Page 8
Mike Kluck
Memories
surface as
career ends
At the beginning of this semester
I wrote a column saying that at times
this season, I was going to sit back
and just savor Tom Osborne’s 25th
season.
Considering the events of last
week, I’m glad I did.
I walked the sidelines as I
watched Nebraska’s dominating win
over Washington. I stood on the^
Memorial Stadium turf as the.fire- n
works exploded for Osborne’s 250*
victory, and I yelled at Missouriifans -
to get off the field when Matt
Davison made his diving catch in
Columbia, Mo.
Then on Wednesday I sat front
and center at the press conference
I attend^ "buf as a Nebraska fan one
j never wants see - Osborne's retire5- '
mentahn^nln^^ C V ;
Now it’s on to the Orange Bowl to
watch, view or soak in Osborne’s
final game.
If only this game was played in
the old Orange Bowl and not Pro
Player Stadium. For it was the old
Orange Bowl where Osborne’s leg
PnH fniK/ Kprron on/1 O 1^7 tronr nl/l^n
-— — —*• * * J v*** V1W J
admiration and respect for the coach
blossomed.
In 1983, NU completed an unde
feated season and went to Miami to
face the hometown Hurricanes for a
championship battle.
I was 17 at the time, a senior in
high school. Somehow I convinced
my parents 10 days before the game
to let me go ^ by myseif.
After two (fays in Orlando, I flew
down to Miami on Jari. 2,1984.1 got
a $70 n?om near the airport- it makes
many dorm rooms look spacious - j
and I took a city bus to the stadium.
I bought every souvenir I could:
two hats, a program, a foam hand with
a No. 1 indoc finger and two shirts.
I sat in the stands as two Miami
fans walked by and jeered the Husker
fans and then shivered as the guy two
rows behind me stood up and yelled,
“Go back to Cuba.”
I cheered my voice away as
Nebraska pulled within one point
with 48 seconds remaining, and then
I shouted and cussed when Turner
Gill’s pass hit the turf.
Then slowly, and at times think
ing I was going to die, I made my way
with my souvenirs out of the Change
Bowl and back to the bus stop.
Despite the loss, and disappoint
ment, I was proud to be a Nebraskan
that night, for we had acoach with the
courage to go for the win.
It’s those memories and that
game that will always stay with me,
and it’s something Tom Osborne has
given to me and countless Husker
fans.
So as (me last memory in Miami
awaits, thanks for everything, Coach.
Kluckfaa journalism graduate
student and the Daily Nebraskan
sports editor.
j ft
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Assignment Reporter
LONG BEACH, Calif. - The con
clusion to a seasonlong lesson hit the
Nebraska volleyball team with a final
realization Saturday night
Top-ranked Long Beach State
schooled the young Comhuskers on the
49ers’ home court in the NCAA
Tournament Pacific Regional champi
onship match. A 15-9,15-9,15-3 loss
ended NU’s year and taught the
Huskers that at the highest level, youth
plus enthusiasm and heart equals noth
ing but a broken heart when facing
experience.
“Long Beach was just a better team
than us,” NU Coach Terry Pettit said.
“They exploited our weaknesses before
we really had a chance to make a run of
it”
“But I was proud of our team the
entire match. We are a team that was
rattled at midseason, but we hung in
there and we came back and made a
good run at the end of the season.”
Long Beach advances to the Final
Four, where it will play Stanford
Thursday in Spokane, Wash. Penn State
and Florida meet in the other semifinal.
The Huskers (27-7), who list 10
freshmen and sophomores on their 15
player roster, entered Saturday’s battle
riding a 12-match win streak after los
ing four of six in October. But the
Huskers could not overcome the fire
power of the 49ers (33-IX V
^ Defensively, Long Beach limited
the Huskers to,a .142 hitting percent
age, while outdigging Nebraska 75-53.
LBSU setter Misty May, the Pacific
Region’s most valuable player who is
considered a favorite to win the nation
al player-of-the-year award, stung the
Huskers with 38 assists, 10 kills and 15
digs.
But more often than not, Nebraska
played the part of its own worst enemy.
After recording 19 service errors in
a 15-13,12-15,14-16,15-7,15-12 vic
tory over Southern California Friday
night, Nebraska erred 14 times at the
service line against the 49ers.
NU, ranked No. 9, lost the first
game when Nepo and middle blocker
Katie Jahnke failed to connect at the
net, the second game on a shot to the
flootjby LBSU middle blocker Benishe
Dillard and the third when Dillard and
Dana Builteman blocked Angie Oxley.
“We weren’t as good as we needed
to be to compete beyond nine points,”
Matt Miller/DN
ALL-AMERICAN Lisa Reltsma hammers an attack against the block of Long
Beach Stated Anja Grabovac Saturday night. The 49ers swept NU to end the
Huskers’ season.
Pettit said. “We had some windows of
opportunity, but we didn’t play well
enough to step through them.”
Playing in her final match, NU’s
lone senior Lisa Reitsma led both
teams with 17 kills after pounding 28
kills with a .390 hitting percentage
against USC. Mandy Monson totaled
nine kills and a .333 hitting mark but
left halfway through the match with a
pulled hamstring and an injured knee.
Senior Jenn Snyder led Long Beach
State with 12 kills.
Nepo, who joined Reitsma on the
Pacific all-region team, said NU
expects a different outcome in 1998.
“Whenever a team loses, the
younger players are already looking to
next season,” Nepo said. “We’ve
matured this season. Everybody on our
team made the decision (during NU’s
slump) to refocus. We weren’t just
along for the ride.”
That was clear as the young
Huskers embraced Reitsma, as she
cried at center court after the match.
“I’m very optimistic,!’ Pettit said.
“We lose a great player in Lisa Reitsma,
but we’re really a good young team
that’s just going to get better. I was glad
we were able to push ourselves to this
point so that we could experience this.
“And I told the team that while I
was proud of them, our goal nett year is
not to finish second in the regional
finals.”
let high in
By Antone Oseka
Senior Reporter
Peyton Manning isn’t a happy
man right now. Too many things have
gone wrong for him the past few
days. --
Manning, the
season long
favorite to win
this" -j- year’s
Heisman Trophy,
sat and watched
while Michigan
cornerfeack
Charles WoodsonJ__
brought home the ftMMing
award Saturday
night in New York, the first defensive
player ever to win the award.
A few days earlier, one of the
most revered coaches in college
football, Tom Osborne, retired -
three weeks before Manning’s
Tennessee Volunteers play Osborne’s
Nebraska Comhuskers in the Orange
Bowl at 7 p.m., Jan. 2, at Pro Player
Stadium in Miami. ■ ,v. ?
The matchup in Miami now
appears less appealing for No. 3
Tennessee ,(11-1).
No. 2/Nebraska comes in unde
feated at 12-0 and looking to give
Osborne his 255tl* victory and at
least a share of his third national title
in his last game.
“Maybe if we can take him out,
we can move our draft status up a few
spots,” senior defensive tackle Jason
Peter joked. “He’s probably the best
player in college football. He’s a
great quarterback, and he can move.
Peyton can run, but he’s not a blazer.”
It’s not Manning’s speed that
worries Peter. It’s Manning’s ability
to pick apart a secondary while
secure in the pocket.
(“You know the kid’s got to be
good if he’s on Letterman already,”
Peter said of the record-setting quar
terback, who will leave Tennessee
third all time on the NCAA passing
yardage charts. “(The Nebraska
m' ’ 'n*wr ”
defensive backs) are going to have to
do their job. I know when they want
to play, they’re one of the better
defensive secondaries in the coun
try.”
NU Defensive Coordinator
Charlie McBride said Manning, with
the combination of receivers that
Tennessee fields, isn’t a good thing
to dream about at night.
“We always get put in the posi
tion where we don’t have a choice,”
McBride said of playing Manning.
“Peyton’s a little more mobile, I
think. He has a little bit more flexi
bility. With those receivers, it isn’t
real fun to go home, lie down and
think about it.
“Boy, we played some great quar
terbacks. There hasn’t been one of
Please see MANNING on 9
f If ’
NU men
outlast
Gophers
By David Wilson
Senior Reporter
MINNEAPOLIS - For the first
time away from the Bob Devaney
Sports Center this season, the
Nebraska men’s basketball team left
the court smiling Saturday night
The Comhuskers put their road
woes behind them with a 70-66 victo
ry over Minnesota before 14,040 at
Williams Arena. NU improved to 8-2
after its first road win of the season as
tiie Gophers fell to 4-3.
“We were down mentally after
losing to Creighton,” Nebraska guard
. Cookie Belcher said. “We had to
come back and win this one.”
After an 84-73 loss to Creighton
in Omaha Wednesday, the Huskers
regrouped and refocused, point guard
Tyronn Lue said.
“Everybody was upset by the
Creighton loss,” Lue said.
“Everybody was mad. We came out
here with a lot of intensity and
jumped on them early.”
Nebraska scored the first 10 points
of the game and never looked back.
But the Gophers, who made the
NCAA Tournament’s Final Four last
season, didn’t go down without a fight
With 42 seconds remaining,
Minnesota guard Sam Jacobson
ciosea me nusKers lead to one point
with a layup that made the score 67
66. The bucket capped a 15-6 Gopher
run.
Jacobson then fouled out of the
game and sent Lue to the ffee-throw
line with 23 seconds on the clock.
Lue buried both shots to the dismay
of the hostile crowd, which had erupt
ed during Minnesota’s comeback.
“They really picked us up several
times through the ballgame,”
Minnesota Coach Clem Haskins
said. “That’s one of the key reasons
we got back in the game.”
Trailing 69-66, Minnesota for
ward Quincy Lewis, who scored a
game-high 24 points, followed by
missing two 3-pointers with nine and
four seconds remaining.
“The second one looked good,”
Lewis said. “I thought it was in.”
NU center Venson Hamilton
* grabbed the rebound and, after being
fouled, sank a free throw to finish the
Gophers.
Hamilton scored 18 points and
snagged 15 rebounds as he recorded
his eighth double-double in 10
games. Lue also finished with 18
points.
One key to Nebraska’s success,
Haskins said, was the Huskers’ height
advantage. NU out-rebounded the
Gophers 45-30.
“They miss those big guys,”
Nebraska Coach Danny Nee said.
“That’s obvious.”
The Huskers also held Jacobson,
who was averaging a team-high 13.5
points per game, to just six points.
“It’s difficult,” Jacobson said.
“It’s a big change from last year. We
just need to get die flow of the offense
down.”
Nebraska returns to action Dec.
27 in the first round of the Rainbow
Classic against Virginia in Honolulu.
“This makes Christmas a little bit
more acceptable,” Nee said, “We
held on at the end and found a way to
win ”
