Sports
Thursday, November 9, 1995 Page 7
Trevor Parks
Reitsma gives
NU an attack
to be feared
If the Nebraska volleyball team
is playing a big match, it must be
time for the Lisa Reitsma show.
In the Comhuskers’ five matches
against current top 15 teams, the
sophomore has shown that she can
play with the best competition in the
country.
Against No. 4 Stanford, Reitsma
had 24 kills. Against No. 6 Texas,
she had 19 kills. Against No. 9 Penn
State, she had 11 kills. Against No.
12 Pacific, she had 13 kills and
Tuesday against No. 13 Notre
Dame, she had 21 kills for an aver
age of 17.6 a match.
Against everyone else, Reitsma
has 185 kills in 18 matches. An av
erage of just over 10 a match.
Reitsma said she had seen a lot
of improvement over last season.
“I ’ve come a long way from last
year,” Reitsma said. “I wasn’t con
sistent at all, and this year I’ve been
trying to do my best. I think it’s
coming along.”
Reitsma has been consistently
good — as Notre Dame found out
Tuesday.
Fighting Irish coach Debbie
Brown said Reitsma was a domi
nating factor in the match.
“There is not a defense that can
stop her, because she hits the ball
everywhere,” Brown said. “She’s
very difficult to defend. With her
height and her jumping ability, it
makes it tough to defend her with
the block, because she hits over the
block.”
When Reitsma did that Tuesday
night, Notre Dame’s Lindsay
Treadwell didn’t have time to put
her hands together to dig the ball.
Last season, the Huskers had to
depend on Allison Weston to get the
job done. In the final two matches
of the season, Weston had 37 kills
and 35 kills. Weston was the pri
mary weapon. But with Reitsma on
the prowl, Weston no longer has to
shoulder the pressure of carrying
the team.
Weston has affectionately been
called “The Big Dog” by Coach
Terry Pettit. With Reitsma’s emer
gence this year, she might as well
be known as “Big Dog Jr.”
Pettit said Reitsma was a player
like Weston, who has improved
throughout her entire career.
“Lisa isn’t a first-year starter
anymore,” Pettit said. “She’s played
enough ... We’re a pretty veteran
team at this point.”
Calling a sophomore part of a
veteran team is a far cry from what
Pettit said after the Stanford match,
when he said Reitsma was “still a
babe.”
“What’s happening with her is
that she’s played well all year, and
now she’s developing confidence,”
Pettit said. “When other people see
that, other people on the team start
to play hard and start to play bet
ter.”
And if Reitsma and the rest of
the team stay confident, who knows
how far they can go.
Parks is a senior news-editorial maj or
and a Daily Nebraskan senior reporter
and columnist
NU men, women collect signatures
Belcher follows
Lue to Lincoln
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
It’s not exactly Florida or South
ern California, but the Mexico, Mo.,
pipeline is alive and well.
Wednesday morning at 11:30 a.m.,
Segado “Cookie” Belcher signed a
lctter-of-intent with the Nebraska bas
ketball team, becoming the second
native of the small Missouri town to
sign with the Comhuskers in the past
seven months.
Wednesday was the first day of the
fall signing period, which runs until
Nov. 15.
Belcher, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound
shooting guard, joins Mexico native
Tyronn Lue, who made his first start
in a Nebraska uniform Wednesday
night. Lue, a true freshman point
guard, scored nine points in the Husk
crs’ 113-68 win over Reebok
Spalding Americas.
“It’s a good feeling to get it over
See MEN on 8
Beck nabs three
of state’s best
By Gregg Madsen
Staff Reporter
A trio of Nebraska high school bas
ketball standouts have decided to con
tinue playing in their home state for
Coach Angela Beck’s Cornhuskers.
Brooke Schwartz of Gering and
Charlie Rogers of South Sioux City
signed letters-of-intent Wednesday,
and Cambridge standout Nicole Kubik
will sign later today.
Schwartz, a 5-foot-ll guard who
led Gering last year by averaging 26.4
points, 8.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds per
game, said the decision to come to
Nebraska was an easy one.
“She wasn’t interested in any oth
ers,’’ Gering coach Don Jacobs said..
“She figured why waste time looking
at them if she wanted to go to Ne
braska all along.’’
Beck said Schwartz, who was an
all-state selection each of the past two
seasons, would be able to make an
See WOMEN on 8
Travis Heying/DN
True freshman point guard Tyronn Lue leads Nebraska up
the court during the Huskers 113-68 win over Spalding
Americas Wednesday night. Lue scored nine points and
grabbed four rebounds in 19 minutes.
NU blends old, new
in exhibition win
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
For a team that lost only one se
nior from a year ago, the Nebraska
basketball team had plenty of unfamil
iar faces when it opened its exhibition
season Wednesday night.
The Comhuskers defeated Reebok
Spalding Americas 113-68 before a
crowd of 7,199 at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
_ Overshadowing
_ the outcome of
Spalding 68 the game was the
Americas debuts of Tyronn
- Lue, a 6-foot
freshman from Mexico, Mo., Bernard
Gamer, a junior from Many, La., and
Venson Hamilton, freshman center
from Forest City, N.C.
Seniors Tom Wald, 19 points, and
Erick Strickland, 15 points, led Ne
braska, but Hamilton, who played at
Oak Hill Academy in Virginia during
high school, led all scorers in the first
half with 12 points and finished with
14.
In all, six players who did not play
for the Huskers last season scored in
the victory.
Nebraska coach Danny Nee said he
was pleased to see the fresh faces play
well.
“I was pleased for a lot of the new
people,” Nee said. “A kid like Venson
Hamilton, who is going to see a lot of
action this year, in his first excursion
on the floor, was good. I thought Lue
was the same way. He was pretty solid.
“That’s what this game is about,
experimenting, getting people playing
time and seeing how they will handle
certain game situations.”
Nebraska didn’t waste any time
early, using a 17-1 run midway
through the first half to jump out to a
42-11 lead. Hamilton made his pres
ence known during the run — scoring
seven points in a three-minute stretch.
By halftime, 11 Huskers had scored
to give Nebraska a commanding 65
28 lead. Hamilton led Nebraska at the
half with 12 points.
“He (Hamilton) can do a lot of
things,” Nee said. “He’s got long arms
so he can get rebounds in a crowd. He
blocks shots. He does a nice job.”
Nebraska picked up where it left
off in the second half as Chris Sallee
and Strickland combined for the
Huskers’ first 10 points.
“I was really pleased with Chris,”
Nee said. “He’s been showing that all
week in practice. He’s been very rug
ged around the basket. He’s been play
ing physical. He’s going to really help
us in December.”
Spalding’s only bright spot was
forward Ray Reed, who scored 35
points on a 13-of-29 shooting perfor
mance. Former Husker Melvin Brooks
scored two points on l-of-7 shooting
for Spalding.
Nee said he was disappointed in the
poor level of competition, but he said it
was still nice for the Huskers to play
against someone other than themselves.
“I just didn’t get the team that I
thought could challenge us,” Nee said.
“We needed a game bad. I just wish it
was better competition. We needed a
game because we were tired of beat
ing on each other. ”
Continued progress earns Treu playing time
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
It didn’t matter that Nebraska assistant football
coach Dan Young never saw Lincoln Pius graduate
Adam Treu’s 17-foot basketball shot at the buzzer.
By the time Treu let the shot go, which fell short
and enabled Lexington to hold on for a 53-52 regu
lar season upset win, Young had seen enough of
Treu’s footwork to realize Treu would be an asset
to the Cornhusker football program.
This season. Young’s prognosis has paid off as
the 6-foot-6,295-pound junior offensive tackle has
alternated playing time with starters Chris Dishman
and Eric Anderson. Treu has helped to lead the
nation’s top rushing attack to a 9-0 record and a
No. 1 ranking.
Treu may see more playing time Saturday when
Nebraska takes on No. 10 Kansas because of an
ankle injury to Anderson.
Treu’s basketball coach at Lincoln Pius, Tom
Sieb, said Treu planned to accept a basketball or
baseball scholarship before Nebraska started look
ing at him for football. Many Division II colleges
were interested in Treu’s basketball ability.
Sieb said football coaches became interested in
Treu, “once he started getting the press in basket
ball.”
“He didn’t think about football until Nebraska
showed interest in him,” Sieb said. “He never would
have gone anywhere else to play football.”
“If I start, I start. It was just
unfortunate it had to happen like
that. ”
ADAM TREU
Nil offensive tackle
DuringTreu’s first season, he played defense on
the scout team. And he didn’t enjoy it.
The disappointment Treu experienced on the
playing field also affected his grades in the class
room. Treu’s problems were great enough that
Tenopir said he worried that Treu might not finish
his career at Nebraska.
“I really thought two and a half years ago Adam
was going to have a hard time playing here,” Tenopir
said. “His work habits weren’t as focused as they
needed to be. He was messing around in the class
room a little bit, didn’t have his head in that. He has
turned it around.”
Treu’s turnaround started last spring when he
started working out with former Nebraska tight end
Matt Shaw. Shaw was also a walk-on from Lincoln,
and although he played for three seasons, he never
caught a pass.
“He (Shaw) had a long road here,” Treu said.
“He just kept telling me 'Keep plugging away, you’ll
get your chance. Look at me.”’
Even though Shaw has graduated and is attend
ing medical school in Omaha, Treu said he contin
ued to work out and lift with the same intensity he
had last year. The dedication has enabled Treu to
drop his body fat from 18 to 12.6 percent.
It also has benefited him on the playing field.
This season, he moved up to No. 2 on the depth
chart. The night before the Huskers’ season-opener
against Oklahoma State, Young told Treu, Ander
son and Dishman that the trio would alternate at
tackle.
Entering fall camp, Treu said he didn’t expect to
be playing as much as he has this season. And while
he would never want to see a teammate get hurt,
Treu said he would jump at the chance to start Sat
urday.
“It’s too bad what happened to Eric,” Treu said.
“It doesn’t add any extra pressure to me. If I start, I
start. I’m not going to think I earned it. It was just
unfortunate it had to happen like that.”
NOTE:
• Coach Tom Osborne said quarterback Tommie
Frazier, who has been bothered by a sore right leg,
moved well on Wednesday. Fullback Brian Schuster
jan at full speed after missing practice Monday, and
wingback Clester Johnson, who was ill on Tues
day, returned to the practice field on Wednesday.
Anderson also returned to practice.