on jmaay witn tne Big 12 title on tbe
NU tOITK ScM
Hushers match with Tboas carries title implications
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
The importance of the Nebraska
volleyball team’s trip to the Lone Star
State this weekend goes far beyond
winning the Big 12 championship.
1116 fifth-ranked Cornhuskers, ?5
3 ovi?ral^an)[l^7-i in the .Hig 12, are
hoping to use matches at eighth-ranked
Texas (22-4 and 16-2) Friday and at
No. 14 Texas A&M (23-6 and 14-4)
Saturday as a springboard to the
NCAA Tournament.
With two wins this weekend, Ne
braska will likely play host to an
NCAA regional for the third-straight
year.
“I don’t think we are consciously
doing anything different,” NU Coach
Terry Pettit-said. “I think everybody
knows we are pushing toward the
NCAA Tournament, and we will play
these matches just tike NCAA Tour
nament matches.”
The 48-team tournament field will
be announced Sunday at 5 pjn.
Although the Huskers are a lock to
earn a bid to defend their national title,
more than NCAA-Tournament impli
cations will be on the line when NU
faces the Longhorns at the Erwin Cen
ter Friday night at 7.
The first-ever conference title
hangs in the balance.
Although the tournament loans on
the horizon, senior Maria Hedbeck
said, winning the conference crown is
one of this team’s major goals.
“Our first goal we set before the
season was to win the Big 12, and we
can do that Friday night,” Hedbeck
said. “This weekend is a good check
to see where we stand at.”
«
Obviously Nebraska and Texas both have
set their sights on something bigger than
just this weekend.”
Mick Haley
• ■' Tfexas volleyball coach
The only way Nebraska can totally
blow its one-match advantage over
Texas is by losing both matches this
weekend coupled with a UT win over
Colorado on Saturday.
If Texas beats Nebraska and both
teams finish tied for first, the Big 12
will use a tie-breaker system to deter
mine which team earns the league’s
automatic NCAA bid.
The first tie-breaker is head-to-head
games. As long as NU isn’t swept by
the Longhorns, Nebraska will win the
title by virtue of its three-game sweep
of Texas earlier this season in Lincoln.
Texas Coach Mick Haley said the
Longhorns, who have won 10-straight
matches after losing at the NU Coli
seum on Oct. 19, have found a rhythm
in the past three weeks.
“We are playing a lot better now
than when we did that weekend,” said
Haley, whose squad lost to NU in four
games last season in the national cham
pionship match. “Everybody has fi
nally developed a role.”
The best teams in the country im
prove a lot in the final third of the sea
son, he said.
“Emotionally, it’s not the end of the
road this weekend,” Pettit said. “We
need to use this weekend to find out
where we are at and gear up for the
Volleyball
NCAA Tournament.”
Haley agreed that this match will
show his team where it is—and where
it needs to be — heading into the
postseason.
“Obviously Nebraska and Texas
both have set their sights on something
bigger than just this weekend,” Haley
said. “Both are trying to get in posi
tion to win the national championship.”
Note: ..
As of Monday afternoon, more than
3,500 tickets had been sold for the
match and more than 7,000 people
were expected to attend. The Tbxas
Texas A&M match in Austin on Nov.
13 drew a season-high 6,123 fans.
Friday’s match will be televised live
by the FoxSports Network, Channel 58
in Lincoln. _
Portland up
next for NU
Huskers can
advance to the Final
Four with a win
Sunday.
By Vince IPAdamo
Staff Reporter
Thanksgiving may be Thursday,
but the fifth-ranked Nebraska soc
cer team wants to satisfy its hunger
on Sunday.
With N CAA-Tournament wins
over Minnesota and Duke, the un
beaten Comhuskers are on the door
step of the Final Four—which will
be played Dec. 6 through 8 in Santa
Clara, Calif.
This time, the Huskers (23-0)
travel to the Pacific Northwest to
try to clear their next obstacle. Ne
braska meets third-ranked Portland
(18-0-2) on Sunday at 3 pjn.
The Pilots, advanced to the
quarterfinals by getting past
Vanderbilt 3-1 on Sunday. Portland
out-shot the Commodores 38-2 and
carries a 20-game unbeaten streak
and an 11-game winning streak into
Sunday’s game despite playing for
the last month without Coach Clive
Charles, an assistant on the U.S. Na
tional Team.
Charles will not rejoin the Pilots
this season, unless they qualify for
theFinal Four. _■
The only blemishes on the Pilots
schedule are a pair of 1-1 ties to
Duke and Cal-Poly San Luis
Obispo. Portland has out-scored its
opposition 51-7. Junior Justi
Baumgardt leads the Pilots with 36
points on 13 goals.- Freshman goal
keeper Cheryl Loveless has posted
12 shutouts.
Portland returns nine starters '
from last year’s roster. Nebraska
Coach John Walker said the Pilots
are among the top teams in college
soccer.
“They have no weaknesses,”
Walker said. “They’re experienced,
very skilled and very fast. They’re
strong at all positions.”
Portland is bidding for its third
Final Four berth in as many seasons.
In last year’s national-championship
game, the Pilots fell 1 -0 in overtime
tp Notre Dame.
Portland Assistant Coach
Garrett Smith said a return trip to
the Final Four will not be easy
against Nebraska.
“Plain and simple,” Smith said,
“the most impressive thing is they
win games.”
The Pilots have an edge in ex
perience in addition to the home
field advantage. But while the
youthful Huskers respect the Pilots,
they said they won’t be awed by
Portland.
“It’s right there,” NU sophomore
Becky Hogan said. “We’re just 90
••
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Dec.6
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Santa Clan, CoM
Dec.6
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minutes away. It’s like instead of
having the fear of the unknown,
we’re eager to rise to the next level
and see where we can go with it.
There’s no fear in what we’mio- s**
ing.”
In Sunday’s 3-0 win over Duke,
Hogan scored the first goal to jump
start the Huskers six minutes into
the game.
Goalkeeper Becky Hombacher,
who recorded her 14th shutout, said
the Huskers’ success has opened
some eyes. However, Hombacher
said, some critics still short-change
NU’s success.
“We’re getting recognition,”
Hombacher said. “Sane teams are
taking notice. But I still don’t think
other teams are taking us seriously.”
Striker Kristen Gay agreed.
“We’ve won sane big games on
the road,” Gay said, “but I think
there’s still some people out there
that don’t think we’re fa real. We
just have to come out with the same
intensity.”
Note:
Hombacher, Kari Uppinghouse,
Isabelle Morneau, Lindsay
Eddleman and Jenny Benson gained
first-team All-Central Region hon
ors on Monday. Gay and Heather
Brown made the second team, and
Hogan and Sharolta Nonen earned
hird-team honors.
Husker wrestlers head to Mat Tbwn
ByAntone Oseka
SeniorEditor
—..j-.
Nebraska heavyweight Tolly Thompson was
among five Comhusker wrestlers to claim their
first championship of the season last Saturday
at the Kaufman-Brand Open at the UNO
FieldhOuse in Omaha.
No team scoring was kept in Nebraska’s first
competition of the 1996-97 season.
Thompson was the last Husker to leave
Omaha with a championship. The roll started in
the {18-pound class with freshman Todd
Beckerman taking the championship.
Beckerman, from Crofton, Md., beat Cody
Bicklet of Fort Hays State. Beckerman will
redshirt this season.
At 126 pounds, junior Jeramie Welder took
home his first championship since 1994, beat
ing Adam Feldman of South Dakota State 6-4.
Die roll continued through 134 pounds.
In the 134-pound class, junior Brad Canoyer
beat Northern Iowa’s Dusty Rhodes 9-4:
Canoyer, who earned All-America honors at 118
pounds as a freshman, proved Saturday/that he
could wrestle two classes above the weight at
which he has competed for the last two years.
Die victories then stopped rolling for Ne
braska until 220-pounder Ryan Tobin beat Darn
Radik of the Maverick Wrestling Gub. Tobin
wrestled unattached at the meet and will redshirt
this season for NU.
The championships were a good sign, said
NU Coach Tim Neumann, whose team is pre
paring for the Mat Town Invitational, Saturday
in Lock Haven, Penn.
Nebraska will challenge two top-10 teams
— fourth-ranked Penn State and No. 6 Lock
Haven — for the team championship. It’s the
first team-scored meet of the season.
Every team is allowed to enter two wrestlers
at each of the 10 weights. But the team score
will be kept for only 10 wrestlers.
One of the key match-ups of the meet will
*
be at heavyweight, where Thompson, the 1995
heavyweight national champion, squares off
against Kerry McCoy of Penn State, who is the
1994 heavyweight national champion.
“Tolly looked better than he has in two
years,” Neumann said. “He tooka kid apart from
Minnesota. .'_
“It was fun to watch him wrestle.”
One weak spot for Nebraska at Mat Town is
at 167 pounds, where NU lost starter Monte
Christensen. He injured his left knee and will
be out for two to three weeks, Neumann said.
That leaves Nebraska without a wrestler at 167.
“We’re a little thin there,” Neumann said.