practice I felt pretty good, but it
was nowhere near that today.
“I felt tired after a few carries, and
I wasn’t in the same shape that I was
before I was suspended.”
• Coach Tom Osborne said Phillips
looked like a player who hadn’t played
in five or six weeks.
“Hopefully he’ll return to some
where near where he was before,”
Osborne said. “He was a great back,
about as good as we’ve ever had here,
and you just can’t take that much time
off and not have it affect you.”
Running backs coach Frank Solich
agreed and said this would be a good
measuring stick to see where Phillips
was after nis long absence.
“I thought it was a good working
day for him,” Solich said. “He got
enough carries to where we can start
to feel where he is at and where we feel
he should be to get in great playing
shape again.”
Phillips showed exactly where he
was in the third quarter.
~ See PHILLIPS on 8
Fraziers
soreness
not a clot
From Staff Reports
As a precautionary measure, Ne
braska quarterback Tommie Frazier
visited Dr. Decpak Gangahar Mon
day to make sure the soreness in
Frazier’s leg wasn’t a recurrence of
blood clots that sidelined the Heisman
Trophy candidate last season.
Comhusker coach Tom Osborne
said Gangahar, who treated Frazier
last season, reported that the soreness
in Frazier’s leg was muscular and not
intravenous. Osborne said Frazier
would be fine, even though he sat out
Monday’s practice.
“He doesn’t even know when it
happened,” Osborne said. “It might
have been while he was running. Half
our injuries (the players) don’t even
know when it happened. They wake
up Sunday morning after a game, and
all of a sudden something they didn’t
know about is hurting.”
Other Huskers who missed prac
tice because of injury included offen
sive lineman Eric Anderson, fullback
Brian Schuster, free safety Tony
Veland and left cornerback Leslie
Dennis.
Coaches to meet
as football foes
for first time
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
Kansas State coach Bill Snyder
and Iowa State coach Dan McCarney
stood on the same sidelines for 10
years with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
On Saturday, the two will stand on
opposite sidelines as head coaches
against each other for the first time.
But McCarney wouldn’t mind
switching positions with Snyder.
“(Kansas State) is a fantastic model
of how everyone would want to turn a
program around,” McCarney said in
the Big Eight coaches teleconference
Monday. “A lot of things are similar
as far as what I’m going into and what
he’s went through. We’re not even
close to where we want to be some
day, but we’re trying.”
Snyder was Iowa coach Hayden
Fry’s offensive coordinator from 1979
to 1988, while McCarney coached the
offensive line from 1977 to 1978 and
the defensive line from 1979 to 1989.
McCarney, who admitted he was
surprised it took Snyder as long as it
SeeTELECON on 8