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
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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
