Sports Opinion
David Wilson
Anti-Frost
fans won’t
warm up
Picture this:
Nebraska trails Washington by
five with two minutes remaining in
the game. Quarterback Scott Frost
puts together an 80-yard drive
capped by a perfect option run for a
touchdown. The Comhuskers upset
the second-ranked Huskies and
Frost is the hero.
But guess what?
Frost haters will still hate Frost.
And no matter how well Frost per
forms, Saturday or any other fall
football Saturday this season, NU
coach Tom Osborne will stand by
his man. But Osborne hasn’t been
proven wrong yet.
Against Central Florida, Frost
completed 9 of 14 passes - and had
two passes dropped - for 120 yards.
In possibly his best game at
Nebraska, Frost’s play at quarter
back was rated by coaches as a 1.97
on a 2.0 scale.
“I cannot remember a quarter
back here who went 60 snaps and
graded any higher than that,”
Osborne said.
Still, Frost was booed by a good
chunk of the student section.
“I was proud of the fact that
Scott - despite the obvious displea
sure - did not cave in,” Osborne
said. “He seemed to play better.”
No matter how loud the boos
are, Osborne can’t justify starting
backup quarterbacks Frankie
London or Bobby Newcombe.
Frost is the only one with legitimate
game experience.
But hopefully, if Frost does fal
ter, Osborne will not be too stub
born to relieve the veteran.
Obviously most fans’ hatred for
Frost goes beyond statistics, but tliat
doesn’t seem to bother him. Frost
says he plays better when he’s mad.
“Maybe if they keep booing
me,” Frost said, “I’ll keep playing
better and better.”
Unfortunately, no matter how
well he performs on the field, Frost
will never regain the affection of
some fans that he lost off the field.
But the feeling is mutual.
“If you have any kind of good
fans,” Frost said, “they’re not going
to do that no matter what happens
on the field.”
The big game this weekend will
not make or break Frost. In the eyes
of Frost haters, he can do no right.
In the eyes of Osborne, he can’t do
tha; bad.
“I’m not going to let it bother
me too much,” Frost said. “When
people do things like that to me, it
gets me going and I actually play
better. So whatever it takes to moti
vate the players.”
So hate Frost for whatever rea
son you want, but things won’t
change.
Wilson is a junior news-edito
rial major and a Daily Nebraskan
senior sports reporter.
ISU suffers NU revenge
Matt Miller/DN
JENNY BENSON and the rest of the Huskers soared above Barb Lavergne
(bottom) and the Iowa State Cyclones at the Abbott Center Thursday night.
By Jay Saunders
Assignment Reporter
After suffering its first two regu
lar season losses in 23 games last
weekend, the Nebraska soccer team
said it needed to prove it could play at
a high level.
The team proved that Thursday
night with a 7-0 win over Iowa State
in front of a crowd of 721 at the
Abbott Sports Complex.
The No. 11 Huskers (5-2 overall,
2-2 in the Big 12) attacked ISU goal
keeper Haley Mercer early and often.
NU finished the match with 11
shots on goal compared to one for the
Cyclones (2-5,0-4). NU senior goalie
Rebecca Hombacher did not have a
busy night while recording her sec
ond shutout of the year.
Nebraska coach John Walker said
the intensity and pressure that was
missing in a 1-0 loss to Texas last
weekend was there against the
Cyclones.
“Up front the girls did a lot of
work,” Walker said. “In the middle of
the field (Kari) Uppinghouse and
Kristen (Gay) won almost everything
in the air.”
The Huskers spent most of the
first half on Iowa State’s side of the
field.
The scoring opened up in the 10th
minute with a Kim Engesser goal.
Uppinghouse ran down the center of
the field, and passed the ball to
Engesser on the left side. The
University of Portland transfer capi
talized on a one-on-one scoring
opportunity with Mercer.
Engesser added another goal in
the 19™ minute on a shot that went in
the upper-left comer of the goal from
25 yards out.
Junior Becky Hogan scored her
first goal of the season since recover
ing from a leg injury that sidelined
her until last weekend’s action.
Hogan knocked in a rebound off
of a Sharolta Nonen shot at the 20
minute mark.
Hogan, who played sparingly
against Texas and Texas A&M, said
she was excited to score her first goal
of the season.
“It feels really good,” Hogan said.
“For me the hardest thing to do is to
watch soccer and not play. (Scoring)
is something I really wanted to do.”
Then with 13 minutes to go in the
first half, Jenny Benson fended off
three defenders and scored from
Soccer
Sunday at 1 p.m. vs. Arkansas
seven yards out.
With her second two-goal game
of the season already in hand,
Engesser was not done yet. In the 60th
minute, she opened up the second
Please see SOCCER on 11
NU anticipates rivalry game
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Assignment Reporter
The match that has weighed heav
ily on the thoughts of the Nebraska
volleyball team is finally here.
Four weeks of non-conference
competition have produced three
five-game matches, a loss to No. 2
Florida, and victories over three
ranked teams. The Comhuskers have
seldom lacked reasons for excitement
or motivation this season.
But the biggest reason for the two
happens Friday night at 5 in Madison,
Wis.
The Huskers compete in the first
ever Big Ten-Big 12 Challenge this
weekend. Traditional powerhouses
from both conferences will partici
pate. Nebraska and No. 10 Texas rep
resent the Big 12 and twelfth-ranked
Wisconsin and No. 1 Penn State stand
up for the Big Ten.
NU does not play Texas, but faces
Wisconsin on Saturday at 7 p.m.
But it’s the kickoff match against
Penn State the team has been antici
pating throughout the early part of the
season.
“Anymore, we have a great rival
ry,” Korver said. “We’ve been think
ing about it, and after the Ohio State
game last weekend, it was on every
body’s mind.
“Penn State just hates to come to
the (NU) Coliseum. Playing them in
Wisconsin, we’ll have to play the best
match we’ve played so far this year.”
Nebraska expects a tough match
with Penn State (9-0), a team with
which it owns a lengthy history.
The two teams played a thrilling
five-game match last season at the
NU Coliseum with NU rallying from
an 11-5 deficit in the fifth game to
win the match, and knock the Nittany
Lions from the NCAA Tournament.
In 1994, Penn State defeated NU
in four games in the Mideast
Regional Tournament Finals to knock
the Huskers from the NCAA
Tournament and end Nebraska’s
undefeated season.
The two teams have met in post
season play seven times with the
Huskers holding a 6-1 advantage.
The 1997 version of the nine
year rivalry features many of the
same players who competed in last
year’s battle, a match in which the
Huskers held the home-court advan
tage.
Similar to the teams’ last meeting,
Penn State’s strength lies in the front
court. Three different players average
over three kills a game including
senior Terri Zemaitis, who leads PSU
with 4.35 kills per game.
Zemaitis, a player NU coach
Terry Pettit recruited, also tops the
Big Ten in blocking with 1.7 per
game.
“Terry Zemaitis is one of my
favorite players,” Pettit said. “She
plays in a manner that allows people
to be comfortable around her. I think
Volleyball
Big Ten - Big XII Challenge
Madison. Wis
Sept. 19 Nebraska vs. Penn St 5 p.m.
Wisconsin vs. Texas 7 p m.
Sept. 20 Penn St. vs. Texas 5 p.m.
Wisconsin vs. Nebraska 7 p.m
anytime you see a player like that on
another team, you have to admire her.
“I think in many ways she pro
vides the chemistry that allows Penn
State to play as well as they’ve been
playing.”
The responsibility of defending
the senior All-American falls upon
Husker middle blockers Megan
Korver and Tonia Tauke. Lisa
Reitsma leads NU with 1.59 blocks
per game but Korver and Tauke are
close behind with 1.22 and 1.18.
“It’s going to be a long, challeng
ing weekend for the middles,” Tauke
said. “But I think if we can disrupt
their passing, it will be easier to see
where the ball is going to go and
where to put up the block.”
Pettit said the significance of the
early-season match remains lower
than if it were played in November or
December.
But the match holds more impor
tance than just post-season implica
tions, Tauke said.
“If we beat Penn State, it would be
a huge win because they’re so feisty
about our win last year,” Tauke said.
“It’s early, but if we get this win, our
confidence for the Big 12 season will
be very high.”
Canadian
tailback
verbally
commits
■ Nebraska football
support and “sea of red”
impressed the recruit
when he visited Lincoln
last weekend.
By David Wilson
Senior Reporter
The Nebraska football team
received its fourth verbal commit
ment from Dahrran Diedrick, a
tailback from Scarborough,
Ontario.
Diedrick made his decision
after visiting Lincoln last weekend
and watching the Cornhuskers
defeat Central Florida 38-24. The
6-foot-1,210-pounder said he was
caught up by the aura of Nebraska
football.
“The thing that amazed me
was the fans,” Diedrick said.
“They say it becomes the third
largest city in Nebraska when they
play. When I was there I was like,
‘Whoa.’ There was so much red.
That had a really big influence on
my decision.”
As a senior at Cedarbrae
Collegiate High School, Diedrick
opened his senior season Thursday
afternoon rushing 15 times for 250
yards and two touchdowns.
Despite being the top player
recruited out of Canada, Diedrick
wasn’t sure he was going to play
football this fall.
In addition to playing football,
rugby and track in high school,
Diedrick has played on an all-star
football team each summer since
he was 12 and said he doesn’t need
any more highlight tapes. Last
summer, Diedrick had 145 carries
for 1386 yards and 14 touch
downs.
Speed has helped Diedrick,
who said he had been clocked run
ning a 4.48 electronic 40-yard
dash. But times, he said, don’t
mean much.
“Just running fast on a track
doesn’t mean you’re Superman,”
Diedrick said. “I’ve played against
guys that run a 4.3 and I blow right
by them.”
While attending a combine last
May, Diedrick met NU running
backs coach Frank Solich and has
been in contact with Nebraska
ever since. The persistence and the
friendliness of the Husker coach
ing staff also influenced
Diedrick’s decision.
Assuming he records a quali
fying SAT score this fall, Diedrick
will graduate and attend Nebraska
in January. High school athletes
can not sign letters of intent until
February, when Diedrick will
become the first Canadian football
player to be given a football schol
arship at Nebraska. Though he
didn’t take any other official vis
its, Diedrick also considered eight
other schools.
“I feel like it’s opening up
doors for that school and the Big
12,” Diedrick said. “If I go down
and play well, they’ll have to say,
‘Hey, there has to be more than
one good player in Canada.’”