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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1997)
Notre Dame slaughters Huskers 6-0 to end run By Darren Ivy StaffReporter SOUTH BEND, Ind. - To beat No. 2 Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA • Tournament, the Nebraska soccer team needed to play a near-perfect game. NU’s effort was perfect, but its overall performance was not as the Comhuskers lost 6-0 Sunday to the Irish in front of 909 fans at Alumni Field. NU Coach John Walker said Notre Dame’s first two goals, which were shot from outside the penalty box, should have been stopped by Walker the Huskers, who finished their season at 184. “They are too good of a team to give them any thing,” Walker said. The Irish had a 3-0 lead before 25 minutes of the contest had expired. Since NU fell behind early, it was forced to take more chances, Walker said. The Huskers sent , more players up the field and the three Nebraska defenders couldn’t stop Notre Dame’s multi pronged attack. The Irish (22-0-1) outshot NU 24-10. Notre Dame Coach Chris Petrucelli said the two teams were even athletically and speed-wise, but he thought Notre Dame’s skill was the difference. “I think in most of their games they have been the better athletes,” Petrucelli said. “I don’t think that was the case today. I think we were even.”. During the first 15 minutes, NU appeared to have the better athletes as the Huskers’ athletic moves set up two .excellent scoring opportunities, Lindsay Eddleman had a turnaround shot fly just wide of die goal four minutes into the game. Then 10 minutes later, Becky Hogan had a shot at an open goal but hit the top cross bar. Eddleman’s follow-up shot flew over the goal. Irish starting defender and Millard North grad uate Kelly Lindsey said that series in front of the goal was a momentum swinger. “It made us realize we had to get into the nn game,” Lindsey said. “I don’t know if that took the wind out of them or not. We knew if we could weather the storm the first 10-15 minutes we would be all right.” Lindsey’s prediction proved true as three min utes later, Meotis Erickson got Notre Dame on the board with a shot that went over Becky Hombacher’s head. Several minutes leader, Eddleman re-injured her left ankle that she sprained in NU’s 3-1 loss to Texas A&M in the Big 12 Tournament champi onship game. The injury didn’t seem to deflate NU’s hopes or players as much as the Irish’s second and third goals, which came 65 seconds apart and five min utes after Eddleman’s injury. NU only managed two shots the rest of the half and trailed 3-0 at halftime. “When you get up one or two goals on some body,” Walker said. “It makes it hard to come back.” NU hoped to chip away at the deficit in the sec ond half, but Monica Gerardo put in the Irish’s fourth goal in the ST^-minute. Despite losing to Notre Dame, Walker and Petrucelli both felt that NU is one of the top five or six teams in the country. “It was unfortunate that one of the top six teams had to go out die second round,” Walker said. With the loss, the careers of NU’s first four year seniors, Tanya Franck, Kari Uppinghouse and Stephanie Vacek ended. Franck said she is proud that they helped the? program become one of the best in the country. Uppinghouse said she will definitely miss playing next year. ~ ~ - , “It’s not only that we’ve been here so long, and the friendships we’ve built,” Uppinghouse said: “But it’s being part of something that a lot of peo ple came into not knowing (anything), believing in it, and watching it grow. It’s been an unbelievable experience.” Notre Dame now advances to the quarterfinals and will play host to UCLA next Sunday. Huskers fall to UConn By Mike Kluck Sports Editor STORRS, Conn. - Nebraska Women’s Basketball Coach Paul Sanderford was the first to admit the Cornhuskers were over matched in their Preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship game Friday night against Connecticut. No. 21 NU was playing just its fourth game under the Huskers’ first-year coach and had to counter the Huskies’ speed and explosiveness as well as contend with the 8,842 Husky fans at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. So Sanderford did everything he could to turn the balance to the Huskers’ favor, but the Huskies (4-0) were still able to pull out a 71 -61 victory to extend their home-court winning streak to 32 games and win the tournament. “We tried to make it an ugly basketball game,” Sanderford said. “We tried to slow the tempo down, and I think we achieved that. We certainly didn’t want to get into a running game with Connecticut. “My game plan was to try and stay in the ballgame until the final five minutes and then see if maybe we could get a break and win the ballgame. When you are overmatched, I think that’s what you got to try and do.” Sanderford’s tactics worked throughout much of the first half as NU (3-1) held the Huskies to nine field goals and 31 percent shooting from the floor. In UConn’s 106-60 victory over Northwestern in the semifinals on Thursday night, the Huskies shot 58.8 percent from the floor and connected on 11 3-point attempts. Late in the first half against the Huskers, UConn’s senior guard Rita Williams connected on a three-point play when she hit a hanging jumper and was fouled by NU freshman r; —- -- x - « . * ■ -f • Amanda Went. The play sparked a 6-2 Husky run as Connecticut opened a 36-32 lead at half time. The lead was the Huskies biggest in the half after having trailed all but five minutes. “I’m not sure you’re really ever able to play when you can’tmove,” Connecticut Coach GenoAuriemma said. “You hate to see basketball become that “I’m not sure that was the way basketball was meant to be played. It just seemed like they were more intent on being physical rather than stopping us run our stuff. It’s very, very difficult to play in that kind of game. Difficult to play in, ugly to watch and not fun basketball.” What wasn’t fun for the Huskers were the 16 fouls NU they committed in the first half, compared to just four for the Huskies. The fouls created 18 points on 22 free-throw attempts for Connecticut. Nebraska connected on just 2 of 3 free-throw opportunities. Sanderford said it wasn’t the Huskers’ plan to foul the Huskies. Connecticut opened the second half with an 11-2 run to take a 47-34 lead and control of the game. The Huskies took a 20-point lead when senior Nykesha Sales hit a 3-pointer with 3:35 remaining. Sales was named the tourna ment’s most valuable player. Kubik finished the game with a career-high 19 points while DeForge, who scored 17, was named to the all-tournament team. “Nebraska played their brains out,” Auriemma said. “They played hard, they came after us, and they were physical and tough.” The Huskers will play Creighton at 7:05 tonight at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Sandy Summers/DN VENSON HAMILTON takes the ball to the basket against New Orleans’ Corey Brown Saturday. Hamilton recorded his third straight double*double with 19 points and 12 rebounds in the Huskers’ 81-66 win. Hamilton leads NU to win By David Wilson Senior Reporter In a game that featured 46 turnovers, two unhappy coaches left the Bob Devaney Sports Center Saturday night after Nebraska’s 81-66 win over New Orleans. Despite being out-rebounded and commit ting 18 turnovers, Nebraska improved to 3-0 and led by 17 points at halftime but was outscored by the Privateers 36-34 in the sec ond half. “I was happy we won the basketball game, but I was very disappointed with how we played the second half,” NU Coach Danny Nee said. “I just didn’t think we played well or played smart. We allowed New Orleans to hang around and hang around. When you do that, you get in trouble.” New Orleans Coach Joey Stiebing said the Privateers hurt themselves the most with turnovers. New Orleans committed 28, including 17 in the first half as it fell to 0-1. “Any time you play as good of team as Nebraska and you don’t take care of the ball, you’re going to get your butts whipped,” Stiebing said. “And that’s what happened tonight. We have to learn that the basketball is valuable.” Backed by 15 points from center Venson Hamilton, Nebraska led 47-30 at halftime, but the Privateers battled back to close the gap to nine with 7 minutes, 25 seconds remaining in the game. New Orleans center Eddie Washington scored 11 of the Privateers’ first 14 points in the second half and finished with a game-high 22. Ahead 60-51, the Huskers responded with a 15-5 run to put the game away. Point guard Tyronn Lue scored 11 points during the final six minutes and finished with 18:'kaftiiltOii led NU with 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his third double-double in as many games. But Hamilton wasn’t satisfied with the. Huskers’ play in the second half. “We thought we had a big enough lead,” Hamilton said. “Everybody started backing off, and they played harder than us in the sec ond half. We can’t underestimate anybody. We need to keep the same intensity.” Hamilton didn’t start on Saturday because he was not giving 100 percent in practice, he said. He was replaced in the starting lineup by freshman forward Chad Johnson as 6-foot-8 forward Andy Markowski moved to center. Guard Cookie Belcher said he was glad to see Nee discipline the Huskers. “The thing that we really stressed this year was discipline,” said Belcher, who scored 15 points. “Last year we had all these rules, but we had no one to enforce them. But this year, I think Coach Nee is taking action. I’m glad that he’s doing it. “It tells us as a team that it doesn’t matter if you’re Tyronn, or if you’re me, or if you’re one of the walk-ons. If you break rules or if you don’t want to practice hard, you’re not going to play.” This wasn’t the first time this season a player sat out for disciplinary reasons. Forward Larry Florence didn’t play against UNC-Greensboro last week for missing class. Though he hasn’t started in a game this sea son, Florence played 27 minutes Saturday and Please see HOOPS on 8