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Walker sends
soccer team
intoispotlight
of success
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Matt Mtt i fr/DN
NITS JENNY BENSON slides under Texas A&M’s Melanie Wilson in the Big 12 soccer champi
onship. The Buskers lost 3-1 to their conference rival.
By Jay Saunders
Assignment Reporter
When John Walker came to Nebraska to coach
the soccer team four years ago, he said he wanted to
build the Comhusker program into a national soc
cer powerhouse in five years.
It took only three years.
In the fall of 1996, after only three years of
existence, the Huskers went 23-1 and made it to the
third round of the NCAA tournament
Last fall, NU was hoping to build on die suc
cess of last season’s unexpected run. The Huskers
came into die season with the same core of players
and added Kim Engesser, a transfer student from
Portland University - the team that knocked the
Huskers out of die tournament in 1996.
“The biggest difference was dealing with being
a big target on a lot of our opponents’ schedules,”
Walker said. “It was difficult because every team
we played we got their best shot. It was like aWorld
Cup final every game.”
The Huskers started off the season with four
straight wins before running into a roadblock in
Texas. NU lost conference games for die first time
in two years and hadn’t lost two consecutive games
since 1994.
“We didn’t compete at an appropriate level,”
Walker said. “We had a lot of pressure after we
were behind, but we shouldn’t have put ourselves in
that position.”
The Huskers used an eight-game homestand as
the cure for the team’s first losing streak in three
years.
All eight games were shutouts.
The Huskers outscored their opponents 40-0 in
that eight-game stretch. After collecting eight con
secutive wins, NU traveled to No. 4 Duke.
There was no letdown from the homestand.
The Huskers inched closer to the Big 12 tourna
ment with a 5-0 win over the Blue Devils.
NU then _•
had to go to ••
back to Texas ft WOS difficult
for the Big 12
Conference because every
Tournament. y
The Huskers team we played
won the inau
gural touma- we got their best
mentinl996 1
with a i-o win shot, ft was like a
a&m. After World Cup final
beating „
Baylor 4-1 in every game.
the semifi
nals, the John Walker
Huskers were NU soccer coach
once again
matched up
with the Aggies.
Texas A&M and Nebraska had developed into
the conference’s first big rivalry. In this edition,
though, A&M handed die Huskers a 3-1 loss.
“We had to treat it like it was our season,”
senior Kari Uppinghouse said. “(Winning the tour
nament) was one of the goals we had at the begin
ning of die season. The team was disappointed that
we didn’t repeat”
A trip to the NCAA tournament was not guar
anteed, but Walker said the Huskers’ record and
strength of schedule should be enough to get NU in
to the 32-team field. Walker was right the Huskers
played host to Michigan in the first round of the
Plftasp sfip SOCCER on 16
B iTTnTi^HI
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