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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1997)
Tennis team optimistic about season's players By Nate Odgaard Staff Reporter What goes down must come up. That’s Nebraska men’s tennis coach Kerry McDermott’s feeling about this year’s Cornhusker team. The Huskers sunk to a sea son-low perfor mance last year in the Big 12 ■a - Championships. MCDemiQtt Only Missouri scored lower than Nebraska. “We have no where to go but up,” said McDermott, who is in his 18th year as coach. “We’re looking to make an improvement.” The Huskers don’t have to look too far. Four of six starters return to the team this year, including the top three singles’ players. Magnus Grahn, Dinko Verzi and Markus Bergerheim all return after playing one through three singles, respectively, last season Andrew Wiese, who held down the No. 6 spot last season, also returns. Nebraska finished with a 7-15 dual record last year. They placed sixth out of 18 teams in the regional tournament and 99th out of 350 Division I schools. The Huskers are shooting for a top 50 ranking by the end of this year, McDermott said. “I feel we’re as good or better than some of the teams that beaj us last year,” he said. In addition to being more experi enced this year, the Husker returnees have stepped up their play since then poor showing to end last year’s sea son, McDermott said. McDermott encouraged team members to play as many tourna ments as possible in the summer. He said tournaments forced the players to practice hard and stay in shape. “Last year was a bad year,” he said. “I feel over the summer you can make up a lot. “I can already see (Grahn and Verzi) have improved maybe 20 to 25 percent, which is a reflection of what they did over the summer.” The Huskers’ improvement also relies on two newcomers, Joakim Larsson and Jorge Abossanchez. McDermott said he is counting on the two to make a direct impact. Abossanchez, a freshman from Spain, will challenge for a position in the top three, McDermott said. Larsson, a junior college transfer originally from Sweden, will proba bly play No. 4 or No. 5. McDermott said numerous play ers have the talent to challenge Wiese for the No. 6 spot, including Kelsey Moratt atid'Ryhn Haith, both from Lincoln. But he also said no one has solid ified a position on the team because the Huskers’ depth and parity is so strong. Nebraska lacked both aspects last year. “We didn’t win any close matches (last year),” McDermott said. “We feel we can be competitive at each spot and (we’re) more confident the team can win more.” Grahn said the uncertainty as to where team members will play is a good problem to have. “My No. 1 spot is not for sure,” he said. “We don’t know which spot were going to play and that’s excit ing.” Grahn, a senior captain from Sweden, is anxious to begin compet ing to see how good the Huskers are. He said the team’s goal is to finish in the top four or five in the Big 12. “We know we’re going to improve,” Grahn said. “We just don’t know how much. If we work hard, that’s a reasonable goal.” McDermott echoed Grahn’s senti ment. “I’m excited. I think we’re going to be a sleeper team,” he said. “It’s just a matter of working hard and making a commitment.” Men’s Tennis Schedule Date Game r. Place Sept 20-21 National day court (pr*q) Baltimore, MO Sept. 26-28 Notre Dame (Tom Fallon Tournament) Notre Dame, IN Oct 11-12 :. ■• fTAiNMrnote lipr^Q)' ' Austin, IX r Oct. 23-27 Region VRolex Wichita, KS Frieder resigns from Arizona State PHOENIX (AP) — Bill Frieder, who only last week denied with characteristic vigor that he was going anywhere, resigned Wednesday as Arizona State’s bas ketball coach. A school spokesman confirmed that Frieder, 55, had resigned after eight seasons with the Sun Devils. Arizona State was 10-20 last season and has been under the cloud of a federal point-fixing investiga tion. Almost from the start, some of Frieder’s best players turned up on police blotters, left the program or were injured. The latest incident came last week, when two players were accused of stealing a compact disc player from a dormitory room. Frieder still won acclaim for coaching fast-breaking teams that relied on relentless, pressure defense to beat more talented squads. The high-water mark of his eight years in suburban Tempe came in 1994-95, when the Sun Devils were 24-9, reached the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament and earned Frieder a two-year contract exten sion through April 2000. While the FBI has denied that the school and athletic officials, including Frieder, are. targets, a fed eral grand jury reportedly is looking into accusations that a gambler who bet heavily against the Sun Devils in 1994 paid one to three players to shave points in several games. Frieder has ridiculed the sugges tion, pointing out that his team cov ered the point spread, a double-cross of anyone who paid to make sure they did not. “Do you think I’d be alive today if we had agreed to throw a game and then ran away with it?” he said in 1994. Frieder was 132-108 at Arizona State and 323-195 in 19 seasons overall. h—ig^Qg g 435-1717 1325 0 St g I Thors: Paul Phillips Live! JK Come Sing-A-Long with Lincoln's Best & enjoy $4 Domestic Pitchers. FRI: $1.50 Vodka Lemonades SAT: Husker Gameday Specials! $1.50 Bloodys Bt $1.50 23oz Big Red Draws H Lady Volunteers face challenge against NU By David Wilson Senior Reporter One small step backward for the Tennessee volleyball team’s immedi ate future marks one step forward for the Lady Volunteers overall program. Tennessee (3-5) will travel to Lincoln this weekend for the sixth annual Arby’s Classic to face fifth ranked Nebraska (5-1) along with Ohio State (5-1) and Oral Roberts (1 - 6). “Hopefully, we can make some good things happen,” Tennessee first year head coach Rob Patrick said. “We’ll get to see what we need to do to get better by playing Nebraska.” The Lady Volunteers will meet Ohio State Friday at 5 p.m. to open the tournament before playing Oral Roberts Saturday at 1 p.m and Nebraska at 7:30 p.m to close the round-robin tournament. Nebraska will present a major challenge for Tennessee, Patrick said. This season, the Lady Volunteers boast wins over East Tennessee State, Middle-Tennessee State, and Tennessee Chattanooga. But Tennessee lost to Miami, Ohio - a team that Nebraska swept Aug. 30 in the Suntrust Invitational in Gainesville, Fla. “We’re still on a big learning curve,” Patrick said. “We’re not play ing, we’re thinking.” Patrick replaced former Comhusker standout Julie Herman as the Lady Volunteers coach when Herman left to be an assistant for the fcfc We re still on a big learning curve. Were not playing, we re thinking.” Rob Patrick Tennessee volleyball coach U.S. National Team. Since replacing her, Patrick said he had installed an entirely new system in the Tennessee program. Five starters returned from a Lady Volunteer team that finished 17-16 last season, but they will still have trouble stopping NU senior Lisa Reitsma. “Reitsma has blossomed into a strong player,” Patrick said. “That creates big match-up problems for us. Sometimes she’ll hit the ball through three blockers and she still gets kills.” Despite the lack of a dominant player, Tennessee still hopes to have a good tournament. “For us to be successful, we’ll have to play well as a team,” Patrick said. “We don’t have anyone to carry us.” But being in the Southeastern Conference will give the Lady Volunteers a chance to learn and still qualify for post-season play. “We can do learning and teaching during the regular season and hope fully surprise people in the confer ence tournament,” Patrick said. I I U I V: < J (f NoticetoStudents ^ All Students are eligible to apply tor a refund of their “A” portion of student fees beginning August 25,1997, and ending September 19,1997. Students claiming a refund will lose their benefits provided by Fund "A” users during the fall semester, 1997-1998. Application forms are available at the Student Activities Financial Services Office, Room 222 City Union, the ASUN office, 115 Nebraska Union, and should be returned by the applicant in person to 222 Nebraska Union or 300 Nebraska East Union. Students must bring their student I.D. cards at the time of application. Students who are unable to personally return their application to the Student Activities Financial Services Office should contact Daniel Paez, Room 222 Nebraska Union (472-2154) on or before September 15,1997 to make arrangements. Students who have completed a refund * application and returned it on or before September 19,1997 will be mailed a check for the amount of the refund claimed. Refund checks will be mailed between the dates of September 22 and 26,1997. Students claiming a refund will lose certain benefits provided by the above Fund "A.” For details on which benefits may be lost, please refer to the cover