Sports
Tuesday, November 21, 1995 Page 6
| Game Day
1 notebook
Erlfebraska Oklahoma
1 37 0
Nebraska quarterback Tommie
Frazier was named an All-Ameri
can by both the Football Writers
Association of America and the
Walter Camp Football Foundation,
and center Aaron Graham was a
Football News All-American. Jared
Tomich was a second-team selec
tion. Nebraska WILL linebacker
Terrell Farley was named the Asso
ciated Press Big Eight defensive
newcomer of the year. Green was
named the freshman of the year.
* * *
With Ohio State’s 31-23 loss at
Michigan Saturday, the path is set
for the Fiesta Bowl, where Nebraska
most likely will play Florida. The
Gators beat Florida State 35-24
Saturday, but still must beat Arkan
sas in the Southeastern Conference
championship game this Saturday
to finish with a 12-0 record.
* * *
With the Buckeyes’ loss, the AP
and USA Today/Coaches polls un
derwent some changes. In the AP
poll, the Huskers picked up 51 first
place votes, seven more than last
week. Florida is second with 11
first-place votes, 40 points behind
Nebraska. In the USA Today/
Coaches Poll, Nebraska has 55 first
place votes, while Florida has seven.
* * *
Jamel Williams’ interception
return was Nebraska’s fifth inter
ception return for a touchdown this
season. When Tony Veland re
turned a fumble for a touchdown
later in the game, it marked the
defense’s sixth touchdown of the
year.
* * *
Williams finished offthe final 5
yards of his 36-yard interception
return by high-stepping into the end
zone. Osborne said the officials
warned him that they almost threw
a flag on the play.
“I wanted to hug Jamel, and I
wanted to wring his neck,” Coach
Tom Osbomc said. “I could not
believe the striding into the end
zone after all we’ve been through.
Guys get excited, but we’ve cer
tainly talked a lot about it.”
* * *
Oklahoma coach Howard
Schnellenbcrger sounded as if he
had mixed feelings about playing in
Memorial Stadium on Friday.
“Lincoln is a tough place to play
in because of its fine football team
and fine coaches and fine fans,”
Schnellenberger said. “It wasn’t
very loud here. Not nearly as loud
as some other places, but I was
happy for that. I think they were
being kind to us.”
Oklahoma suffered consecutive
shutouts for the first time since 1965.
The Sooners lost 12-0 to Oklahoma
State last week.
* * *
The shutout was the first time
Nebraska has shut out Oklahoma
since a 7-0 win in 1942. Overall it
was the ninth time the Huskers had
shut out the Sooners. The margin of
37 points was the biggest spread for
a Nebraska victory since a 44-6 win
in 1928.
* * *
Nebraska is the third school to
have 35 wins in three seasons. To
ledo( 1969-71 )and Brigham Young
(1983-85) are the others.
Compiled by Senior Reporters
Trevor Parks and Derek Samson.
NU earns top seed in region
By Mitch Sherman
Senior Editor
The Nebraska volleyball team
learned Sunday afternoon that the road
to Amherst, Mass., and the Final Four
will not be an easy journey.
Three participants in the 1994 Fi
nal FourjointheNo. 1 Comhuskersin
the Central Region of the NCAA Tour
nament. Nebraska, 27-1, solidified its
spot as a top seed and regional host
this weekend in Omaha by winning its
17th Big Eight Tournament champi
onship in the past 20 years.
No. 8 UCLA, 21-8 is the second
seed in the Central Region, No. 7
Ohio State, 21-7 is the region’s third
seed and 26-7 Penn State, ranked No.
10 in the nation, is the fourth seed.
Penn State, which defeated Nebraska
last season in the finals of the Mideast
Regional, lost to the Huskers in three
games on Aug. 25 at the NU Coli
seum.
“They’re a different team, and
we’re a different team,” Nebraska
setter and team captain Christy
Johnson said, “but they still wear the
same uniforms. So it will be good to
see them again.”
To face the Nittany Lions, Ne
braska first must defeat either 20-13
Indiana or George Mason, 20-10, in
the tournament’s second round on
Saturday at 7:30 p.m., at the Coli
seum. Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., Indi
ana and George Mason will fight for
the right to play Nebraska, which was
granted a first-round bye.
Tickets for the second-round match
will go on sale today at 8 a.m.
“Indiana is very good,” Nebraska
coach Terry Pettit said. “I don’t know
anything about George Mason, but
they must be good if they won their
conference.”
George Mason, which defeated
William & Mary in five games on
Nov. 18 to claim the Colonial Ath
letic Conference championship, is led
by one of the country’s most prolific
hitters, junior Virag Domokos. The 6
foot-3 native of Budapest, Hungary,
is hitting .444, second in the nation to
Aycan Gokberk of Florida.
If Nebraska advances to the re
gional semifinals, it Will play host to
either Penn State or the winner of the
Siena-Georgia Tech match at 7:30
p.m., on Dec. 8. The Central Region
championship match will beheld Dec.
9 at 7:30 p.m.
Other top seeds include: 26-2
Stanford (Pacific Region), 33-1
Florida (East Region) and 29-0 Ha
waii (Mountain Region). The winner
of the Central Region will face the
winner of the Mountain Region in a
national semifinal match at the Mullins
Center on the campus of the Univer
sity of Massachusetts on Dec. 14.
Nebraska has faced six of the
tournament’s top 16 seeds, defeating
Pacific, Notre Dame, Florida, Texas
and Penn State, and losing to Stanford.
“I’m so thankful that we got to play
Florida and have it go five games,”
Johnson said. “Teams like Stanford
get that all the time. I’m glad we got a
chance to do that at least once.”
Pettit said the tournament selection
See PETTIT on 8
Jon Waller/DN
Nebraska spiit end Brendan Holbein drags Oklahoma’s Larry Bush and Broderick Simpson after making a catch for 10 yards.
Holbein caught two passes for 20 yards.
Dominant defense drives Huskers past OU
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter ~
For most of Nebraska’s 37-0 win
over Oklahoma Saturday, kicker Kris
Brown’s efforts were about the only
offense the Comhuskers could pro
duce.
But that was all the Huskers needed.
The Nebraska defense recorded
eight tackles for losses, had two sacks
and two interceptions, and picked up
its first shutout of the Sooners since
1942 in front of75,662 fans at Memo
rial Stadium.
“I don’l think they ever really threat
ened to score,” Nebraska coach Tom
Osborne said. “So I was very proud of
the overall effort the defense gave. I
thought they really played a great ball
game.”
Nebraska turned its first posses
sion into the longest drive of the first
half—12 plays, 67 yards — but had
to settle for a 31 -yard field goal from
Brown for a 3-0 lead.
That was all the defense wanted.
“It was a great effort by everyone
on defense,” defensive tackle Chris
tian Peter said. “It’s always a goal to
get a shutout. We knew when we scored
that the rest was on our back. If they
don’t score any points, they don’t win.”
But the defense decided to add
even more on Oklahoma’s first pos
session, when linebacker Jamel Will
iams intercepted an Eric Moore pass
and returned it 36 yards for a touch
down to put Nebraska ahead 10-0
with 8:36 remaining in the first quar
ter.
Neither offense could get much
going, as Nebraska held Oklahoma to
minus-24 yards rushing in the first
quarter.
The second quarter was much of
the same story, with both offenses
getting shut down, and Oklahoma to
taling only 17 yards on the ground.
Nebraska'mqwever, was able to
add points with one second remaining
in the first half. Brown kicked his
second field goal of the game—a 27
yarder — to give the Huskers a 13-0
halftime advantage.
Brown kicked three field goals and
added four extra points to break the
school record for most points in a
season by a kicker. The previous record
— 87 points — was held by Gregg
Barrios in 1990.
Osborne said he knew the Husker
offense might have trouble against
Oklahoma.
The Nebraska offense was held
without a touchdown for the first three
quarters of the game. The last time
Nebraska was held without a touch
down for three quarters was last year
against Oklahoma (a 13-3 Nebraska
win). The Cornhuskers did not score
in the first quarter for the first time
since beating Washington State 35-21
on Sept. 30.
“We felt that the strongest part of
their football team was their defense,’
Osborne said. “I really believe that
their front seven was probably the
best that we’ve played this year. I felt
that they had a good enough defense,
and if they were playing at the top of
their game, it would be tough to move
the ball on them extensively.”
After both teams traded punts to
begin the second half, the Nebraska
defense again came up big. Sooner
running back James Allen was hit by
linebacker Jared Tomich, causing a
fumble after a 2-yard gain. Safety Tony
Veland scooped up the ball and re
turned it 57 yards for a touchdown.
Veland, one of 21 seniors who
played their final game in Memorial
Stadium, said he couldn’t have asked
for a better ending after coming to
Nebraska as a quarterback.
“I started out as quarterback, and I
thought I’d be scoring all these touch
downs,” Veland said. “Then to switch
to defense, and Finally end up scoring
wasjustagreat feeling. I wanted to go
out with a bang.”
Nebraska’s defense forced the
Sooners to punt again on their next
possession—one of 10 Sooner punts
in the game — and Mike Fullman
returned it 48 yards to the Oklahoma
32-yard line.
But the Huskers only managed 14
yards in seven plays and settled for
Brown’s 35-yard field goal, which
gave Nebraska a 23-0 lead with 28
seconds left in the third quarter.
The Huskers Finally got their oF
fense going on their next possession,
as they marched 74 yards in five plays
and capped it with a 38-yard touch
down pass from Tommie Frazier to
Jon Vedral.
Frazier, who finished with 128
yards passing and 35 yards rushing,
said the Sooners threw some new
things at Nebraska.
“They were doing some things that
kind of caught us oft-guard,” Frazier
said. “I don’t think I played a bad
game. I went out there and did things
I normally do. They just did some
things that other teams weren’t able to
do, but we were also able to move the
See GAME on 8
