Sports
Volleyball team rolls over Irish
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska volleyball team is
through two-thirds of a schedule
that has i t playing three ranked teams
in eight days, but the Comhuskers
look like they haven’t even been
challenged.
After disposing of No. 6 Texas
Saturday, the Huskers moved on to
defeat No. 13 Notre Dame 15-1,
15-11,15-6 in front of3,235 fans at
theNU Coliseum Tuesday night. In
doing so, Nebraska improved to
22-1 and ran their winning streak to
21 matches and straight-game streak
to 63.
Nebraska’s
sweep of the
Fighting Irish
was the first
time Notre
Dame lost in
three games all
season. The 18
points scored
by the Irish
were also a
season low.
The previous low was 31 points at
Stanford.
Coach Terry Pettit said Nebraska
played at a high level for about a
game and a half but struggled at
times.
“In some of those plays, we had
the opportunity to run some points
but we didn’t,” Pettit said. “Notre
Dame’s good, and I think at this
point we’re better.”
Nebraska jumped out quickly in
the first game. After the Irish pulled
within 2-1, the Huskershad to work
to score the final 13 points of the
game. Eight of Nebraska’s points
in the game came as a result of
Notre Dame errors.
With the score 14-1, the Irish
held off six game points before a
Billie Winsett kill ended the game.
Nebraska had a hitting percentage
of .489 in the first game.
Notre Dame led for most of the
second game before Nebraska ral
lied with the score 11-8. Christy
Johnson brought the score to 11-9
with a service ace.
A Kate Cmich kill made the game
11-10. Then Lisa Reitsma took over.
Reitsma, who had a match-high 21
kills and had a hitting percentage
.457, knocked down three consecu
tive kills to give Nebraska a 13-11
lead. A Lindsay Treadwell shot went
See VOLLEYBALL on 10
Jon Waller/DN
Nebraska’s Lisa Reitsma blasts the ball past Notre Dame’s Angie Harris. Reitsma had a
match-high 21 kills against the Fighting Irish.
McFadden fights pain to make impact
Junior blocker
returning to form
after surgeries
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
Jen McFadden’s eight kills,
three digs and four block assists
Tuesday night are not going to
earn her any All-American hon
-ors this season.
- And the 6
—1_11_®_J foot-2 middle
blocker ’ s numbers thi s season pal e
in comparison to her statistics as a
freshman in 1993, when she was
named the Big Eight newcomer of
the year.
But McFadden isn’t discour
aged. In fact, she is pleased with
her progress.
After establishing herself as a
force in the middle of the
Cornhusker front row for a year
and a half, the junior from
Dubuque, Iowa, tore the anterior
cruciate ligament in her right knee
last Oct. 25 in a match against
Illinois.
She had surgery in November,
and for the next four months her
rehabilitation was hampered by a
lingering back injury. In March,
McFadden went under the knife
again, this time to repair nerve
damage in her back.
She has spent much of this fall
on the bench. During Tuesday
night’s sweep of Notre Dame, she
played in the back row for the
second time this season.
“I think Coach Pettit is dis
playing a lot more confidence in
me by leaving me out there in the
backcourt,” McFadden said. “That
boosted my confidence.”
As McFadden’s knee gets
stronger, her presence on the court
bolsters Nebraska’s front line,
Pettit said.
“When Jen is on the court with
Ali (Weston) and Lisa (Reitsma),
we have three power players,”
Pettit said. “That makes a big dif
ference.”
McFadden, who hit .375 Tues
day night, has played in only 16
matches and 41 games this year.
The past two or three matches,
however, have been her best of
the season, she said.
“It hurts, but I can get through
it now,” McFadden said. “I came
to the realization that it is either
all go or no go. If it is going to
happen again, it’s going to hap
pen again.”
Pettit said he hoped to use
McFadden even more as the Husk
ers prepared for 27-0 Florida on
Sunday and the NCAA Tourna
ment next month.
McFadden said she would be
ready.
“Honestly, when you are out
on the court,” she said, “you are so
focused and so intense that you
really don’t feel it. Afterwards, it
hurts.”
QB Frazier
braces up
for Kansas
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
The last time quarterback Tommie
Frazier led Nebraska into Lawrence,
Kan., the Cornhuskers barely escaped
with a win.
After that experience, Frazier said
No. 1 Nebraska wouldn’t take the No.
10 Jayhawks for granted as they did
two years ago.
“We went down there with the alti
tude that we were going to blow them
out and we didn’t,” Frazier said. “They
made us play the whole 60 minutes. I
think we took them a little lightly the
last time we played down there, and I
don’t think that’s going to be the case
this year.”
i nc nu.sK.ers eseapeu inai uay wun
a 21-20 win after the Nebraska de
fense stopped Kansas on a two-point
conversion attempt with 52 seconds
remaining in the game. The Huskers
were undefeated, and a loss against
the Jayhawks would have prevented
Nebraska from playing Florida State
for the national championship. This
year, the same scenario could happen.
In the 1993 game, the Jayhawks
were trying to play spoiler for the
Huskers, but Saturday, 8-1 Kansas
could tie Nebraska for first place in
the Big Eight with a victory.
Frazier said the Jayhawks had been
focused on winning all season.
“They don’t have any big-name
players, but the guys they do have go
out there and work together,” Frazier
said. “That’s all any coach can ask for
on a team like that because all players
are working on the same cylinder.”
But Nebraska also is hitting on all
cylinders. The Nebraska offense is
averaging 593 yards a game and 55.3
points a game. The Kansas defense is
allowing 391 total yards a game and
179 yards rushing a contest.
Since last week Frazier has battled
soreness in the same leg he suffered
blood clots in a year ago, and he said
the doctors told him his pain wasn’t
related to his blood clot problem.
Frazier said he should be 100 percent
for Saturday.
Frazier said this team knew what
needed to be done to make it to the
Fiesta Bowl to get another shot at a
national title.
“We know that we have two games
left in order to reach our destination,”
Frazier said, “but we still have to go
out there and stay focused on Kan
sas.”
Exhibition win boosts Huskers
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter '
Aggressive defense and a balanced
offensive effort sparked by hot 3-point
shooting led the Nebraska women’s
basketball team to an impressive exhi
bition win over Athletes in Action
Tuesday night at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
- Senior Kate
-- Galligan nailed
Athletes 60 four free throws in
in Action the last 14 seconds
of the game to ice
the 67-60 win.
The victory will not count, but
sophomore co-captain Anna DeForge
said it was important nonetheless.
“By winning, I think we started off
really well,” she said. “We’re trying to
get past last year, by winning this
game against a lot of former All
Americans, this is really a big confi
dence booster for all of us. This will
bring us up to another level at prac
tice.”
IHusker coach Angela Beck also
was pleased with her team’s effort, but
said her team still had plenty to im
"...this is really a big
confidence booster for
all of us. 77lis will bring
us up to another level at
practice. ”
ANNA DeFORGE
Husker co-captain
prove on before opening regular-sea
son play against Gonzaga in the Lin
coln CableVision Classic on Nov. 24.
“They ran a little bit of a zone
defense against us, and we weren’t
really prepared for that,” Beck said.
“They also pressured us quite a bit,
and I thought we did a decent job. The
first half we played pretty good, but
un fortunately we struggled the second
half, and I hope that’s not indicative of
fact that we’re not going to be able to
play a full 40 minutes every night.”
The Husker outside shooters ben
efited from the attention that 6-foot-4
senior center Pyra Aarden received in
the paint. With former Vanderbilt All
American Heidi Gillingham dominat
ing the middle all night long for Ath
letes in Action, DeForge and the rest
of the Husker backcourt players were
left open to shoot the outside shots.
“What happened was, they weren’t
respecting us,” DeForge said. “They
were all concentrating on Pyra, so
when we got it into Pyra, she just
kicked it out and we shot away.”
The Huskers shot just over 50 per
cent from behind the 3-point arc. Se
nior guards Lis Brenden and Galligan
both had two 3-pointers, and DeForge
and sophomore Jami Kubik each had
one.
“Luckily we were hi ttingright now,
but actually we are looking for Pyra a
lot more this year,” DeForge said.
“Pyra’s going to be our force. We
want the post game before we want the
outside shooting.”
DeForge, the Huskers’ top return
ing scorer, led the way for the Huskers
with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Kubik
tossed in 13, and Galligan and Brenden
each had 12. Aarden was limited to six
points.
Nee says talented team
ready to launch season
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
Of the six new players on the
Nebraska basketball team this fall,
two may never know what it’s like
to come off the bench as a reserve.
When the Comhuskersopen ex
hibition play against Spalding
America at 7:30 tonight at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center, true fresh
man point guard
Tyronn Lue and
junior power for
ward Bernard
Garner are
scheduled to
start.
Lue, a 6-foot,
1 65-pounder
from Mexico,
Mo., has shown
iff
w ••*>**• ivuuvumip
and quickness in three weeks of
practice to earn a starting spot,
Husker coach Danny Nee said.
“For a freshman, he has come
along really well,” Nee said. “He is
a good player, somebody who can
make us better from the first time he
steps up the court.”
Lue will be flanked in the
frontcourt by senior Jaron Boone,
who at times last season was forced
to handle the point guard spot in
relief of Tom Wald. Senior Erick
Strickland also will start, along with
senior center Chris Sallee.
Junior Mikki Moore will miss at
least tonight’s game because of an
unspecified disciplinary reason,
Nee said.
“I don’t expect us to be in Febru
ary form,” Nee said. “It’s going to
take some time for this group to
mesh together. This is the first step.”
Nebraska will play host to Team
Pella on Nov. 16 before opening
See HOOPS on 10
