Sports Weekend
Friday, December 1, 1995 Page 7
‘ ——r*™1
Nathan McKinney
Hunters can
take a gander
at local lakes
As you wait patiently with three
close friends, the snow falls lightly,
but visibility is still good.
Passing around a hot thermos of
coffee, everyone is shivering from
the cold. But the warm cup and the
hopeful promise of a successful
morning keep all four of you in the
goose blind.
In the middle of a cornfield, sit
ting in more of a pit than an actual
blind, you can hear what sounds
like thousands of geese still on the
lake not far from your ambush site.
The top of the pit is covered with
plywood and cornstalks, which are
usually not natural looking enough
for the keen eyes of the large mi
gratory birds. But with a little snow
covering on ihe landscape, you
hope your tactic will work this time.
As you rest back and picture the
Christmas dinner when you plan on
serving your holiday goose, you
suddenly hear the noisy birds be
ginning their daily rise from the
lake in search of grain fields. You
look across the horizon hoping to
catch a glimpse of your quarry.
When they finally do appear,
you frantically realize that your
strategically placed decoys are as
covered with snow as everything
else, and you doubt they will be
effective. Regardless, you shout at
the geese through your magnum
goose call. Miraculously they turn
through the sky toward your blind,
while at the same time setting their
magnificent wings for an approach.
Goose hunting can be frustrat
ing and unproductive at times, but
with the recent snows across Ne
braska, many hunters were able to
have a similar experience to the one
described above.
The weather has brought thou
sands of geese to Nebraska’s wa
terways, so if you’re interested in
viewing or hunting the large water
fowl — now is the time.
Schilling Wildlife Area between
Lincoln and Omaha may be a good
place to start.
Neal Vanwinkle, one of
Schilling’s managers, said there are
more than 30,000 geese presently
using the 15,000-acre site. As a
.whole, Vanwinkle said, it hasn’t
'been a good season for hunters.
However, he said, the reduction had
more to do with the nice weather
than actual goose numbers.
If the wind is blowing, combined
with a' little snow, the geese fly
lower, giving hunters more oppor
tunities. In fact, according to
Vanwinkle, 17 geese were taken in
one day during the recent snow
storms.
Schilling has eight blinds cur
rently in use that are allotted to
hunters through a drawing. Hunt
ers don’t always get geese, but as
far as close and free public areas,
Schilling may be one of the best
places to get a chance at a goose.
McKinney b a third-year law stadeat
and a Dally Nebraskan sporb columnist
George Mason first up for Huskers
Seniors value
final practices
on the court
By Mitch Shermani___
Senior Editor
Volleyball practice had been over
for more than 30 minutes, but alone
in the NU Coliseum sat Christy
Johnson, Allison Weston and Billie
- mrmWinsett, signing
posters, laughing
and wearing de
flated volleyballs
on their heads.
The three se
niors on what has
been called by
many the greatest
Cornhusker team
ever are cherish
ing their final
days wearing the red and white uni
forms.
“It’s not unusual that we are here
after practice or before practice,” said
Johnson, Nebraska’s setter and team
captain. “We work pretty hard, and we
only have a dozen practices left,
maybe. When you start to think about
that, you realize that everyplay mat
ters now and every practice matters.”
Saturday night at the Coliseum, the
Huskers’ three seniors will be all busi
ness. Top-ranked Nebraska will play
host to George Mason in_a second
round NCAA Tournament match. The
27-1 Huskers, who have been atop the
nation’s polls for 12 weeks, had a first
round bye.
George Mason, 21-10, defeated
Indiana in three games Wednesday
night in Fairfax. Va., which was the
Patriots’ first-ever NCAA Tourna
ment win. The Colonial Athletic
Association champions are led by a
tall front line, featuring 6-3 junior
Virag Domokos, the national leader
in hitting percentage.
Nebraska assistant coach Todd
Raasch, who traveled to watch the
Patriots’ first-round match, said
George Mason overpowered Indiana
at the net.
“They were physically too much
for Indiana to handle,” Raasch said.
“Supposedly Indiana was supposed to
be a ball control team. But George
Scott Bruhn/DN
Nebraska All-American Allison Weston attempts a kill earlier
this season. Nebraska will play George Mason Saturday
night at the NU Coliseum.
Mason served them very aggressively
and Indiana couldn’t put up a big
enough block to defend their attack.”
The Patriots start three players who
are 6-foot or taller. Husker coach Terry
Pettit said he didn’t expect George
Mason to beat Indiana, based mainly
on the strength of Indiana’s confer
ence, the Big 10.
If Nebraska beats the Patriots Sat
urday night, the Huskers will be the
host team for the Central Regional,
which will’be played Dec. 8-9 at the
Coliseum.
Johnson said Nebraska wasn’t
looking past anyone.
“We might be a little bit too tense,”
she said, “because we really want to
get better in the next two weeks. We
have raised our expectations a little bit,
and we are really trying to push each
other to get better.”
NU to play first home game
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska basketball team be
gins a stretch of four games in eight
days when it hosts the Ameritas Clas
sic this weekend at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center.
Nebraska opens tournament play
with its 6:30 game against Georgia
Southern tonight. Pepperdine will play
Grambling State after the Nebraska
game. The consolation will be played
at 1 p.m. Saturday, with the champi
onship game scheduled for 3:10 that
same afternoon.
Comhusker coach Danny Nee said
the next week was important for the
3-0 Huskers.
“There are so many things to work
on this week,” Nee said. “We’ve got a
lot of games coming up in the next
week. We’ll just take them one at a
time. Now, we’ve got the Ameritas
Classic, and we’re just trying to take
care of it the same way as Hawaii.”
Led by the play of its three guards,
Nebraska won three games en route
to the championship of the Big Island
Invitational last weekend. Seniors
Erick Strickland and Jaron Boone, and
freshman Tyronn Lue each averaged
more than 16 points in the three
games.
“We’re really happy
about what happened
over in Hawaii. ”
DANNY NEE
NU basketball coach
“We’re really happy about what
happened over in Hawaii,” Nee said.
“It was a big step for us. The key thing
was that we had a lot of people play
well. The contributions of all our new
people, plus veterans, combined for a
successful tournament.”
Nebraska has a good chance of
winning its second straight tourna
ment, considering the Huskers haven’t
lost an Ameritas Classic game since
its 72-63 loss to Ohio State in the 1987
championship game.
The road to the title begins with
Georgia Southern, which starts four
freshmen. In its 88-44 season-open
ing loss to Georgia, the Eagles only
had six players available, shot 33.3
percent and scored just 18 points in
the first half.
Nee said he wasn’t familiar with the
strengths and weaknesses of Georgia
Southern.
“They look very athletic,” he said,
“and they have a big, talented center.
But I don’t know enough after just
watching them for an hour. I just know
this: cm a given night, anyone can play
with anyone. We have to be ready to
play. We have to improve our defense.
We have to guard.”
Pepperdine, 1 -1, opened its season
with a loss to South Florida before
bouncing back to beat Seattle. The
Waves have made postseason appear
ances in four of the past five seasons,
and lost 104-100 to Nebraska in the
1989 Ameritas Classic.
Grambling State, also 1-1, won its
only meeting with Nebraska — a 71 -
68 overtime victory in 1987 in Lin
coln.
Nebraska will hit the road after this
weekend for games at Creighton
(Wednesday) and Minnesota (Dec. 9).
Nee said he hoped the Nebraska
fans would take the opportunity to give
the Huskers a home-court advantage
in the only two home games of their
first seven contests.
“I really just hope the fens and the
student body comes out and supports
us with a little enthusiasm” he said.
“They’ll be entertained. They’ll like
the style of play that’s going on on the
floor.
Coach wants
to test NU
in 2nd round
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
George Mason volleyball coach Pat
Kendrick wants her team to give Ne
braska a second-round challenge.
Last season, the Comhuskers swept
George Washington in a second round
match at the NU Coliseum. Playing
in the Coliseum, Nebraska has not lost
a game before regional play since win
ning 3-1 in 1992 against Colorado in
the first round of the NCAA Tourna
ment.
Kendrick said she hoped that would
change.
“We just want to make it interest
ing,” Kendrick said. “One of the things
in past tournaments is that they have
not been tested early and we want to
test them.”
But the 21-10 Patriots must travel
to play in the Coliseum and play in
front of a crowd of more than 4,000
Husker fans.
The largest crowd George Mason
has played in front of this season is
1,900 at Penn State.
Kendrick said one of the perks of
playing in the NCAA Tournament was
that her team got to travel to a differ
ent environment, one they don’t see
in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Last year in the NCAA Tournament
the Patriots lost at Georgia Tech, and
they lost the previous year at Texas
A&M. In fact, beating Indiana 15-8,
15-10, 15-13 on Wednesday night in
the first round was the school’s first
ever NCAA Tournament victory.
Kendrick is familiar with Nebraska
in many ways. She said she had seen
Billie Winsett and Christy Johnson
play at the U.S. Olympic Festival.
Kendrick also has a special tie to Ne
braska All-American middle blocker
Allison Weston.
Weston, who was recently named
the Big Eight player of the year for
the second straight season, played on
the U.S. National Extended B team
See KENDRICK on 8
Huskers
head west
for tourney
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
Although it’s only Dec. 1 and
the Nebraska women’s basket
ball team has played just three
games, the success of its season
could be determined in the next
two weeks.
The 3-0 Cornhuskers head
into an early stretch of the sea
son in which they will have a
chance to measure themselves
against potent competition,
Coach Angela Beck said.
That run begins today when
the Huskers face Montana State
in the opening round of the Ga
zette-Times Classic at 6 p.m., in
Corvallis, Ore.
Portland and No. 15 Oregon
State play in the second game.
The losers from the first two
games will meet in the consola
tion game, Saturday at 6 p.m.
See BECK on 8