Nebraska maintained its
hold on the No. 1 ranking in
both The Associated Press poll
and the ESPN/USA Today poll
with Saturday’s 35-0 win over
Kansas. The Cornhuskers (7-0
overall) earned 35 first place
votes in the AP poll to Penn
State’s 25. The Nittany Lions
(6-0) did not play last weekend.
Florida State (7-0)
remained No. 3 in the AP poll
and Michigan (7-0) jumped
North Carolina (7-0) into the
fourth position, while the
Tarheels fell to fifth. The rest
of the AP top 10 stayed the
same.
■
NU junior I-back Ahman
Green recorded 123 yards on
25 carries Saturday, marking
his the sixth consecutive game
he has rushed for more than
100 yards. For the season,
Green has totaled 993 yards
and scored 13 touchdowns on
the ground.
With his effort against
Kansas, Green has run for
2,996 yards in his career, which
ranks fourth on Nebraska’s all
time rushing chart behind Mike
Rozier (4,780 yards, 1981-83),
Calvin Jones (3,153 yards,
1991-93), and Ken Clark
(3,037 yards, 1987*89).
■
A 35-0 victory over Kansas
Saturday put Nebraska Coach
Tom Osborne within one win of
his 250th career victory. The
Cornhuskers will play host to
Oklahoma this Saturday at 2:30
p.m. The game will be televised
on ABC.
Nebraska won its 44th
straight game in the month of
October as Osborne improved
his career record to 249-49-3.
For the 10th time in Osborne’s
25-year career, the Huskers
■have started the season 7-0.
Nebraska senior rush end
Grant Wistrom recorded two
sacks and four tackles against
Kansas and moved within one
tackle of the Huskers’ top-25
all-time tackle list. Wistrom
has already broke NU’s career
record for tackles for loss.
With three sacks this sea
son, Wistrom ranks fifth
among NU’s all-time sack lead
ers with 22. A returning All
American and 1997 Lombardi
Award Semifinalist, Wistrom
trails leader Trev Alberts, who
recorded 29.5 sacks from 1990
through 1993.
■
Before Saturday, the
Jayhawks had not been shut out
in 52 games. The last time
Kansas failed to score in a
game was in a 42-0 loss against
Florida State on Aug. 28, 1993,
in Ea§t Rutherford, N.J.
The Jayhawks have not been
shutout at home since losing
70-0 to Nebraska on Nov. 15,
1986.
Notebook compiled by
senior reporter David Wilson.
NU records second shutout
Defensive
play saves
Huskers
By David Wilson
Senior Reporter
LAWRENCE, Kan. - The
Nebraska offense sputtered, rain
made a cold night colder and the
lights at Kansas’ Memorial Stadium
went out. But that didn’t stop the
Comhusker defense from shining.
For the first time since 1979, the
NU defense recorded its second con
secutive shutout Saturday night as
the Cornhuskers downed the
Jayhawks 35-0 before 42,000 rain
and wind-soaked fans at Memorial
Stadium in Lawrence. Nebraska
improved to 7-0 overall and 4-0 in
the Big 12 Conference, while
Kansas fell to 4-4 and 2-3.
Forty-degree temperatures
matched by 25-mph winds blew light
rain and did not provide pleasurable
conditions for either team’s offense.
The Husker defense held the
Jayhawks to 48 yards on 48 plays,
both a season low.
“They really showed their superi
ority on the defensive end of the
ball,” Kansas Coach Terry Allen
said.
The Jayhawks were held to a neg
ative 19 yards of total offense and no
first downs in the first half while fin
ishing the game with 21 yards rush
ing and 27 yards passing. NU sacked
Kansas quarterback Zac Wegner
four times and did not allow him a
positive run. Nebraska senior rush
end Grant Wistrom recorded two
sacks and defensive tackles Jason
Peter and Steve Warren each added
another.
“Everything they were coming
out with, we were just shoving it
back down their throat,” Peter said.
The Huskers, on the other hand,
produced 415 yards of total offense
- including 382 yards on the ground
- but only recorded 129 yards in the
second and third quarters.
Ahman Green scampered seven
times for 50 yards on NU’s first
drive, and finished the game with 25
carries for 123 yards and one touch
down. Though the offense was
slowed in the middle of the game,
Green said, Nebraska’s defense
played solid all night.
“Offense wins games and
defense wins championships,”
Green said. “That’s what they did
today. They played a great game out
there.”
Up until a light failure with 9:36
remaining in the second quarter, the
Huskers had racked up 247 yards of
total offense and led 21-0.
But a power outage caused by a
blown fuse killed the power in two
light towers on opposite ends of
Memorial Stadium. The outage
delayed the game for seven minutes
as the officials and both head coach
es debated on whether to continue
the game or wait until power was
resumed.
With the agreement of both
coaches, the game continued, but
NU’s offensive momentum remained
off. Nebraska did not earn a first
down for five series following the
delay.
Two plays after play resumed on
the field with only half the lights,
NU freshman Joe Walker fumbled a
punt. Allen offered to delay the game
until the lights came back, but
Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said
he didn’t want his players standing in
the cold any longer than they had to.
“We fumbled the punt because
we fumbled the punt,” Osborne said.
“But I told him we’d do what he
wanted to do.”
The game continued without fur
Please see HUSKERS on 11
Lane Hickenbottom/DN
HUSKER FANS at Kansas’ Memorial Stadium covered themselves with plas
tic to keep dry during the Nebraska shutout over the Jayhawks. Attendance
at Saturday night’s game was estimated at 42,000, while more than half
were NU fans.__
_ _ Lane Hickenbottom/DN
NEBRASKA SENIOR QUARTERBACK SCOTT FROST runs for a chunk of his 121 yards rushing. Frost averaged 5.8 yards
on 21 carries.
Reitsma leads conquest of Baylor
\
By Sam McKewon
Staff Reporter
There was little in the way of sur
prises in the Nebraska volleyball
team’s return home against Baylor.
Senior outside
hitter Lisa
Reitsma pounded
22 kills as the
1 1 th-ranked
Huskers moved to
15-5, 5-3 in the
Big 12 as they
swept past the
Reitsma Bears (13-9, 3-5)
15-n, 15-8, 15-1
in front of 4,152 at the NU Coliseum.
It was Nebraska’s first home game in
the arena in 20 days.
Nebraska Coach Terry Pettit said
the fans were a welcome sight inside
the confines of the NU Coliseum.
“It was good to see the fans
tonight,” he said. “You never know if
they’re going to be disappointed that
we’ve lost a couple matches, but
they’re very loyal fans.”
Baylor Coach Brian Hosfield said
he knew the crowd would have an
effect on the young Baylor team that
started two freshmen and a sopho
more.
“That was the biggest crowd that
we played in front of all year,” he said.
“We have a young team and this type
of crowd can be pretty intimidating.
We had to take an early timeout to get
our bearings.”
After that timeout, BU put up a
decent fight against the Huskers in the
first game. NU raced out to a 14-7
lead, but several service errors pre
vented Nebraska from closing out
until the Bears closed the gap to 14
11.
Pettit said the service errors were a
weak link for NU on Friday.
“That part wasn’t smooth,” he
said. “But usually those types of errors
come because you’re trying too hard,
not because of focus.”
From that point on, Reitsma took
over. With a .269 hitting average for
the season, Reitsma hammered the
Bears with .475 average on 40 attacks
Friday to go along with a team-high
seven blocks.
More important to the team, Pettit
said, was Reitsma’s ability to play
more in the middle instead of on the
outside, opening up attack chances for
freshmen Katie Jahnke arid Nancy
Meendering.
Reitsma said she felt comfortable
playing in the middle against BU. 1 I
“I’ve felt a lot better in the mid
dle,” she said. “Everybody ojnlthe
team is getting a lot more comfortable
with it. We’ve had a great two weeks
of practice, so it’s been a lot of fun.”
Hosfield said that Reistma and the
rest of the Nebraska’s middle block
shut down Baylor’s offense complete
ly in the second and third games.
“She scored every time she hit it, it
seemed,” he said. “She was a big fac
tor in the middle block, too. There was
some bad things for us in the middle
block.”
Overall, Pettit saw the match as an
indicator that NU was getting closer to
being a very good team.
“We’re not playing perfect volley
ball right now,” he said, “but we’ve got
the right players on the court and soon,
I think, we’re going to be real good.”
