i
F;
Trevor Parks
Brown family
ready to cheer
Ralph’s debut
Not much fuss was made about
Ralph Brown coming to Nebraska.
In February, Brown was the fi
nal player to give NU verbal com
mitment. He said yes the night be
fore signing day.
The reason for the late decision,
said his mom, Debra Brown, was
that every school involved in the
Brown Sweepstakes (NU, Colorado
and USC) deserved a fair shake.
After his first day in a
Comhusker uniform, Brown said he
knew he was in the right place.
The coaches told him to be ready
—because Mike Fullman, the pro
jected starter at right comerback,
has missed significant time with a
groin injury.
When the first fall depth chart
came out on Aug. 26, Brown was
listed No. 1.
Neither Ralph nor his mom
thought about him playing, let alone
starting.
“When he left,” Debra said
Tuesday, “he had the usual off-to
college jitters. “He said, ‘Mom, I’m
going to go out there to give it my
best Slot. If I play this year, that will
be great, and if they decide to
redshirt me, that’s fine too.’”
Ralph’s play has impressed ev
eryone. But no one knows exactly
how he feels. Ralph can’t talk to the
press until Saturday, after he plays.
Coaches’ rule.
“That was a great recruit,” se
nior captain Mike Minter said.
“Sometimes I look at the recruits
that come in and I’m like, ‘Whoa,
why did we get him?’
“Whatever they said about
Ralph Brown, it’s true.”.
Brown, a 5-foot-11170-pounder
from Hacienda Heights, Calif., —
his parents recently moved to San
Dimas, another Los Angeles suburb
— picked up his black shirt Mon
day, an official sign that he will start
Saturday.
Brown, whose body fat is a mi
nuscule 4.77 percent, will join se
lect company, if he joins any com
pany at all. He will be the first fresh
man to start at a non-kicker posi
tion in recent memory.
Minter is quick to point out that
playing in front of 75,000 scream
ing fans is a whole new ballgame.
But Ralph won’t be alone in the
stadium that day.
His parents arrive in Lincoln
Thursday, and they are anticipating
the 11 am kickoff almost as much
as their son, Debra said.
"He tom me Monaay mgnt
about going to pick up. his black
shirt, and I broke into tears on the
phone,” Debra said. “I never
thought he would be playing for
Nebraska.
“I’ve got chills right now.”
’I’m sure Ralph feels the same
way.
Parks is a senior news-edito
rial major and a Daily Nebraskan
senior reporter.
By David Wilson
StaffReporter
Nebraska Football Coach Tom
Osborne said the 1996 Comhusker de
fense has the talent to be the best ever,
out tne injury
plagued
Blackshirts still
looked sluggish
after their final
preseason scrim
mage.
“We’re not
quite game
ready yet, but we
still have a week
of practice to uti- .
lize” junior rush Williams
end Grant
Wistrom said. “Things are going to get
a lot more intense.
Practice is going to pick up, and
coach is going to be on us a lot more.
And that’s going to get us ready to
play.”
Osborne said the defense, which
thrives on emotion, played with very
little enthusiasm in Friday’s scrim
mage.
“I didn’t think that it was a spar
kling scrimmage,” Osborne said.
“We’ve still got a ways to go. I think
things can be good, but I don’t want
people to expect too much a week from
tomorrow, because we’re still not
there.”
v Sam linebacker Jamel Williams,
who led the Husker defense Friday with
two sacks and a fumble recovery for a
touchdown, said the defense was look
ing better, but it still has work to do.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be satis
fied with progress because we can al
ways get better in certain situations,”
Williams said. I think when we start
getting satisfied, that’s when we start
getting sloppy.”
The Blackshirts, who were ex
pected to return seven starters, now
return six.
Senior Will linebacker Terrell
Farley was ticketed for suspicion of
driving while intoxicated Friday morn
ing, and he was suspended for at least
two games.
Senior Ryan Terwilliger, who
started the first six games at Will line
backer last season, will start in NU’s
season opener Saturday against Michi
gan State.
Injuries have also plagued the
Husker defense, giving freshmen the
opportunity to step up and play.
True freshman comerback Ralph
Brown is listed as the No. 1 right
comerback—filling in for the injured
Mike Fullman.
“Ralph Brown has really stepped
up,” Wistrom said. “He’s come out
there and had the attitude that he’s go
ing to play and he’s taking it to the
field.”
Mike Brown, another freshman
comerback, is listed third on the depth
chart at left comerback and may not
redshirt, Osborne said.
At least one true freshman may also
play this season on offense. DeAngelo
Evans is listed as the No. 41-back and
will not redshirt. Wingback John
Gibson has a “fair chance” to play this
season, Osborne said.
Quarterback Scott Frost, will also
be making his Husker debut Saturday,
said he is ready for the season to be
gin.
“It’s becoming more and more of a
reality,” Frost said. “We’ve been try
Please see FOOTBALL on 14
Matt Miller/DN
FRESHMAN JENNY BENSON, a Nebraska midfielder, battles Oklahoma freshman Katherine
Smith Friday in NlTs 8-0 win over the Sooners at the Abbott Sports Complex.
NU opens with 2 shutouts
Uppinghouse, Gat
provide knockout
punch in pair of wins.
By Vince D*Adamo
StaffReporter
Hie Nebraska women’s soccer
team began its season cm a blazing
note last weekend.
On Fri
day, the
Cornhuskers
throttled
Oklahoma 8
0 before a
crowd of
1,075 at the
Abbott Sports
Complex.
Nebraska
didn’t let up
Sunday in
Ames, white
Gay
washing Iowa State 6-0.
NU (2-0) played solid first
halves, but the Huskers broke both
games wide open in the second half .
Against Oklahoma, the Huskers
scored five second half goals, three
of which came in a four-minute
span. The Iowa State game was no
different with 25th-ranked NU de
livering the knockout punch with
four second-half goals.
Husker Coach John Walker said
1 IK
it was only a matter of time before
his team got into a rhythm this
weekend against two less experi
enced clubs.
“Once we got that first one it was
a relief” Walker said. “I think the
girls relaxed and played a lot better
after that.”
The defense did not rest either.
The Huskers limited Oklahoma to
zero shots on goal. Against Iowa
State, the Huskers allowed only
three shot attempts.
<(We pride ourselves on defend
ing,” Walker said. “Obviously if you
limit a team to no shots, you’ve done
a pretty good job defensively.”
Kari Uppinghouse and Kristen
Gay accounted for seven of
Nebraska’s 14 goals. Gay scored
four and Uppinghouse had three.
Overall, eight Huskers scored this
weekend.
Walker said the balanced scor
ing keeps the pressure on opponents
throughout a game.
“That's the one thing we’ve got
this year that we have not had in our
previous two years,” Walker said.
We’re going to have lots of people
scoring goals.”
Winning against Big 12 foes
made the weekend even better,
Uppinghouse said. Oklahoma, a
I MF
«
Obviously if you
limit a team to no
shots, you’ve done
a pretty good job
defensively.”
John Walker
NU soccer coach
first-year program, will not play a
full Big 12 schedule this season.
“We want to make a statement
in our conference right away,”
Uppinghouse said. “We have to win
the games that are not expected to
be as dangerous just as serious.”
Gay said the team settled down
Friday night after pregame jitters.
-Early in the game, she said, NU
picked up where it left off in train
ing camp.
The Huskers will travel to North
Carolina this weekend to take on
No. 16 North Carolina State Friday
and sixth-ranked Duke on Sunday.
Reitsma leads
Huskers past
BYU, Lobos
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska volleyball team im
proved to 3-1 with a sweep of the New
Mexico Invitational Friday and Satur
day in Albuquerque, N.M.
The Comhuskers used a balanced
attack Friday night to defeat 19th
ranked Brigham Young 10-15,15-9,8
15,15-11,15-12 in a grueling match
that lasted almost 2 1/2 hours.
Playing much of the night with only
one starter from last year’s team on the
floor, Nebraska struggled the first three
games against the complex 6-2 offense
of BYU.
The 6-2 — infrequently used by
most college teams—uses two setters
on the court at the same time.
“We thought they’d run a 5-1,” NU
Coach Terry Pettit said on his post
game radio show. “All the information
we had indicated that’s what they’d run,
so we weren’t-as prepared.”
Pettit, looking to establish a con
sistent force in die middle, tinkered
with the Husker lineup, going with sev
eral combinations throughout the
match.
“We would like, as the season
evolves, to have our middle attackers
become more a part of the offense,”
Pettit said.
One player who saw more time was
Renee Saunders. Saunders, a 5-foot-11
sophomore from Omaha Marian, pro
vided a spark with her strangnet play
after Pettit benched senior Kate Onich.
“Renee Sanders came in and stabi
lized us in the fourth game,” Pettit said.
Trailing two games to one, the
Huskers took over the match in the
fourth game. lisa Reitsma dominated
late.
The junior outside hitter led the
team with a match-high 26 kills.
Reitsma had 84 total attempts in the
match as the rest of the team heavily
relied on her.
“I don’t think the team is too de
pendant on me,” Reitsma said. “We
have a lot of young talent, and I know
that if we have to go to them any time
that they will be ready.”
Setter Fiona Nepo had a career-high
Please see VOLLEY on 14
