Jay Saunders
NU’s losses
don’t spell
season doom
The scoreboard read Texas 1,
Nebraska 0.
It was the first time the
Comhuskers had ever lost a confer
ence game. It was the first regular
season loss since 1995.
The game against Texas wasn’t
even supposed to be the best game
of the weekend. Nebraska was trav
eling to College Station, Texas, to
play conference rival Texas A&M
on Sunday. So what happened in
Austin, Texas, on Friday?
Maybe Nebraska overlooked a
struggling Longhorn team. Maybe
the offense, which seemed to be
absent at times in the first four
game, couldn’t get into its groove.
Is this a team that doesn’t have
the spark and the talent of last year’s
23-1 team? Is this a team that was
basking in the success of last year’s
surprise run into the national spot
light? Or, is this a team that needed
a tough loss to focus on the task at
hand?
Whatever the case, the Husker
soccer team was in a situation it
hadn’t been in since losing 4-0 to
USC on October 27,1995.
After the ’95 loss to the Women
of Troy, NU had to play UCLA that
same weekend. Nebraska fell to
UCLA by the same score of 1-0.
This year, the Aggies beat
Nebraska, 1-0.
This time, the Huskers are in
completely unfamiliar territory.
NU is now 1-2 in the Big 12
Conference. The soccer faithful
have never seen anything like this
since the 1995 season. With two
conference losses, what are the
Huskers going to do?
This isn’t football. If the foot
ball team were to lose two confer
ence games, any hope of a confer
ence - let alone national - title
would be gone as fast as an Ahman
Green touchdown run. But the great
thing about soccer is that a team can
take some lumps and regroup.
The only real thing this week
end has taught us is that this year’s
Nebraska team is human.
That is a good thing. It would be
a wnoie lot more upsetting it the
team lost to A&M at the beginning
of November in the Big 12
Championships. Now, the Huskers
can take a look at themselves in the
mirror and find out exactly who
they are. Is this a team that can’t live
up to the lofty goals of a national
championship?
Of course not. Remember, there
are players still on this team that
were here in the days of 10-8 sea
sons and no national attention.
Those players are the ones who will
need to pump up the morale of this
team in an uncomfortable position,
and that needs to start tonight
against Iowa State.
Saunders is a sophomore
broadcasting major and a Daily
Nebraskan assignment reporter.
•>
Noisy UW crowds
won’t faze Huskers
By Sam McKewon
Staff Reporter
The last time Nebraska played at
Washington in 1992, the crowd noise
level at the 72,500-seat Husky
Stadium was measured at 135 deci
bels on the sideline, the loudest
crowd ever in the 77-year history of
the stadium.
Nebraska lost the game 29-14.
“It is loud,” Nebraska coach Tom
Osborne said about Husky Stadium.
“I remember that.”
Saturday, Nebraska returns to
Husky Stadium, prepared to hear that
noise again and figure out a way to
ignore it.
“We want to overcome it so we
can just play our game,” junior full
back Joel Makovicka said. “We feel
if we can control their crowd, then we
can control the game.”
Husky Stadium is located on the
shores of Lake Washington in
Seattle, making for one of the most
picturesque, but also most intimidat
■■■>
ing settings in all of college football.
More than 70 percent of the seats are
between the end zones, which makes
for more noise on the field.
Additionally, the structure is
made of metal, a contrast to the brick
and cement of old stadiums. The
metal structure allows the stadium’s
noise to reverberate throughout the
field, making it even more difficult to
hear.
Nebraska players said it will be
difficult to deal with the noise at
first, but they have taken several
measures to prepare. For weeks, NU
has practiced with crowd noise blar
ing from the stadium speakers to help
simulate the noise in Seattle.
In addition, NU has used silent
counts, hand signals, and ear plugs to
help counteract the crowd’s effects.
Junior I-back Ahman Green said
Please see HUSKY on 11
Golden child leads UW
^ By Antone Oseka
Senior Reporter
Players for the Washington
Huskies see sophomore quarter
back Brock Huard as golden.
“Around Washington, we call
him the golden child,” Husker tail
back Rashaan Shehee said.
“That’s what he is to our team, the
golden child.”
Huard will lead the second
ranked Huskies (2-0) in their
game with No. 7 Nebraska at 2:30
p.m. Saturday at Husky Stadium
in Seattle.
Historically, Nebraska (2-0)
has not fared well against
Washington, losing three of its
five games with the Huskies,
including the last two. In fact, the
last Husker loss in Memorial
Stadium was 36-21 to Washington
in 1991.
Huard remembers that game
well.
His brother, Damon, was a
freshman quarterback who made
the trip to Lincoln. Huard said he
watched the game on television.
Then in 1992 the Huskies beat the
Huskers 29-14 in Seattle.
I
The Huskies are hoping to
repeat that same feat this year, but
with the sophomore Brock Huard
running the offense.
The younger Huard may be
more of a poised quarterback than
his age would indicate, Shehee
said. •
“Brock’s like a pro quarter
back, in my eyes,” Shehee said.
He’s playing like one, too. His
performance in the first two
Husky games this season has been
stellar. He’s averaging nearly 300
yards per game, passing, complet
ing 34 of 49 passes for 598 yards.
He currently leads the nation with
a pass-efficiency rating of 219,
while completing 69.4 percent of
his passes.
In the first two games, he has
thrown seven touchdowns and had
his best passing day of his career
last week in the Huskies 36-3 vic
tory over San Diego State. In that
game, Huard threw for 313 yards
and four touchdowns.
Please see HUARD on 11
JUNIOR KIM EH«u_
lag all six games, aad scoring a team-high fear goals.
Energy, focus key to Husker success
I-—-—-----—- /
Engesser finds niche at NU
By Jay Saunders
Assignment Reporter
At this time last year, Kim
Engesser was a pilot - a
Portland Pilot.
Engesser, a midfielder/
striker from Huntington
Beach, Calif., played two
years for the University of
Portland.
As a freshman for . the
Pilots, Engesser started 21 of
22 games, scored nine goals,
and chipped in five assists.
Two of her goals came in her
first collegiate game.
Engesser finished her first
season as an All-West Coast
Conference honorable men
tion selection.
But in her sophomore year,
Engesser was switched from
the front lines to the defensive
end of the field. She only
started two games, one of
which was Portland’s 1-0 vic
tory over Nebraska in the
quarterfinals of the NCAA
tournament, and was unhappy
with her playing time.
So Engesser decided it was
time for a change and trans
ferred to No. 11 Nebraska (4-2
overall, 1-2 in the Big 12
Conference).
Please see ENGESSER on 11
By Jay Saunders
Assignment Reporter
Losing two games last weekend
for the first time in two seasons isn’t
going to be the end of the world,
Nebraska soccer coach John Walker
said.
It is hopefully going to be a
learned lesson.
How well the Huskers (4-2 over
all, 1-2 in the Big 12) learned the les
son will be shown tonight when No.
11 Nebraska faces Iowa State (2-4,0
3) at 7 p.m. at the Abbott Soccer
Complex.
“The lesson we take into (today)
is to avoid what we did against
Texas,” Walker said. “We don’t ever
want that to happen again. The play
• ers will take that lesson to heart.”
Walker said he was not pleased
with the Husker’s 1-0 loss to Texas
last Friday in which NU showed a
lack of intensity and effort The loss
to Texas was Nebraska’s first-ever
loss in the Big 12 Conference and
ended NU’s 23-game regular-season
winning streak. On Sunday Nebraska
lost to Texas A&M 1-0. '
Junior midfielder/striker Kim
Engesser said a lesson should be
learned from the two losses. In her
collegiate soccer career, which began
at the University of Portland,
Engesser has never lost two consecu
tive games.
“Obviously it was a disappoint
ment” Engesser said. “It was a good
wake up call. Hopefully, from here it
will get better.”
To get better, NU must focus
against Iowa State. The Cyclones,
like Texas, are another second-year
team in the Big 12 conference.
Last season in Ames, Iowa, NU
won 5-1, but Walker said the
Please see SOCCER on 11