Sam McKewon
The Huskies
a legion of
mediocrity
Mediocrity rules. It does in col
lege football, anyway.
Saturday prov ided a perfect can
vas for which a pretty messy picture
was painted of the college football
scene.
You had Florida vs. Tennessee, a
game in which the Volunteers had a
hopelessly inept offense and the
Gators had to turn the ball over six
times, miss two field goals and get
called for just about every penalty
know n to man in order to lose 20-17
in overtime.
No. 8 Penn State beat Pittsburgh
20-13. No. 10 Virginia squeaked by a
poor Clemson team 20-19.
The only team that didn't look
mediocre was Kansas State, which
continues to find new exciting ways
to entice the national media with its
performances. (This week's episode:
how to stop Ricky Williams like no
one has before.)
Then there's No. 9 Washington,
the poster child of mediocrity. The
Mediocre Eleven just happen to be
playing Nebraska this week.
The ninth-ranked team in the
country mediocre9 You betcha.
The Huskies beat BYU on
Saturday 20-10. Six of those points
were scored by the Husky offense.
The UW starting quarterback. Brock
Huard, cringed in pam almost every
time he got hit. The Huskies rushed
for 100 yards, 48 of which came from
the backup quarterback.
This is mediocrity at its finest.
Some call it parity. I don't agree. This
Husky team was bom to be m limbo.
Case in point: While watching
the game Saturday, it seemed like the
Huskies were perpetually at mid
field. Not pinned in their own end.
Not in the red zone. Right at mid
field. The whole game.
More mediocrity: On two of
UWs touchdowns, the kicker missed
the extra point. He didn’t just miss
them, he pulled them wildly. See,
mediocrity.
So Washington comes here to
Lincoln to play a Nebraska team
that’s been better than mediocre, but
far below stellar. Personally, I’m
looking forward to this.
I predict 20 punts, 10 for each
team. I see both teams’ quarterbacks
(whomever that might be) scamper
ing wildly to avoid the rush. I see a
low-scoring, bone-crushing, thor
oughly mediocre affair. And that’s
OK, because there isn’t a dominant
team in college football. Anybody
can beat anybody; North Carolina
State badly beating Florida State,
then losing to Baylor, proves that.
My prediction for the game?
Nebraska, 16-7, by virtue of three
Kris Brown field goals the
Washington guy won’t make.
Brown, you see, isn’t mediocre.
He’s pretty dam good.
Sam McKewon is a junior
news-editorial and political science
major and the Daily Nebraskan
sports editor.
Huskers pound tired Gators
Nebraska block
stops UF attack
for entire match
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Senior staff writer
,
B\ the end of their three-game
match against the Nebraska volley
ball team, several Florida players felt
so sick and v oid of energy that they
struggled to walk off the floor at the
NU Coliseum.
And Florida Coach Mary Wise
couldn't figure out which one of the
Gators' symptoms led them to look
so ill in a 15-4. 15-8. 15-0 loss to the
No. 3 Cornhuskers in the final match
of the US Bank Tournament on
Saturday night. But Wise said a com
bination of the flu. a tournament
schedule that favored NU and a
strong showing by the Fluskers
doomed the No. 10 Gators.
“(NU's) win could be credited to
scheduling." said Wise, whose team
battled to beat No. 15 Loyola
Marymount (7-2) in a five-game
match at 11 a.m. Saturday. "If I have
a chance to do it to Nebraska when
they come back to our place. I 'll do it.
"But I could tell that our jumpers
just weren't jumping. And watching
Jenny Manz, as sick as she was, I was
surprised she was able to get out of
bed for the match.”
Manz, a right-side hitter who
leads Florida with 5.5 kills per game,
posted three kills and a minus-.211
hitting percentage. Jenni Keene, who
ranks second on the squad with 3.2
kills per game, accounted for two
kills and hit -. 118. Wise said both suf
fered from a flu virus that affected
most of her team.
The Gators (7-2) hit .011 for the
match and recorded eight service
errors and just 19 set assists.
Nebraska, which improved to 8-0,
could do little wrong in their fifth win
over a ranked opponent this season.
Sophomore Nancy Meendering
led the Huskers-who hit .359 overall
- with 13 kills and a .579 hitting per
centage.
NU dominated defensively as
well, holding a 20-3 advantage in
blocks.
“The score could be misleading
— i _L_/. . 1
MikJT Warren/DN
JUNIOR TONIA TAUKE and sophomore Angie Oxley attempt a block while Florida’s Jenny Manz looks on. The
Huskers shut down the Gator attack, as they held a 20-3 advantage in blocks.
as to the level that Florida is,” NU
Coach Terry Pettit said. “Having said
that, I like the way we played. We're a
very good serving and passing team,
and that enabled us to follow our
game plan. We just did a good job.”
Nebraska, which defeated Loyola
Marymount in three games Friday
and Wyoming in three games
Saturday afternoon, jumped to early
leads in the first and third games and
never fell behind.
Florida did, however, threaten to
take the second game. The Gators
built a 6-4 lead in the second game,
taking advantage of attack errors by
Meendering, Megan Korver, Tonia
Tauke and Angie Oxley.
Nebraska regained possession on
a Tauke kill. NU setter Fiona Nepo
then served four consecutive points
and Meendering posted three straight
kills as NU took an 8-6 advantage.
After an ace serve by defensive
specialist Denise Koziol, NU
increased its advantage to 10-6.
“I think when we play really well
our people just really understand
their roles,” Pettit said. “We’re even
pretty much, and Koziol comes in
and just rips that ball and aces a good
passer. I don’t know what that did to
Florida, but I know what it did for
us.”
The Gators served just five times
in the third game and erred on two of
the attempts. Florida totaled three
kills despite attacking the ball 20
times. Wise gradually pulled her ail
ing starters out of the match during
the final game.
“Game three, we just decided to
go to our younger players and get
them some experience in a big
game,” Wise said, “I credit Loyola
Marymount for taking us to five
No. 3 Nebraska 15 15 15 '*
No. 10 Florida 4 8 0
Kills
Nebraska 32 (Meendering 13)
Florida 22 (Manz)
Hit% NU .359 UF -0.11
games earlier.”
Both Florida and Nebraska begin
conference play this weekend.
Meendering said the Huskers are
happy with where they’re at heading
into league play.
“Our goal is to never let up,”
Meendering said. “We want to push
on every point like the score is 0-0. In
the third game tonight, with the score
the way it was, our level of play still
stayed high. I think we made a strong
statement tonight.”
Florida fights tough schedule
Tournament loss attributed to tired team, Huskers’ performance
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
The 10th-ranked Florida volley
ball team came into the US Bank
Invitational as possibly the toughest
opponent for the No. 3 Cornhuskers.
In winning 15-4, 15-8, 15-0
Saturday night, Nebraska proved it
was worthy of the high ranking.
Coming into the match against
NU, Florida had an extremely stren
uous schedule. If the prospect of fat
ing Nebraska in the NU Coliseum
wasn’t daunting enough, Florida
defeated No. 11 Texas on Tuesday,
Wyoming on Friday night and No. 15
Loyola Marymount earlier in the
day.
Florida Coach Mary Wise felt the
scheduling by Nebraska was diffi
cult for her team to overcome. She
also thought her team was drained
after the morning match.
“We came into the game exhaust
ed,” Wise said. “Our jumpers just
weren’t there with two matches in
the same day.”
The five-game, two-hour and 40
minute match against LMU obvious
ly drained the Gators. In the best
match of the tournament, Florida
staved off a match point in the fourth
game before clawing back to win the
match 6-15, 15-10, 9-15, 16-14, 15
12 despite hitting .227 for the match
vs. the Lions.
UF also was battling a team-wide
virus. Junior All-America candidate
Jenny Manz was bothered by the flu.
She hit -.211 against the Huskers on
Saturday.
Gator outside hitter Jenni Keene
didn’t believe fatigue was the only
reason the Gators came up short.
“Being tired is no excuse,” said
Keene, who was named to the All
Tournament Team. “We came out
flat; we needed to be more enthusias
tic.”
It wasn’t because of a lack of
effort, though. Wise felt a lot of the
credit for her team’s performance
must go to Nebraska for frustrating
the Gators throughout the match as
«
Being tired is no
excuse. We came out
flat; we needed to be
more enthusiastic
Jenni Keene
Florida outside hitter
well as to Loyola for taking them to
the wire.
Wise said she wished the Gators
could have given the fans a better
game to see. She said she had hoped
her team would be more competitive.
With UF down 8-0 in the third
game, Wise pulled her starters, giv
ing younger players an opportunity
to experience the volleyball atmos
phere Nebraska provides.
“Nebraska is one of the most fun
places to play in the country,” Wise
said.
Huskers shut
out USC, fall
to the Bruins
By Darren Ivy
Staff writer
It was a tale of two games this
weekend for the Nebraska women’s
soccer team.
After losing 5-1 to No. 25 UCLA
on Friday night, the No. 17
Cornhuskers came back and shutout
Southern California 2-0 Sunday in Los
Angeles.
“Friday’s game was devastating,”
NU Coach John Walker said.
“(Sunday), we really bounced back
against a quality team. (Sunday) was as
blue collar as you get. The girls showed
a lot of character.”
Against the Women of Troy, fresh
man midfielder Meghan Anderson got
her first start as a collegiate goalie.
Anderson was forced to start
Please see SOCCER on 8