Dave Wilson
Wildcat QB
unfazed for
NU battle
MANHATTAN, Kan. —
Michael Bishop doesn’t know what
he has coming.
Playing in his first season of
Division I football, the junior Kansas
State quarterback will travel to
Lincoln Saturday to face his toughest
opponent ever.
Bishop led Blinn (Texas) Junior
College to two consecutive national
championships while compiling a
24-0 record. At Kansas State this
season, Bishop - who earned the
starting position in fall camp - has
led the Wildcats to wins over
Northern Illinois, Ohio and Bowling
Green. Kansas State currently ranks
17th in the nation.
^ Against third-ranked Nebraska,
Bishop could see his first loss since
high school.
life But don’t tell him that.
t~ “If we go in with an open mind,”
Bishop said, “and we believe we can
win, I think we’ll win.”
If only it were that simple.
Kansas State has not defeated
Nebraska since Nov. 9, 1968. But
that doesn’t keep Bishop from count
ing his chickens before they hatch.
“I’m going to go in and play 110
percent and help the seniors out,”
Bishop said. “They’ve never beat
Nebraska. I know what it’s going to
feel like once we beat them.”
Of course Bishop does have
good reason to be a little cocky. He
leads the Big 12 in passing efficien
cy (170.23) and set a Kansas State
single-game record with a 274.22
efficiency rating against Northern
Illinois in die season opener.
Benina an offensive line that has
allowed only five sacks this year,
Bishop is feeling {Hetty comfortable.
So is his offensive line. Senior center
Kendyl Jacox said the Kansas State
offensive line will not be dominated
by Nebraska’s defensive line.
“Physically, I think we match up
perfectly,” Jacox said.
One thing is certain: The
Wildcats must establish a running
game to beat Nebraska. Jacox said
r ' that shouldn’t be a problem.
In the last three years against the
Huskers, Kansas State has compiled
negative one net yards rushing. The
last time the Wildcats came within
20 points ofNebraska, in 1993, then
quarteiback Chad May threw for 489
yards, and Kansas State rushed for
76 - in a 45-28 losing effort.
Bishop has never thrown for
more than 352 yards in a game -
including high school - but he still
remains confident of the Wildcats’
chances.
4 “I think they’ll maybe overlook
us,” Bishop said. “It!s not a good
thing to werlook us. We have a team
that can explode at any point in
time.”
Not this year.
Wilson is a junior news-editor
ial major and a Daily Nebraskan
-
'I
Former Husker
AllisonWeston
returns to the
coliseum - as a
member of the red,
white and blue
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Assignment Reporter
Former Nebraska volleyball
player Allison Weston returned to
Lincoln - home of the college pro
gram she helped build - with the
national team she is attempting to
recreate.
Cornhusker fans welcomed
Weston Tuesday night with warm
applause before the Huskers’ match
with the U.S. National Team. In a
ceremony prior to the match, the
team retired Weston’s No. 18 jersey.
Weston, a three-time All
American and 1995 national player
of the year, became the fourth player
in school history to earn the honor.
“It was Allison Weston’s night,”
Husker coach Terry Pettit said. “We
wanted to honor her. There isn’t any
one who’s done more for Nebraska
volleyball than Allison Weston. She
is probably the best volleyball player
we’ve ever had here.
“And the thing about it, if you
can believe it, is that she’s a better
person than she is a volleyball player.
She is an incredible person.”
A dominant force in college,
Weston topped Nebraska’s all-time
kill chart with 1,778, and led the
Huskers to a 32-1 record and their
first-ever national championship in
1QQS
Competing for the national team
was a big adjustment, Weston said.
“It’s a really big jump,” Weston
said. “It’s like going from high
school to college and that gap may
be even a little bit wider.”
National team coach Mick Haley
said Weston has bridged the gajy
nicely. Against the Huskers, Weston
led all players with 20 kills while hit
ting .271 for the match.
Haley is counting on the all
around play of Weston to help
rebuild a struggling national team.
The team lost several key play
ers, including Lori Endicott, a for
mer NU setter, after finishing sev
Photos by Scott McClurg/DN
ABOVE: FORMER HUSKER Allison
Weston had her jersey retired
Tuesday night at the NU Coliseum.
Her jersey is only the fourth to be
retired in Nebraska history.
RIGHT: NEBRASKA OUTSIBE HITTER
Lisa Reitsma attempts a kill over
Christine Garner of the U.S.
National Team Tuesday night at the /
NU Coliseum.
enth in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Haley said the chances of posting a
better showing in the 2000 Olympics
( in Sydney, Australia, is unlikely
unless-the team greatly improves.
' ~ Weston said the improvements
will come as the team gains experi
ence.
“It will take a good two years of
us working in the gym to get to that
level,” Weston said. “We’ve only
been together for four months and
there are a lot of expectations on us.”
i
U.S. team
sweeps
Nebraska 1
$ - » r : ' / •;
By Andrew Strnad
Staff Reporter
Nebraska coach Terry Pettit
called Tuesday night’s match
against the U.S. National Team
a celebration of volleyball.
Former Husker great
Allison Weston had her num
ber 18 retired, while on the
court the NU volleyball team
played the best volleyball play
ers in America as 1,609 enthu
siastic fans watched on at the
NU Coliseum.
The Huskers were able to
put up a fight, but were swept
by the national team 15-13,15
9,15-11.
i ne national team naa con
trol of the match for most of
tl never
P i
“We had a lot of hitting J
errors,” said national team f
coach Mick Haley. “In interna
tional play if you have as many
hitting errors as we had
tonight, you’d probably only
score two points.”
NU never led the match,
but did draw as close as 14-13
in the first game before nation
al team outside hitter Christine
Gamer served an ace to win the
first game.
, The Huskers gave the
national team too many oppor
tunities, NU coach Terry Pettit
said.
“Every time you’re passive
against a good team it’s bad
news,” Pettit said. “They will
make you pay.”
Weston, who posted a
match-high 20 kills for the
national team, didn’t disap
point the crowd. ^ ^
-:--^
Please see USA dn 8
■*r ■ S 7m
_
Houston drops NU from schedule
By Sam McKewon
* Staff Reporter
Yet another team has dropped out of a scheduled
game against Nebraska only one year before the
contest was scheduled to be played.
The University of Houston has decided not to
play a home-and-home series against die Huskers in
1998 and 1999. NU would have played in Houston
next season, with UH visiting Lincoln in 1999.
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said that with the
late notice of die Cougars dropping out, NU is once
again scrambling for an opponent for the next two
seasons.
“It’s not too bad when teams cancel four or five
years ahead of time,” Osborne said, “but when they
do it one year in advance, you have a problem.”
The problem arose when Houston interim
Athletic Director Bill Carr agreed on April 21,
1997, to play the Huskers without knowledge that
UH already had a game scheduled on that date, and
4
it could not be changed.
Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Byrne said
Houston was supposed to seal the agreement by
signing a contract, but never did.
“We had a letter of agreement with them, but no
contract,” Byrne said. “We sent them a contract to
sign twice, but they never sent them back.”
Now, the focus shifts to finding a team to fill
that slot with less than a year to do it.
Byrne said die top priority will be to make sure
the Huskers have no fewer than six games at home.
Currently, NU only has five home games in 1999.
“We don’t want to have anything less than six
home games in any year,” Byrne said. “We may try
something like we had with Houston, or we might
have two teams we don’t have to retifrn. It all
depends on who’s available.”
Houston is just one of many programs that have
pulled out of contests with the Huskers. Arkansas
and Northern Illinois pulled out of games scheduled
for this year, aid Wyoming pulled out of one of its
two scheduled games.
In past years, NU has even had to use Division I
AA teams like Middle Tennessee State to fill gaps in
die schedule.
Other teams have wanted to back out of their
contracts, including Michigan State, which played
Nebraska in 1995 and 1996, Osborne said.
Still, Osborne said it is difficult to negotiate
with teams who want out of a contract.
“If somebody doesn’t want to play you,”
Osborne said, “there’s not much you can do to make
diem play.”
Osborne said that, other than Division I-AA ft
teams, he is open to any teams that are available,
including a Big 12 team in a nonconference
matchup.
“I hope people understand that we’ll do the best
we can,” he said. “We don’t want a soft schedule.”
The more important issue, though, Osborne
said, is unreliability of contracts.
“Eventually a signed contract has to mean
something,” he said. “An agreement has to mean
something.”
