Reitsma trades fear for fire
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
Lisa Reitsma had to stand on the
sidelines for most of last year’s sea
son-ending NCAA Mideast Regional
final loss to Penn State.
No, she wasn’t injured. Reitsma,
a sophomore on the Nebraska volley
ball team, didn’t have the big-match
experience needed to play, so she
watched Nebraska lose in four games,
one match short of the Final Four.
This year is different. Reitsma will
not have to stand on the sidelines very
much when the Comhuskers play host
to the Nittany Lions Friday night at
5:30 at the NU Coliseum.
Reitsma said it was difficult to
watch last season’s match after hav
ing four kills on four total attacks
against the Nittany Lions.
“It was frustrating watching from
the bench because I knew there was
nothing I could do,” Reitsma said. “It
was the coaches’ decision, and that
was fine.”
Now the coaches’ decision is to
play Reitsma all the time. She has
become a force this season in
Nebraska’s quest to make its first Fi
nal Four since 1990.
Reitsma is averaging four kills a
game, second most on the team be
hind Allison Weston. Reitsma also is
one of only three players to play in
every game this year.
Thb Sanborn, Iowa, native said she
has irqproved a lot since last season.
She had only 29 kills all of last year,
and she appeared in only 30 matches.
After the first two matches of this
season, Reitsma already had 35 kills.
“From last year, I have improved
85 percent,” Reitsma said. ‘‘Also, as
a team we have improved a lot, and
we’re at the level of being called a
great team.”
This year’s team, like last year’s,
enters the regional on a roll. In 1994,
the Huskers were 30-0. This year,
Nebraska has won 26 straight matches
on its way to a 27-1 record.
Reitsma said the way Christy
Johnson, Billie Winsett and Weston
have groomed the team to be in posi
tion for the national championship has
rubbed off on h^r. She said she real
ized that this could be her best chance
to win the title.
“I definitely want to grab that
chance this season,” Reitsma said.
“Hopefully we can get even more
chances after that, but right now we
need to win this one.”
Reitsma said the team was where
it needed to be to win the first na
tional championship in school history.
One reason for her turnaround,
Reitsma said, is her mentality on the
court. Last season, she said, she was
scared of the opposition, and in prac
tice she was scared to go against the
starters as a member of the scout
team.
“Last year during practice and in
matches I was scared of everyone,”
Reitsma said. “Now I am having so
much fun and I’m not scared of any
thing.”
That fearlessness is present
throughout the team, she said.
“I don’t think we are in fear of los
ing,” Reitsma said. “If we play like
we can, we know that won’t happen.”
Williams
finds home
on defense
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
V
Nebraska’s Jamel Williams was
recruited as an I-back.
In 1993, the blue-chip athlete from
Merrillville, Ind., thought he could
contend for playing time at I-back
behind Calvin Jones. Williams said
he felt he had a good chance to step
up and play until he tore his anterior
cruciate ligament in a 1993 Indiana
all-star game.
While Williams sat out his first
season, he said the Nebraska coaches
told him they wanted to switch him
to a defense, to which he now has
found a liking.
“I wanted to play offense, but I can
make the sacrifice,” Williams said. “I
was kind of disappointed not playing
offense, but I was an all-state safety.”
It took Williams a while to find his
home. After beginning last season as
a rover, he moved to WILL linebacker
midway through the season. He
played in 10 games last season, in
cluding the national championship
game against Miami, in which he re
corded one assisted tackle.
After the season Williams had to
have surgery to repair his right shoul
der, forcing him to miss all of spring
drills. Williams started this season
fourth on the depth chart at the WILL
linebacker position before moving to
SAM during the season.
“I was thinking that this was go
ing to be my breakthrough year, but
at another position,” Williams said.
“As it turned out, SAM linebacker got
me some playing time. Now, I’ve
found a home at SAM linebacker.”
He also found a home in the end
zone against Oklahoma.
Williams could have been flagged
for a penalty after intercepting a pass
and high-stepping the final 10 yards
for a touchdown.
“You really don’t think what
you’re doing because you’re so
pumped up,” Williams said. “You’re
just kind of out of control.”
, UNtnepnoto
Former Nebraska tight end Eric Alford is done catching
footballs. Instead he wants to play basketball at Nebraska
during the spring semester.
Alford
Continued from Page 9
could be a reason they could use
me. I know I could help out re
bounding.”
Alford considered basketball
once he arrived in Lincoln in 1993.
He said he talked with Nee, but
decided against it after the football
season ended.
Last spring, Alford joined the
Husker track team and competed
in the long jump. But basketball is
on Alford’s mind now.
“I talked to Nee when I first got
here, and he seemed kind of inter
ested,” he said. “But then I let foot
ball take priority and kind of for
got about it. But, my first year, I
was still speculating going out af
ter football was over.
“But that was my first year of
playing on turt ana my legs were
gone. I knew my legs wouldn’t
have been able to hold up for the
whole basketball season. So I
slowly forgot about playing basket
ball.”
Alford said the only reason he
didn’t go out when the season be
gan was his grades.
“Last spring, I was all caught
up in the NFL hype and didn’t have
a good semester,” Alford said. “But
this fall, I’m getting my grades
back to where they should be. I’ll
talk to Danny Nee about it. Hope
fully, if I can play second semes
ter, I could be back to old form by
the time the Big Eight season came
around.”
Alford caught 14 balls for 271
yards and four touchdowns last sea
son. He was signed as an unre
stricted free agent by the New En
gland Patriots, but quit the team to
return to school.
Beck
Continued from Page 9
ever, was a team victory in which four
players scored in double figures.
Husker senior Pyra Aarden led Ne
braska with 17 points and nine re
bounds, while Kate Galligan and
Anna DeForge contributed 12 and 10
points.
A meeting after Saturday’s 89-65
loss to Oregon State, Beck said,
helped Aarden to become more domi
nant in Wednesday’s win.
“Pyra really established herself
tonight,” Beck said. “We told her in
the meeting that if only one person
was guarding her, she should take the
ball to the basket. She did that to
night.”
The key for the Huskers, Beck
said, was in the first half when Ne
braska turned an eight-point Golden
Flash lead into a one-point Husker
advantage at halftime. And then the
Huskers made all 15 free-throw at
tempts in the second half.
After Kent State took a 34-26 lead
with 4:25 left in the first half, Ne
braska outscored the Golden Flashes
13-4 to lead 39-38 at halftime. Sheila
McPherson hit two 3-point shots.
while Kate Galligan had one. Aarden
and McClain each scored a basket.
In the second half Nebraska led by
three with two minutes remaining, but
was a perfect 10 for 10 from the free
throw line the remainder of the game.
The Huskers finished the game shoot
ing 84 percent from the line on 16 of
19 attempts.
“We just took control the last three
minutes,” Beck said. “We did what
we need to do, and we were able to
keep their crowd out of the game.”
Nebraska returns home for two
games this weekend, playing host to
Michigan on Friday and Nicholls
State on Sunday.
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