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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1996)
Huskers win league tournament CHAMPS from page 10 all right I want to show the injury had nothing to do with it. It’s just a drive you have. It was all adrenaline.” The Aggies extended a lot of en ergy in defeating Baylor 5-4 in over time Saturday in the tournament semi finals. And in Sunday’s championship, Husker co-captain Kari Uppinghouse said, NU’s superior conditioning pre vailed in overtime. “I think it was a huge advantage today,” said Uppinghouse, the Big 12 co-player of the year. “In the last part of overtime, you can see that people are dragging.” Nebraska, the nation’s only un beaten and untied team, will learn of its status in the 32-team NCAA Tour nament tonight at 5 when the pairings are announced. The Huskers are in a position to play host to asmany as three tournament games. First-round games will be played' next Sunday, die second round is Nov. 24 and the third round is Dec. 1. The Final Four, held in Santa Clara, Calif., will be played Dec. 6 through 8. McClain leads Huskers to win HOOPS from page 10 through the game, when the Huskers squandered a 22-point lead, allowing the All-Stars to stay close. , “I was disappointed in our execu tion at times in the game,” Nebraska Coach Angela Beck said. “We had lapses of efficiency and intensity.” The All-Stars, comprised of former players from several colleges in Ne braska, took an early 54 lead before the NU pressure defense kicked in and sparked the Huskers to 234 run and a 28-8 lead. NU pushed the lead to 37-15 be fore the All-Stars, behind former NU player Rissa Taylor, mounted a come back of their own, going on a 17-5 run to close to 43-32 at halfrime. “Our pressure went down a little bit,” Beck said. “Some of our players weren’t in the best condition, and a couple were tired out there.” Nebraska had trouble in its half court offense because of a 2-3 zone defense used by the All-Stars. “We’re basically a man-to-man team, so we had spent about five min utes on the 2-3 in practice,” Beck said. “The girls weren’t really ready for that, and that’s my fault.” The All-Stars slowed the game at start of the second half, and on several occasions pulled to within five points. The last time was at 66-61, right be fore NU called a timeout and put the game away. “We went over to the sidelines and Coach Beck told us we had to step it up,” said senior forward Tina McClain, who scored 12 of her game-high 21 points in the second half. “We had to stop standing around.” Freshman guard Nicole Rubik, who led Nebraska with seven steals, sparked the 18-1 run with her third 3-pointer of the game, extending the lead to 69 61. The All-Stars did not make another shot after NU returned to the pressure defense. Freshman forward Charlie Rogers closed the scoring with four points to give Nebraska’s its final mar gin. Senior center Emily Thompson, trying to return from a knee injury that has hampered ha fa two years, led the Huskers with 10 rebounds. Nebraska forced 36 turnovers, in cluding 21 in the first half. Thylor led the All-Stars with 19 points. “We know sane things about our team that we didn’t know before the game,” Beck said. “It’s a learning pro cess.” Nebraska returns to the court Fri day against Sport Tours before open ing the regular season Nov. 22 against Illinois State in Normal, 111. Huskers crush 2 league foes SWEEP from page 10 ISU’s serving woes affected it the most in the second game. Nunez called a timeout with NU leading 11-3. The Cyclones regained possession when Lisa Reitsma’s attack fell out of bounds, but lSU lost control after Heidi Rogers second serve went long. The Huskers scored again on a Jaime Krondak kill to take a 12-4 ad vantage, but Kate Cmich’s next serve sailed wide. At perhaps the most criti cal time in the match for ISU, Steph Dohm’s serve flew past the Huskers backcourt out of bounds. Nebraska’s Fiona Nepo closed the second game with two consecutive points. Tonia Tauke and Reitsma sealed the game with a block of Jodi DeVries. “We just couldn’t get a run going because we killed ourselves with er rors,” Nunez said. While Iowa State had problems scoring, the Huskers continued their recent success at the serving line. NU posted six aces, including three by Nepo, who attacked the Cylcones’ back row with a strong jump serve. ^ “The thing that a jump server does is that she makes the next server bet ter,” Nebraska Coach Terry Pettit said. “When Fiona runs three of four points, the next server has a passer over there thinking about how she shanked a couple balls.” Nunez agreed. “I thought they did a very good job of serving against us,” Nunez said. “They went after some of our weaker passers very effectively.” Pettit was pleased with Nepo’s dis tribution Saturday. Krondak had a match-high 22 attempts, while Reitsma recorded 19, Korver had 16, and . ^ - 1 ■ ■ ■fciii.H «'>*'■ '»**»**' . Cmich had 14. Krondak had a match high 12 kills. Sonya Van Helden led ISU with seven kills. The Huskers began the weekend with a 15-3,15-2,15-5 sweep of Mis souri. The victory marked the NU’s 26th-conscctrtive sweep of the Tigers. MU hit only .020 against Nebraska’s defense, which posted 36 digs. Reitsma (14 kills) and Krondak (12 kills) led the the Huskers offen sively. Nebraska moves on to play four ranked teams—three on the road — within the next two weeks, beginning with a match at No. 20 Kansas State on Friday. “From here on out, every match is a big match,” Pettit said. “We’re done preparing. Now, every match is mean ingful.” . f_ Defense, kicking game steal show in NU win MU from page 8_ //--— people a lot,” Osborne said. “You hate to count cm defensive scoring, but we seem to be doing it a lot.” Sometimes, Warfield said, it takes a big defensive play to jump start the Husker offense. “It (the safety) got the crowd into it, and that’s when our offense really started taking off,” Warfield said. “If that’s what we need to get the game going, then that’s what we’ll continue to do.” Guard Chris Dishman said he was not concerned with the offense’s slow start and feels confi dent that time will improve the of fense. “I think we need to go back to the basics,” Dishman said. “We can’t rely on a big play to get us motivated.” With just less than six minutes remaining in the first half, rover Mike Minter intercepted his fifth pass of the season and returned it 27 yards to the Missouri 4-yard line. After a 3-yard run by I-back DeAngelo Evans, Frost scored from one yard out. “We’re known for that now,” Minter said, “that we’re going to make a big play on defense.” Three plays later, Warfield blocked his third punt of the sea son, and Farley scored from nine yards out to put Nebraska on top 23 “Me and Terrell have been com peting with each other all year,” Warfield said. “We’ve been having a lot fun with it. Every time we go out on the field, that’s the first thing we think about — to try and block a punt.” The duo struck again with un der two minutes left in the half. This time, it waa Farley who got a hand up and partially blocked Sebo’s punt. “It (punt blocking) takes tremen dous hand-eye coordination and both guys have that,” said NU Line backers Coach Craig Bohl, who di rects the kicking game in practice. “We feel like any time that you block a punt, you win a game. It’s a big momentum switch.” With momentum in Nebraska’s favor, I-back Ahman Green broke three tackles during a 56-yard touchdown run on the Huskers’ first possession of the second half, giv ing the Nebraska a 30-0 lead. Senior Matt Turman replaced Frost with 9 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in the third quarter. “I think he (Frost) would have liked to play some more,” Osborne The sky’s the limit for this defense. We’ve really got something special.” Grant Wistrom NU rush end said, “but we thought with the score the way it was and him not being 100 percent, we would probably just take him out of there.” With Turman running the Husker offense, Green broke loose again, taking an option a career-long 70 yards before being caught from behind by comerback Randy Pot ter and strong safety Caldrinoff Eas ter. Green, who has been hampered by turf toe for more than a month, finished with 161 yards on 12 at tempts. “I thought the two runs today were exceptional,” Osborne said. “That’s what we have to have out of him.” The Tigers’ only score'came with 2:02 left in the game when third-string quarterback John McArthur connected with wide re ceiver Jay Murchison for a 24-yard touchdown pass. “I’m looking forward to a game when the first-string defense can play four quarters,” rush end Jared Tomich said. “I’d like to see the to tal points and total yards that they’d have at the end of that game.” Missouri finished the game com pleting 10 of 20 passes for 123 yards, but the majority of the Tiger attack came on the ground, though they rushed for only 47 yards on 43 attempts. “They tried to just run it right at us the whole game,” Tomich said, “and it didn’t do much for them.” The NU secondary also played a solid game, coming just one in terception short of its goal. In addi tion to Minter’s interception, fresh man Mike linebacker Julius Jack son pjpked off a fourth-quarter pass from Kent Skomia. “Basically, we want to try to outscore the (opposing) offense,” Warfield said, “get at least three picks, and to blow up everybody that’s carrying the ball. Those are our main goals—and also to win.” ■ i i ■ h-h m i Did you know... ... All of these services/procedures are provided for you by licensed dentists at the UHC Dental Office. They will help you make the best decision for any dental treatment you may need. For an appointment, call472-7495 University HeahhCenler • 15 th & U Streets hi rootball _ Buckets of Beer Wet T-Shirt | Contest Following i ^Thursday Night® LmliktAtUmpi*H! Bring in your Student ID for i-golf, Bumper ' I: : l \Sandy Dunes