Matt Milleb/DN
LISA REITSMA takes one of her 56 swings Saturday night at the NU Coliseum in Nebraska’s four-game win over Arkansas. Reitsma recorded
a season-high 34 kills, in the process breaking NU’s single-season kill record.
Reitsma leads NU attack
Huskers advance to
face Louisville Friday
in regional semifinals.
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska volleyball team over
came a mediocre defensive showing
with a potent offensive attack to de
feat Arkansas Saturday night at the NU
Coliseum in the second round of the
NCAA Tournament.
The defending national champion
Comhuskers (28-3) had difficulty early
in the match controlling the unranked
Lady Razorbacks (26-11), but NU
eventually battled its way to a 15-8,12
15, 15-7, 15-7 victory.
Despite advancing to play host to
an NCAA regional for the third con
secutive year, Nebraska’s play Satur
day did not please Coach Terry Pettit.
ii s ceriamiy one or me nattest
matches we’ve played defensively this
season,” Pettit said.
Fourth-ranked NU will play Lou
isville on Friday in one of two regional
semifinal matches, which will be
played at 5:30 and 8 p.m. at the NU
Coliseum. The Cardinals (26-4) de
feated Maryland in four games Sunday
in Louisville, Ky.
Third-ranked Penn State (30-2) will
play 25-7 Wisconsin in the other semi
final. The Lady Lions swept Georgia
Tech on Sunday, and Wisconsin upset
George Mason in four games. Both
Wisconsin Coach John Cook and Penn
State’s Russ Rose are former assistants
at Nebraska.
The Huskers, who have held oppo
nents to a .130 hitting percentage this
season, could not find an answer Sat
urday for Arkansas outside hitters
Denise Baez and Krystal Osborne. The
two combined for 44 of the team’s 75
kills, including 15 in the second game.
The Razorbacks hit .270 at the net, the
nignest percentage Nebraska has al
lowed all season.
“They were just more aggressive
than our block was,” Pettit said. “I
didn’t anticipate we’d have problems
digging the left side. Defensively, we
just didn’t appear to be organized, and
I don’t really know why.”
The Huskers, who have dominated
teams defensively this season, were
forced to rely on a record-breaking
performance from All-American Lisa
Reitsma in perhaps their best offensive
showing of the year. Reitsma pounded
a season-high 34 kills to improve her
1996 total to 545, surpassing Kathi
DeBoer’s previous single-season
record of 511.
Reitsma, a 6-foot-4 junior — who
moved into 10th place on Nebraska’s
all-time kill chart with 1,006 — also
established a new record for total at
tempts in a season with 1,298. Pettit
said Reitsma’s play in recent matches
has been impressive.
“I said down in Texas that I thought
Lisa was the strongest player in our
conference,” Pettit said. “And I think
she’s come to believe that.”
Reitsma wasn’t the only NU player
that sparkled offensively. Husker set
ter Fiona Nepo set a season-best 70
assists and posted five kills while hit
ting .625. Middle blocker Megan
Korver recorded 16 kills to tie her best
mark of the season.
Korver was perfect in the first
game, hitting 1.000 on seven attempts,
and sophomore Stacie Maser posted
five kills while hitting at three differ
ent positions.
The Huskers led the whole way in
a game that included 55 possession
changes. NU served for game point six
times before Korver ended the game
on a kill from the right side on a serve
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Husker
women
top Iowa
Freshmen come
through in Sunday’s
victory over No. 9
Hawkeyes.
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
Sunday’s win over ninth-ranked
Iowa guarantees the Nebraska
women’s basketball team its second
best start ever, and it may be the big
gest win in the history of the
Comhusker program.
The Huskers (7-0) beat Iowa 73
67 to finish second in the Big Kona
Classic Sunday in Kona, Hawaii. On
Friday, Nebraska beat Pacific 82-55.
Although the Huskers finished the
tournament with a 2-0 record, they re
ceived the runner-up trophy. Because
every team in the tournament didn’t
play each other, the championship was
determined by point margin, and Ar
kansas, which beat Pacific by 31 points
on Sunday, took home first place.
“This is a wonderful feeling,” NU
Coach Angela Beck said. “This has
been a forward direction we have been
moving all season. We showed a lot of
character in this game. This earns us
some respect, ana it s tne mggest win
we have had.”
Beck said she was proud of the play
of her freshmen, especially Brooke
Schwartz and Nicole Kubik, both of
whom were named to the all-touma
ment team.
Against the Hawkeyes (4-2), Kubik
scored 15 points, and Schwartz fin
ished with 13. Junior Anna DeForge
led the Huskers with 16 points.
Schwartz led the team with 14
points on Friday.
NU iced the game Sunday by mak
ing eight free throws, including four by
Schwartz in the last 30 seconds.
“She told the official to ‘hand me
the ball because I’m going to ice it right
now’,” Beck said. “That’s a little cocky,
but I tend to like a little cocky.”
Nebraska, which received one vote
for The Associated Press Top 25 last
week, trailed by seven points with
seven minutes remaining in the game,
but outscored the Hawkeyes by 13
points down the stretch.
The Huskers will play Central
Michigan Saturday at the Bob Devaney
Snorts Center.
Lue battles flu, directs Nebraska to title
By David Wilson
Staff Reporter
The only thing more disturbing than the 53
turnovers committed by the Nebraska basket
ball team this weekend may have been its health.
But sophomore Tyronn
Lue, who played a team
high 37 minutes with the
flu, still managed to lead the
Comhuskers (5-1) with 24
points Saturday. NU beat
Bowling Green (4-2) 73-68
in the championship game
of the Ameritas Classic at
the Bob Devaney Sports
Center.
Lue, the tournament’s Lue
most valuable player, hit four of five free throws
in the final minute to secure the victory.
“I was really proud of our players,” said NU
Coach Danny Nee, whose team won its ninth
straight Ameritas Classic championship. “We’re
just fighting the flu bug. When Tyronn Lue can
play the way he played and be battling the flu,
it’s just unbelievable.”
After a slow start, including a three-minute
scoring draught that started just more than a
minute into the game, the Huskers found them
selves trailing 14-6 with 12 minutes, 40 seconds
remaining in the first half.
But the Huskers, who committed 12 turn
overs in the first half, went on a 20-10 run and
turned the game around,gaining a 26-24 lead on
a Lue layup with 3:53 left in the first half.
Nebraska, which led 35-32 at halftime, never
led by more than 10 in the second half after
switching to an effective 1-3-1 zone defense.
“We didn’t move the ball well against their
zone,” Bowling Green Coach Jim Larranaga
said. “For many of our players, it was the first
time they’ve ever seen a team run a zone de
fense.”
With 3:49 remaining in the game, true fresh
man Cookie Belcher banked a 3-pointer off the
glass as the shot clock expired, giving NU a 62
54 lead. The shot also ignited the crowd of 8,323
that filled the Devaney Center.
“I don’t know where I got that shot from,”
Belcher said. “I just threw it up and started run
ning back down court, because I thought it was
going to hit the top of the backboard. But I guess
it hit somewhere in the square and landed in the
net.”
Though he said he felt sick all week, Belcher
scored 39 points this weekend — including a
career-high 22 points in a 88-72 victory over
Coppin State Friday — and was named to the
all-tournament team.
Bowling Green soon found ways to beat the
Huskers’ zone, and the Falcons battled back to
trail 64-63 with a minute left in the game.
“(The zone defense) worked real good at
first, but I think we had a few breakdowns, and
they got a few quick baskets off of that,” Belcher
said. “We let them penetrate too far into the
middle.”
With 42 seconds remaining, Lue drove
through traffic and was fouled while making a
layup. After the free throw, NU led 67-63. Lue
scored six points in the final minute of the game.
But fatigue set in, he said, and he was playing at
just 50 percent near the end.
“I’ve been having diarrhea and stuff all day,”
Lue said with a bottle of Imodium A-D in his
hand. “But that’s no excuse. I was just going to
play through it no matter what.”
Senior Bernard Gamer, averaging 16 points
and eight rebounds per game, also caught the
-s
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