•i
Mike Kluck
Tiger Coach
Stewart shows
hunger again
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Norm
Stewart is ready for the basketball
season to begin.
The legendary Missouri coach
announced to the media Thursday
that he has his game face on already,
even though the Tigers have three
weeks before their first game.
Stewart’s game face looks like
a hungry Tiger who has just seen a
gazelle'running in the wilderness.
The dean of the Tigers at Mis
souri is ready to attack.
He has picked himself up and
licked his wounds from last year’s
beatings. The Tiger’s completed a
sub-standard 18-15 season a year
ago, including a 6-8 mark and sixth
place finish in the Big Eight.
It was so bad in Columbia last
season that a local sports writer sug
gested Stewart should retire for the ,
good of the university aft’dlhe bet-!
terment Of the Tiger basketball pro
gram.
Tie man who’s been involved
in 1,033 of the 2,057 games that
have been played at Missouri
should resign?
The Tiger who was bom in Mis
souri, played basketball in the
Show-Me-State, was on the Tiger
baseball team that won the NCAA
championship and this season will
probably win his 600th game at
Missouri should leave?
I don’t think so.
Neither did Norm.
Instead, he has a look of hunger
and desire in his eyes as Missouri
begins its first season in the Big 12
and Stewart enters his third decade
at Missouri.
And he has the league gazelles
—also known as fellow coaches—
concerned.
“Of course they will be back,”
Kansas State Coach Tom Asbury
said. “He’ll have them back and
competitive and tough. Don’t ever
discount his teams.”
Said Iowa State Coach Tim
Floyd: “Anybody who is talking
about Missouri being down had bet
ter look out. I see that Same look
again in Nam, with the same tough
ness he has always shown.”
But Stewart is gradually taking
both the success (an appearance in
the National Invitation Tbumament)
and the disappointment (a 4-13 road
mark) from last season and-using
them to build this season.
“If you stay at it and you stay
abreast, die game keeps you young.
It matters what you have in here,”
Stewart said panting to his heart,
“both for coaching and playing.
“If your heart’s not in it, you’re
not going to have any success,”
Stewart certainly still has the
love to continue to feast on gazelles.
Kluck is a graduate student in
journalism and a Daily Nebras
kan senior reporter.
m mm mm -w
Ryan Soderlo^DN
DAMON BENNING returns a punt during Nebraska’s 24-10 victory
over Ttexas Tbch, the last opponent Nebraska played on the road. NU
travels to Norman, Okla., to face 2-5 Oklahoma Saturday at 11 a.m.
NU to conclude
regular season
By Vince EPAdamo
StaffReporter
The fifth-ranked Nebraska soc
cer team puts the finishing touches
on its regular season this weekend.
The 17-0 Comhuskers take on
Texas Christian (7-10) at 1 p.m.
Saturday and Southern Methodist
(9-4-4) at 3 pm. in the Puma Clas
sic Sunday in Dallas.
With conference wins over
Baylor and Texas Tech last week
end, the Huskers wrapped up the
Big 12 regular-season title. The vic
tories also earned the Huskers a
first-round bye in the Big 12 Tour
nament, Nov. 7 through 10 in St.
Louis.
“We’re real pleased with win
ning (the Big 12),” NU Coach John
Walker said. “It’s already a strong
conference. There are a lot of young
teams, including ourselves.”
Despite winning the conference,
striker Lindsay Eddleman said the
team cannot become comfortable.
“It hasn’t really hit us until we
get to the NCAA Tournament and
all the way to the Final Four,” said
Eddleman, who is one of three
freshmen amongtheteam’s top four
scorers. “We can’t get cocky about
it. We have to keep playing with the
same intensity.”
TCU enters the weekend having
lost three-straight games. Oppo
nents have blanked the Homed
Soccer
Frogs seven tirries this season. Sa
rah Suess leads TCU with 24 points
on nine goals.
SMU lost its top two scorers
from a team that advanced to the
Final Four a year ago. Because of
that, first-year coach Greg Ryan has
been forced to rebuild.
However, Walker said SMU is
still a formidable squad.
“They’re one of the strongest
teams in the country,” Walker said.
The Mustangs afe paced by
Marci Miller, who has 20 points on
nine goals. Defensively, goalkeeper
Erin Poole has recorded eight shut
outs and 77 saves.
“It’s going to be a challenge,”
Eddleman said.
Nebraska has relied on a differ
ent player for offensive firepower
nearly every week this season. Last
week, it was Isabelle Momeau, who
scored three of NU’s four goals.
“It’s definitely huge,” Walker
said. “We don’t have one player
accounting for 80 percent of die of
fense. For us, it’s seven or eight
people scaring a lot of points.”
Huskers say
OU is still
dangerous
Sooners show signs of
life as their meeting
with NU approaches.
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
Mike Minter grew up in a place
where few Nebraska football players
are raised — Oklahoma.
But Minter, now a senior rover and
Comhusker co-captain from Lawton,
Okla.,—which is 78 miles northwest
of Norman — didn’t grow up dream
ing of wearing Sooner red.
He wanted to play for the
Comhuskers.
Saturday, when fifth-ranked NU (6
1 overall and 4-0 in the Big 12) plays
OU (2-5 and 2-2) in an 11 a.m. game
in Norman, Minter will have a little
'extra spring in his step.
“It’s a big game for me,” said
Minter, who will have 30 to 40 family
members and friends in the stands at
Memorial Stadium. “I’ve been looking
forward to it ever since they put it on
the schedule.”
Because of an injured knee, Minter
missed his first chance for a homecom
ing in Nebraska’s 13-3 win at Okla
homa in 1994.
He had six tackles in Nebraska’s
37-0 win over the Sooners last season,
and during his redshirt freshman sea
son, Minter forced a fumble on a kick
off following a Nebraska touchdown
against the Sooners.
Since 1950, the Nebraska-Okla
homa game has been the conference’s
final contest of the season 39 times. It’s
been one of the last two regular-sea
son games for the Huskers 35 times.
The last time the OU-NU game was
played this early in the season was Oct.
31,1959.
The Sooners, then 3-2 and ranked
No. 19, traveled to Lincoln to face a
2-4 Nebraska team. The Huskers up
set Oklahoma 25-21, ending the Soon
ers’ 74-game conference winning
streak.
NU enters Saturday’s game having
won 27-straight conference games and
needing one victory to ensure its 35th
consecutive winning season.
Tackle Jason Peter, who will play
for the second straight week with his
left hand in a cast, said records do not
matter when Nebraska and Oklahoma
play.
“It’s NU-OU week, and the whole
Please see OU on 9
NU battles fatigue
in trip to Oklahoma
By Shannon Heffelfinger
StaffReporter
Just before the Oklahoma volley
ball team left the NU Coliseum after
losing to Nebraska last month, it was
searching for an identity, Sooner Coach
Miles Pabst said.
Two weeks and four matches later,
a case could be made that it still hasn’t
found one.
Oklahoma (12-9 overall and 3-7.in
the Big 12) will enter tonight’s 7:30
match in Norman, Okla., against .the
Huskers (18-3 and 10-1) cm a three
match winning streak. However, all
three victories came against teams with
losing conference records, including 0
10 Missouri.
With less than half of OU’s confer
ence matches remaining, Pabst—who
previously said that he would like the
Sooners to be in the upper half of the
league—finds his team in a three-way
tie for seventh place.
No. 7 Nebraska, on the other hand,
just keeps adding more weapons to its
arsenal The Comhuskers, a good pass
ing team who have been defensively
sound all season, swept Colorado with
one of their strongest serving perfor
mances of the season on Wednesday.
Husker Coach Terry Pettit said de
fensive specialist Maria Hedbeck, one
of two seniors on Nil's roster, played
a large part in Nebraska’s dominance
at the serving line. Hedbeck recorded
three aces in Wednesday night’s match.
Hedbeck credited the Huskers’ im
proved serving and early dominance
over the Buffaloes to Nebraska’s loss
at Texas Tech last weekend.
“We took what happened in Texas
as a good experience,” Hedbeck said.
“At this point in the season, where
things start to drag a little bit, we
needed that. , -
“It helped us realize what we
needed to work on.”
NU has recorded nine-straight vic
tories over the Sooners, including six
consecutive sweeps. Oklahoma is led
by Patrice Arrington, who averages
4.79 kills per game. The Huskers domi
nated OU in Lincoln two weeks ago
largely because NU controlled the jun
ior outside hitter, limiting her to four
kills and a minus -.158 hitting percent
age.
Pettit said he hopes fatigue doesn’t
set in tonight inNU’s fourth match—
three of which have been on the road
—in six days.
But Hedbeck said the traveling
won’t affect its play as NU moves into
the last third of the season.
“We are in great physical shape,”
Hedbeck said, “and I think that’s an
advantage we hold over other teams.”
'