Finally, a win
NU snaps 3-game skid
with win over Texas Tech
Shannon Heffelfinger
Assignment Reporter
Feelings of self-doubt and distrust
occupied the minds of the Nebraska vol
leyball players through three straight loss
es over the past 10
days.
But after defeating
Texas A&M Saturday
night in College
Station, Texas, last
week’s misgiving are
far from the
Cornhuskers’ thoughts.
NU halted its first
three-match losing slide
since 1977, staging a 15-8, 15-9, 8-15, 15
9 win over the Aggies in front of 1,809
fans, regaining the confidence and trust
lost in the downward spiral that began after
the home loss to Colorado on Oct. 8.
“We were playing timid, and we were
playing out of fear,” NU middle blocker
Megan Korver said. “It was definitely a
spiral effect after that Colorado loss. We
didn’t have the confidence we had before.
“This difference Saturday was that
communication was there, and also trust
between the team. I have to trust that Fiona
will get me the ball. I have to trust that
(Lisa) Reitsma will get the kill.”
After losing to No. 11 Texas (13-3 over
all and 8-0 in the Big 12 Conference)
Friday night in three games, the impor
tance of Saturday night’s match with No. 12
Texas A&M (14-4 and 6-2) grew if the
ninth-ranked Huskers (14-5 and 5-3) were
to remain in the race for the league title.
A quick start Saturday night boosted
Nebraska’s confidence, Korver said. In the
first game, the Huskers led 5-0 before
A&M’s Farah Mensik and Kristie
Smedsrud answered with service aces,
decreasing NU’s advantage to one.
NU’s Fiona Nepo then served six con
" secutive points - including three service
aces - to expand the lead to 14-7. Nebraska
ended the first game on a block by middle
blocker Katie Jahnke and Reitsma.
The Huskers held A&M to a .037 hit
ting percentage in the first game, and the
Aggies hit .114 for the match. Smedsrud,
an all-conference selection last season, and
Stacy Sykora led the Aggies with 19 kills
each.
The Huskers totaled a .208 hitting per
centage and three Huskers posted 10 or
more kills. Nepo assisted the Husker hit
ters 50 times. Reitsma topped both teams
with 21 kills, while outside hitters Mandy
66
We knew we had to
win Saturday night.
Before the game, we said
(We re Nebraska and this
is how we play!And we
just did.”
Lisa Reitsma
NU outside hitter
Monson and Angie Oxley - playing her
second collegiate match - each recorded
10.
Oxley ditched her redshirt season
when, in her first-ever collegiate match,
she started against Texas Friday. Oxley’s
presence patched a hole for the Huskers in
the back row, where NU lost primary
passers Renee Saunders and Jaime
Krondak to injuries.
The loss of the two players contributed
to a doubt and uncertainty Nebraska felt
during the past two weeks.
“The biggest difference between last
week and Saturday night was trust,”
Reitsma said. “Instead of trust, there was
fear. When your two primary passers go
down, you don’t know who is going to take
over their jobs, and the trust goes down.
“But we knew we had to win Saturday
night. Before the game, we siaid, ‘We’re
Nebraska and this is how we play.’ And we
just did.”
The Huskers, the preseason favorite to
win the conference, now trail Texas and
Colorado. NU plays host to Baylor and
Texas Tech Friday and Saturday before vis
iting Colorado Oct. 29 in an attempt to
avenge the loss that started the three-game
slide.
Nebraska gained a confidence boost in
Texas, but Reitsma said the Huskers still
need to concentrate on improving before
the grueling six-day stretch.
“Someone in the locker room said that
we were back, and coach got mad,”
Reitsma said. “We’re not all the way back.
I think we leveled out this weekend, and
we’re definitely back on the way up.
“Our goal now is just to play like
Nebraska plays. We’re going to do that the
rest of the way through and trust each other
every game, and I think we’ll be fine.”
Aviation has landed
University of
Nebraska at
Omaha
The University of Nebraska at Omaha is an affinnativeaction/equal opportunity institution.
Oxley shines in first action
■ The Nebraska freshman
comes up big after ditching a
redshirt 18 matches into the season.
By Andrew Strnad
Staff Reporter
Being thrown into a fire is not supposed to
be a good thing. In the midst of their longest
losing streak in twenty years, the Nebraska vol
leyball team’s coach, Terry
Pettit, turned to a Husker
Redshirt to put out the fire.
Freshman middle
blocker Angie Oxley
entered the season not
expecting to play. Pettit
announced in August that
Oxley would redshirt the
season.
That was before the
Huskers suffered injuries to
junior Renee Saunders, who went down with a
broken foot in late September, and junior Jamie
Krondak, who’s been plagued by a lower back
injury for the last few weeks.
Pettit looked to the Ogallala native to pro
vide the Huskers with a spark they have been
without the last three matches.
Oxley had mixed feelings about coming out
of her redshirt season, and had her first oppor
tunity to show her stuff Friday night against the
first place Texas Longhorns. The Huskers lost
the match in three games, but Oxley provided
one of the bright spots in the evening, with nine
kills in the first match of her career.
“I was really excited out there on the floor
instead of being on the sidelines,” Oxley said.
“And it was different because I had to focus on
playing in the match, instead of watching it”
The next night, Oxley and the Hunkers
rebounded from their three-match losing streak
with a four-game victory over the Texas A&M
Aggies.
The Volleyball Magazine honorable men
tion high school All-American made a definite
impact against the Aggies, whacking 10 kills
for the Huskers and hitting .269 on die night.
Oxley also led the team with 14 digs, and added
her first solo block of her career.
Oxley’s teammates were pleased with the
freshman’s performance in her first $wd match
es. Senior Lisa Reitsma said OxleyJs strong
play was no surprise to her and the Huskers.
“She did a great job for being a freshman
out there starting. She handled it really well, I
think everyone was really impressed.” Reitsma
said. “We knew she could do it, and she did
exactly what we needed. •
Junior middle blocker Megan Korver was
also impressed, and said Oxley blended in with
the other players right from the beginning.
“I thought she really stepped up.” Korver
said. “It’s different when you put new players in
there, but we didn’t feel that Angie was a new
player because she practices with us everyday,
so it wasn’t abnormal at all.” ( -
Oxley said the win was big because it put
the team on back on track and helped build her
confidence on the floor. ...
Now the Huskers look forward to playing a(
the NU Coliseum this Friday against Baylor for
the first time since October 4th, which has
Oxley smiling.
“I’m really excited about playing at the
Coliseum for the first time.” Oxley said. “With
all of our fans and having them cheering for us.
It should be fun.”
Sanderford kicks off new Husker era
By Sam McKewon
Staff Reporter
Midway through his first practice with the
Nebraska women’s basketball team, Coach
Paul Sanderford took a basketball, tossed it
slightly in the air, and booted it into the cheap
seats of the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Welcome to the new era of Nebraska
women’s basketball.
“That was just a point of emphasis,” said
Sanderford, Nebraska’s first-year coach, who
replaced Angela Beck. “The girls know that it
wasn’t one of those things where I was really
angry. They knew it wasn’t that serious.”
Both the Nebraska men’s and women’s
teams began practice for the 1997-1998 season
Saturday. The women began at 7:30 a.m., fol
lowed by the men, who practiced at 10 a.m.
Sanderford brought a new, up-tempo style
to practice and put the players through numer
ous conditioning and fast-break drills, prompt
ing the Huskers to say it was the hardest prac
tice in which they have ever participated.
“We knew what to expect to a certain degree
in meetings and things,” senior forward Anna
DeForge said, “but I don’t think we expected
that it would be quite what it was.”
Along with the change in practices will'
come a change in playing style. Sanderford said
he will implement a running offense this sea
son, emphasizing pressure defense and fast
break points offensively.
That playing style was good enotigh to take
Sanderford’s former team, Western Kentucky, •
to 12 NCAA tournaments, three Final Fours,
and one national-championship game.
Sanderford said he thought NU players were
warming up to his have-fun-and-run rtiotto.
“The girls are starting to get to understand
the running game and they know I want them to
be the best-conditioned team on the floor ”
Sanderford said. “There’s a lot of gaijies thaf
are going to be won at the end, and we want to *
win them.” ”• '
Part of the Huskers’ understanding, the new
style comes with understanding the new ‘
coach’s personality, which is described by
Sanderford himself as intense.
NU’s first exhibition game is on Nov, 7, and.
the Huskers open the season Nov. 14 at the
Devaney Center against Miami (Ohio) in the
National Invitation Tournament.
I ffcA E.N. Thompson
i_I IuLa Forum on World Issues
A cooperative project of The Cooper Foundation and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The Religious Dimension that
Will Not Quit: The Persistence
of Belief in a Secular World
We are told that the world is a much more secular place
and that among pluralistic and sophisticated people,
religion plays a less substantial role. Yet in the USA, in the
Middle East, in Northern Ireland and in Asia and Latin
America, religious conviction is at the heart of new world
orders and age-old conflicts. Gomes discusses how we
recognize the legitimate place of conviction and resolve the
inevitable conflicts that are generated.
University of International Affairs
Nebraska Division of Continuing Studies
, . . Department of Academic Conferences
Lincoln and Professional Programs
tmmmmmmmmmmrnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmammmmmmmmmmmammmmmmmmmmm
■ ' •»
Peter J. Gomes
Plummer Professor of
Christian morals
Minister in the
Memorial Church,
Harvard University
Free
admission
Tuesday,
Oct. 21
3:30 p.m.
Lied Center for
Pertotming Arts '
12th and R Streets
Lincoln. Neb.
UNL to ■ nondkaMaMy
