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11
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Trevor Parks
Eddleman, NU
refuse to quit,
continue to roll
Lindsay Eddleman’s perfor
mance in the Nebraska soccer
team’s 3-2 overtime win over Min
nesota epitomized the success of the
Comhuskers this season.
Eddleman, a freshman from
Lakewood, Colo., has the spunk and
stick-to-it-iveness that has taken the
Huskers from a .500 squad to the
only undefeated, untied team re
maining in the NCAA Tournament.
Last Sunday, Eddleman helped
Nebraska win the Big 12 champi
onship with her goal in the 118th
minute of the final game. Before
that game-winner, three of her goals
have given NU a win.
Sunday, her body laid in a heap
after colliding with Minnesota goal
keeper Teresa O’Heam in the sec
ond half. It looked like Eddleman’s
stellar freshman season may have
ended as 4uick^4a4fr^Gdphegs\
season did lata* the same afternoon.
Hobbling off the field with a
bruised right knee, things didn’t
lode good. But she eventually came
back in the first overtime.
From there, her gazelle legs
didn’t move as smoothly as normal,
but her presence was felt time and
time again.
“I’d get the ball, turn, run, get
ahead of somebody, attempt a shot
and it wouldn’t go in,” Eddleman
said. “Over and over that was the
case, so it was really frustrating,
r “I knew eventually the ball
would go in. I had no doubts.”
Eventually the ball did go in, but
it was about 15 minutes after
Eddleman thought she had her fifth
game-winning goal of the year.
With 1 minute, 33 seconds re
maining in the first sudden-death
overtime, Eddleman appeared to
end the three-hour marathon with a
header into the net.
But the goal was disallowed be
' * cause the ball crossed out of bounds
on Jenny Benson’s comer kick.
A look of relief hit Eddleman’s
face. It quickly turned to a look of
frustration when the goal was dis
allowed.
So she kept playing and playing
and playing like everyone else.
That is part of Eddleman’s char
acter, and that is part of this team’s
r character. Nothing seems to phase
it.
Hurricanes. Ice storms. One
hundred forty-eight minute games.
This team played a more experi
enced squad Sunday, and
Nebraska’8 youthfulness was too
much for the Gophers.
Eddleman referred to Huskers’
motto: “Don’t quit, no matter what
the situation. Even if we were down
3-1 with five minutes left in the
game, we would never stop trying.”
Eddleman and her teammates
didn’t stop trying Sunday, and they
haven’t stopped all season.
Parks is a senior news-edito
rial major and a Daily Nebraskan
senior importer. ... _
• ’ VL.V" ' * - - * > » »
Matt MillkbDN
KARI UPPINGHOUSE (right) battles Minnesota’s Jennifer
McElmury for position Sunday in Nebraska’s 3-2 win.
■t m m m
Uppinghouse scores
game-winner with less
than 2 minutes to play.
By Vince D*Adamo
Staff Reporter
Nobody can blame Nebraska Soc
cer Coach John Walker for saying he
wasn’t fooled by Minnesota’s 13-6
record heading
into Sunday’s
first-round
NCAA Tourna
ment game.
Walker’s
fears were
proven true Sun
day afternoon at
the Abbott
Spots Complex.
But the fifth- Eddleman
ranked Comhuskers squeezed out a 3
2 win in the second half of sudden
death overtime, advancing to the sec
ond round of the NCAA Tournament.
Kari Uppinghouse scored the
game-winner 148 minutes, 43 seconds
into the action, grazingthe far post af
ter beating Gopher goalkeeper Teresa
O’Heam.
“I couldn’t have picked a better
winning goal,” Walker said. “I’m glad
it came on a quality goal. Kari put on a
good hip move.”
Nebraska (22-0) will play host to
Duke (10-9-3) Sunday at 1 p.m. in Lin
coln. The Blue Devils defeated Vir
ginia 1-0 Saturday in Durham, N.C.
Nebraska and Duke met earlier this
season, a 3-1 Husker win in Durham
on Sept. 8.
Sunday’s first-round contest,
played before a school-record crowd
■^■Br,
of 1 ,544, proved to be the tale of two
games.
With just 2:23 elapsed in the first
half, Uppinghouse, the co-Big 12
player of the year, put the Huskers
ahead 1-0. Eleven minutes later, Jen
nifer McElmury—Minnesota’s lead
ing scorer and the Big Ten player of
the year—evened the score at 1 -1.
Six minutes later, Nebraska’s Jenny
Benson put the Huskers in front 2-1,
but the Gophers answered with a
Corinne Bolder goal at the 25:35 mark.
Neither team scored for the remain
der of regulation or during the 30 min-„
utes of the first overtime/
Uppinghouse’s goal came only 1:13
before a potential shootout.
“I thought it had pretty good posi
tion,” Uppinghouse said. “It was a re
lief. It was a hard fought game, and
everyone gave everything they had.”
Fifteen minutes earlier, the Husk
ers thought they had won the game on
a Lindsay Eddleman goal. However, it
was waved off because Benson’s cor
ner kick crossed out of bounds, before
Eddleman headed it into the net.
“We just had to keep fighting,”
Eddleman said. “If anything, it made
me mad. It boosted my intensity.”
Walker said the Huskers overcame
a great deal of adversity—including
minor injuries to both Eddleman and
Uppinghouse— in clearing their first
ever NCAA Tournament hurdle.
“It was an excellent game,” Walker
said, “certainly the most exciting in my
brief career here. I was disappointed
with how we played in the first half, in
part because Minnesota played well.”
Goalkeeper Becky Hombacher un
Please see WIN on 11
ByAntone Oseka
Senior Editor
MANHATTAN, Kan.—After two
games of volleyball at Ahearn
Fieldhouse Friday night, it looked like
a Nebraska
sweep was inevi
table. Kansas
State had other
ideas.
Fifth-ranked
Nebraska won
the first two
games 15-12,
15-12 and ap
peared to be in
good shape to Korver
sweep the 20th-ranked Wildcats. But
KSU stormed back and took the third
game from the Huskers 15-7.
In the pivotal fourth game, the Cats
had Nebraska on the ropes 10-4, and
had the match headed toward a rally
scoring fifth game. But Nebraska dug
deep and pulled out a 15-12 game four
win to secure the match before a
school-record crowd of4,958.
“It sucks to lose,** Kansas State
Coach Jim Moore said after Nebraska
beat KSU for the 54th-straight time.
“They won. They’re better right now.”
Nebraska didn’t always look better
than the Wildcats, who out-hit NU 251
to .233.— the first time the Huskers
have hit a lower percentage than their
opponent in an NU win this year.
On Satuidaynigbt, the Htufcers also
swept Kansas 15-8, 15-10,15-11 in
Lawrence, Kan., to improve to 23-3
overall and 15-1 in the Kg 12. That
win, the 600th of Coach TfenyPettit’s
20 years at Nebraska, dropped the
Jayhawks to 9-20 and 3-12.
Kansas State, which lost to Colo
rado in four games Saturday night in
Manhattan, is now 22-7 and 10-6.
In the win over KSU, junior out
side hitter Lisa Reitsma led Nebraska
with 22 kills on 57 attempts, hitting
only .175 for the match. Sophomore
middle Mocker Megan Korver added
16 kills on 25 attempts, hitting .560.
Korver and Reitsma each had nine
block assists.
-• “Ijust wanted to come out here and
do my job, that’s what coach wanted
me to do,” said Reitsma, areturamg
first-team All-American, “be the ter
minator as he calls it.”
Reitsma was the terminator indeed,
watching KSU stall at 11 after leading
Please see KSU on 11
■■ ' ---
High school standout
headed to Nebraska
Behrends chooses
to walk at Nebraska
despite other offers.
By foANNON HEEn&FlNGER
Staff Reporter
Terry Pettit waited almost five
months to land one of the most
prized recruits ever to play volley
ball in Nebraska*
Saturday night after pounding a
state-record 43 kills and leading
Chappell High Schod to its second
consecutive Cass D-l state cham
pionship, Kim Behrends publicly
announced her long-awaited deci
sion.
| The 6-teot middle blocker said
she will compete for the
Comhuskersnext fall—as a walk
on.
“Nebraska is close to home and
its an excellent program,” Behrends
said Saturday. “I like Lincoln, and
•.
tney were my top cnoice irom tne
beginning.”
Behrends, who drew interest
from more than 100 Division-I
schools, surprised many with her
decision to {day for Nebraska with
out a scholarship. Pettit offered her
a scholarship July 5.
So the Huskers, who have only
two players completing their eligi
bility this season, proceeded to pur
sue other potential recruit*.
Earlier this fell, NU secured ver
bal commitments from three high
school seniors — Angie Oxley of
Ogallala, Nancy Meendering of
Hull, Iowa, and Jill McWilliams of
Des Moines —r leaving Behrends
out in the cold.
“I just wasn't ready to commit
when Coach Pettit wanted me to,”
Behrends said. 1 knew what Ne
braska had to offer me, and I needed
to compare it to other schools be
fore I made a decision.”
In addition to making room for
Please see EEHBENDS on XI
^ |