Trevor Parks
Pettit backs
Tfexas’ Haley
for U.S. post
Texas Volleyball Coach Mick
Haley and Nebraska Coach Terry
Pettit have a combined 46 years of
coaching experience.
Together, they have a 1,401-319
record with three national titles and
31 conference crowns.
So when U.S. National Team
Coach Terry Liskevych announced
he would leave his job this fall af
ter 12 years, Haley and Pettit im
mediately became logical candi
dates for job.
Last December, Haley and Pettit
met at the pinnacle of college vol
leyball—the NCAA championship
match in Amherst, Mass. Pettit won,
and had Nebraska’s coach wanted
to become the next coach of Tbam
USA, he probably would have won
that battle, too. .t*
But. Jfpttit didn’t want the job.
Halev dries. ,
The Texas coach of 17 years has
been offered the job of leading the
next U.S. Olympic Team into action
four years from now in Sydney.
All that’s left is for Haley is to
figure out a contract that is best for
his family.
So when the USA Volleyball
committee offered Haley the job
after Pettit refused to apply, who did
Haley call for advice? His friend,
Terry.
“People think that Terry and I
are great enemies,” said Haley,
whose Longhorns will play Ne
braska at the NU Qoliseum Satur
day night. “Yes, we do fight cm the
court like a son-of-a-gun, but we
have great respect and admiration
for each other and each other’s pro
grams.”'
Pettit was part of the committee
that picked Haley.
“He’s been active in all levels
of volleyball,” Pettit said, “and he’s
been successful at all those levels.
He has strong public relations skills,
strong organizational skills, and he
can see the big picture.
“He brings more than one thing
to the package.”
But so does Pettit. So why not
take the nation’s most prestigious
ravtchimr iwst? _—— -
“I think there are parts of the job
that would be intriguing,” Pettit
said, “but they don’t outweigh the
parts of the job that I would not be
enthusiastic about.
Pettit’s love for his 2-year-old
daughter, Emma, was the main rea
son he did not apply.
“I wouldn’t enjoy being over in
Europe for more than four or five
weeks at a time,” Pettit said. “I have
-some interests beyond volleyball.
"“For (me reason or another, that
<■ has not been one ofmy dreams. And
I think it has been (Haley’s) dream.”
Haley cm- Pettit? Regardless, the
U.S. National Team was in good
shape.
Parks is a senior news-edito
rial major aad a Daily Nebraska!
seniorreporter.
■ X - iiv .
Two stars brace for war
JNU star Keitsma has a
history of playing well
in big matches.
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
All-American Lisa Reitsma was
benched.
Well, sort of.
In Sunday’s three-game Nebraska
sweep of Oklahoma, Comhusker Vol
leyball Coach Terry Pettit removed his
star player from the court at the end of
the first game because Reitsma was
playing poor defense.
She remained on the sidelines for
the rest of the game.
The 6-foot-4 junior from Sanborn,
Iowa, said the benching served as a
wake-up call.
That awakening could be bad news
for No. 10 Texas A&M and the eighth
ranked Texas. Both teams visit the
sixth-ranked Comhuskers at the NU
Coliseum this weekend.
Reitsma, who was named Big 12
player of the week Tuesday, has a his
tory of stepping up in big matches,
dating back to her first extensive play
ing time last season.
“It just seems to happen that way,”
Reitsma said. “I’m not scared. I want
the ball and I always seem to step it
NU Coach Terry Pettit said the rea
son Reitsma becomes superhuman at
a crucial time is she recognizes when
her team needs her to perform even
better.
“I anticipate the same thing will
happen this weekend,” Pettit said.
“Sooner or later, she’s going to be there
when we need her ”
Reitsma’s left hand has been like a
Texas Chainsaw massacre for Long
horns.
In two career matches against
Texas, Reitsma has 35 kills in seven
games, good for hitting percentages of
.485 and .484.
In Amherst, Mass., during the
NCAA championship match last De
cember against the Longhorns,
Reitsma had 16 kills and only one hit
ting error.
A year ago, Reitsma was one of
many offensive options, which in
cluded three-time All-American
Allison Weston, Jen McFadden and
Billie Winsett.
This year, Reitsma is NU’s top gun
on a young team that starts a first-year
setter and two middle blockers with
little experience in a Husker uniform
before August..
“I don’t think you do too much spe
cial to stop her,” Texas Coach Mick
Scott Bruhn/DN
LISA REITSMA, Nebraska’s junior All-American, will battle Demetria
Sance Saturday in a rematch of last season’s national championship
match? •*' • .. t't f.' • < •
Haley said. “You just have to deal with
her. She’s doing a lot of things to help
their team.
“They have to deal with (Demetria)
Sance and we have to deal with
Reitsma.”
In Reitsma’s second career start,
she had 24 kills against Stanford, burst
ing onto the college volleyball scene.
Against teams ranked in the top 15 last
year, she averaged 17.6 kills per match.
Her big-match efforts were high
lighted with a 37-kill effort in a five
game win over Florida last season.
Playing against conference rival
Colorado earlier this month, Reitsma
had 29 kills, breaking her school record
for a three-game match.
“Things are starting to come
around,” Reitsma said, “not only for
me but for the rest of the team.”
The national championship rematch
will draw a lot of interest Saturday, but
to Reitsma, December seems like years
ago.
“It’s distant, but yet it’s right there,”
Reitsma said. “It’s something you will
never forget.”
1 ' . TPI' . •
i
i
I
Texas standout
Sance says last year’s
match is forgotten.
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
Demetria Sance — the Lisa
Reitsma of the Texas volleyball team
—has blocked a snowy December day
in Amherst,
Mass., out of
her mind.
“That
memory is
over with,”
Sance said of
Nebraska’s
11-15, 15-2,
15-7, 16-14
win over
Texas in the
national cham
pionship match. In that match, Sance,
a sophomore from San Antonio,
showed why she was selected as the
national freshman of the year with a
team-high 20 kills on 66 attacks.
So when eighth-ranked Texas vis
its the NU Coliseum Saturday night to
play the sixth-ranked Comhuskers,
Sance said, the idea of revenge will not
be at the forefront of her mind.
What will be more important, she
Sam, is trying 10 get oacx in uie cnase
for first-ever Big 12 championship.
Texas, 11 -3 overall and 5-1 *in tfcectin-^
ference, trails Texas A&M — which
swept the Longhorns on Sept. 25 —
and Nebraska by one match.
Texas plays at Colorado Friday.
T\vo Longhorn wins, coupled with a
loss by the Huskers and the Aggies, will
leave three teams tied for first place.
“We’ve gradually gotten better as
the season has gone on,” said Sance, a
6-foot outside hitter. “We are pretty
much a step ahead of where we were
last year, and things are going very
positive right now.”
For the second straight year, Sance
has had a tremendous season.
Last year as a freshman, she was
an AVCA second-team All-America
selection. She set four school records:
Most kills in a match (30); most at
tempts in a match (72); most kills in a
reason (565); and most attempts in a
season (1,472). She also had 435 digs
last year.
In 14 matches this season, Sance
has 223 kills, averaging 4.7 per game
with a hitting percentage of .311. Her
season-high 27 kills came in a five
game win over Oklahoma.
Please see SANCE on 13
nanspam: I m just an average back
- u " mp with an nifpnsivp lino tn nm ho
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
The scariest aspect of Texas Tech
tailback Byron Hanspard may not be
his 1,306 rushing yards this season.
Instead,
Hanspard strikes
fear into the
hearts of oppos
ing coaches be
cause he says he
hasn’t even
reached his po
tential yet.
| ~ The Ne
braska defense is
faced with the
task of slowing
— something no team this
done — when the
God has not allowed me to
reach my potential.”
Bybon Hanspabd
Tfexas Tfech tailback
t
Comhuskers play the Red Raiders Sat
urday at 2:30 pm in Lubboek, Texas.
“God has not allowed me to reach
my potential,” Hanspard said. “I still
have a lot of improvement to make. I’m
still just an average running back. I
need to improve on my speed, quick
ness and moves.
“I don’t think I’ve looked foster this
year. Tb me, I’m still kind of slow.”
But this 6-foot, 193-pound junior
from DeSoto, Texas, leads the nation
in rushing, and through Tech’s first six
games of the season, he is averaging
217.7 yards.
Hanspard also has the nation's high
est yards-per-attempt average and is a
Heisman TYophy and Doak Walker
Award candidate.
But Hanspard, who is also an or
dained minister, said he couldn’t have
achieved the success this season by
himself.
"Everything I have received is a
result of the Lord blessing me,”
Hanspard said. "The Lend has blessed
hind.”
However, Hanspard and the Red
Raiders offensive line may need help
from above this week, facing a
Comhusker defensive unit that is al- ^
lowing 61.6 yards per game rushing,
the nation’s third best total.
NU has allowed 55 yards rushing
on 58 attempts to its two Big 12 oppo
nents, Baylor and Kansas State.
The last time Hanspard was held in
check was against Tbxas A&M last
season, a game in which he ran for just
61 yards on 20 attempts.
The reason the Aggies were able to
stop him was their fast defense,
Hanspard said, and they worked hard
to stop the run.
“God has given me the ability to
Please see HANSPARD on 13