Loss motivates NU for Kansas
‘We’re not invincible,’ says quarterback Newcombe
ByLisaVonnahme
Staff writer
v Surviving a 28-21 loss to Texas
A&M on Saturday, Nebraska quarter
back Bobby Newcombe realized one
thing: “We’re not invincible,”
Newcombe said. “I didn’t want to
accept the loss after it happened, but it
happened. Now we just have to make
sure it doesn’t happen again.”
And making sure an NU loss does
n’t happen again will start at 6:07 p.m.
Saturday when No. 8 Nebraska takes on
Kansas at Manorial Stadium.
The Cornhuskers (5-1 overall and 1
1 in the Big 12 Conference) will use the
A&M loss as extra motivation for the
remainder of the season, starting this
weekend with the Jayhawks (2-4 and 0
4), NU rush end Chad Kelsay said.
“We definitely have our backs up
against a wall,” Kelsay said. “People
expect Nebraska to just show up and
win. Right now, we’re kind of starting
over. We’re focusing on doing things
right all the time.”
And that focus has been noticeable
in practice this week as NU prepares for
KU, Nebraska Coach Frank Solich said.
Both Newcombe and Kelsay agreed the
Huskers have shown more intensity in
practice than they did last week.
“Coaches preach in high school and
college that you’ll play like you prac
tice,” Kelsay said. “We know we have to
step it up, and I think we’ve shown that
at practice this week.”
The Jayhawks’ offense has been one
of the Huskers’ concentrations for the
week, Solich said.
KU’s offense, led by junior quarta
back Zac Wegner, has shown much
improvement from the 1997 season.
The Jayhawks are averaging almost
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twice as many points compared to last
season (33.0 to 16.1) and has increased
its total offense output by 128.6 yards
per game since 1997.
“They are a team that can score
points on you,” Solich said. “As a group,
they have very skilled receivers. I would
guess they are the fastest receivers we
have faced this far. It will be another
challenge for our defensive unit”
Kelsay said a challenge is exactly
what the Huskers need right now to con
tinue toward winning a Big 12
Championship and a possible national
JonFrank/DN
championship
“I’m not just going to sit around and
feel sorry for myself because we lost,”
Kelsay said. “That’s not how I was
brought up.
“At the beginning of the season we
set out a lot of goals. It’s going to be
harder now, but we can still do what we
set out to do.”
In other news:
No. 1 I-back DeAngelo Evans is
listed as doubtful for Saturday’s game
with an injured tailbone. Solich said
Evans will be available if needed.
Golfers ready for big test
with Duke Golf Classic
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Senior staff writer
The Nebraska golf team has
graded well in tournaments this fall,
but its biggest test ofihe season
begins Sunday.
After two weeks away from
competition, the Comhuskers will
travel to Durham, N.C., to compete
in the 54-hole Duke Golf Classic on
Oct. 18-19. The field offers
Nebraska - which has finished in
the top four in each of the tourna
ments in which it has played this
season - its toughest competition
yet.
“The field is going to be very
close together at this tournament,”
NU Coach Larry Romjue said. “The
last place team is going to be a good
team.
“It’s a thing whore five or six
strokes could be all that separates
teams. If we play well, we can win,
and if we don’t, then congrats to the
team that does.”
The 15-team field includes three
ranked teams - fifth-ranked
Georgia Tech, No. 13 North
Carolina and No. 18 East Tennessee
State.
But the impressive field doesn’t
intimidate the Huskers. Nebraska is
hoping for its second team win of
the year.
NU captured its first tournament
title at the Colorado State Ram
Collegiate on Sept. 28-29.
“We go into every tournament
looking to win,” said Husker golfer
Jamie Rogers, who tied for first at
Colorado State. “Realistically, we
should not finish out of the top 5
this weekend.”
Rogers said the team is playing
as well as it has all season. Rogers,
Steve Friesen, Scott Gutschewski,
Josh Madden and Seth Porter will
compete at Duke.
Rogers said he and Friesen will
shoot for the individual title.
Friesen, who leads the team with a
70.11 stroke average, won the
Falcon-Cross Creek Invitational on
Sept. 11-13 and has been the top NU
finisher in two of the team’s first
three tournaments.
Georgia Tech’s Matt Kuchar will
compete for the title as well. Kuchar
won the U.S. Amateur and placed
26* in the U.S. Open.
“Steve and I know there’s not a
tournament we couldn’t win,”
Rogers said. “We’ll be close if we
play our best at Duke. But you have
to figure that the top two guys on
any team are capable of winning it.
It’s just a matter of who plays well.
We need all five guys to play well.”
The Huskers have lacked a solid
fifth player at times this fall but will
rely on Porter at Duke. Porter won
the fifth spot by shooting well in the
qualifying rounds for the Duke tour
nament.
“Seth Porter has room to
improve, but he is a very good fresh
man,” Romjue said.
In a tournament where “one mis
take can drop you,” Romjue said
Nebraska needs good performances
from all five golfers to win the tour
nament.
Madden said the Huskers are
ready for the challenge.
“There will be so many good
teams there that we can really use
this tournament as a measuring
stick,” Madden said. “We are ready
to test ourselves.”
Passion, preparation keys to Pettits success at NU
PETTIT from page 6
volleyball someday, but not at
Nebraska.
“I wanted to keep my family and
my volleyball separate,” Katherine
said. “I want my dad to stay my dad and
not become my coach.”
She said she has the same passion
for a few select things - volleyball,
school work and family, much the way
her father does, and in some ways has
adopted his philosophy on life.
Volleyball Lab 481
While Terry Pettit admits he gets
his philosophy from his father, he com
pares his coaching style to his other
profession - teaching.
“I look at coaching pretty much the
same as teaching,” Pettit said. “It’s a
laboratory. The technical issues are
much the same as teaching chemistry
or mathematics.
“What you hope that happens
beyond that is you teach them about
other things, like teamwork, character
and accountability.”
Before coaching volleyball, Pettit
taught 20th century American poetry
and creative writing at Louisburg
Junior College in North Carolina. He
earned his bachelor of science degree
in English at Manchester (Ind.) College
in 1968 and went on for his master’s in
creative writing from the University of
Arkansas.
While teaching at Louisburg, the
president of the school asked Pettit to
coach the women’s volleyball team.
Pettit was the only one there with expe
rience. k
Pettit got that experience playing
for the Kenneth Allen Volleyball Club
in Chicago, under Head Coach Jim
Coleman, who coached the 1968
Olympic team.
Describing himself as a “hack” on
the court, Pettit said with his father as a
coach, it was in his nature to be one, too.
Montana moment
After a short three-year stint at
Louisburg, Pettit took over a
Comhusker program in 1977 that was
entering its third year of existence.
He did have a good first year as NU
posted a 42-12 record, but in 1978
slumped to 34-21, Pettit’s worst record
at Nebraska.
The Huskers bounced back, and by
1982, Nebraska was nationally ranked
for the first time in school history.
Pettit did consider leaving
Nebraska for the head coaching posi
tion at Oregon in 1985.
“Somewhere over Montana, at
about 40,000 feet, I decided that I just
had too much invested (at Nebraska),
particularly in people.”
~~ Pettit stayed, and his clubs slowly
— ■
I
I
started to climb the elite ranks of col
lege volleyball in the 1980s, as the sport
grew to where it wasn’t just a West
Coast sport
Husker volleyball became a perma
nent fixture in the state of Nebraska, to
the point where girls grew up wanting
to play volleyball, much like boys want
ed to play football.
Baylor Coach Brian Hosfeld sees
the impact that the Husker program has
on the state of Nebraska, and he’s only
been in the Big 12 for three years.
“Look what they’ve done for vol
leyball within their community,”
Hosfeld said. “A lot of people go and
try to recruit athletes from Nebraska,
and they’re never going to get them.
Not the good ones anyway.”
Shaw also acknowledged Pettit as
the driving force behind a program that
has won 19 out of 21 conference titles.
“He’s got everything under control
and in his back pocket,” he said. “It’s
lonely at the top, and I’m sure he might
not be making a lot of friends in the Big
12 because they all want to be where he
is.”
Friendship and family
While Pettit’s foothold on the pro
gram is strong, he also is one of the
Em
most senior head coaches at NU next to
Men’s Gymnastics Coach Francis
Allen
Shaw calls Pettit “the guy” at
Nebraska. Pettit doesn’t see it that way.
Pettit believes the coaches at NU
ultimately have responsibilities that
take priority over winning ball games.
“I don’t think there is anybody in
the Athletic Department who isn’t
aware of who they are coaching for,”
Pettit said. “They have a responsibility
to the program, the university and the
state ofNebraska.”
The responsibility to the program
ofNebraska volleyball is a serious one
for Pettit, but if he couldn’t coach
another match, he wouldn’t miss it
“Friendship and family. Those are
things I need,” Pettit said. “It doesn’t
mean I don’t appreciate the game or
love the game. I’m very passionate
^ about golf, but if somebody tomorrow
says I can’t do that. I think I’d find
something pretty quickly.”
Cliffs Notes
Pettit said it is to difif cult to say when
or how he will retire from coaching. The
circumstances will certainly dictate
when he does, but from now on his pas
sion for volleyball is as thick as ever.
Passion, Pettit said, is an outgrowth
of personality, and deciding what to be
passionate about is an important tool in
living life. But passion needs a balanc
ing element to keep from neurosis.
“Passion by itself doesn’t get you
anywhere,” Pettit said. “But goals with
out passion are like Clifls notes; it’s not
good literature.”
What is good literature to Pettit, in a
sense, is not winning a national cham
pionship in 1995, but the personal con
nections he’s made with Ids players.
That’s what drives him to coach -
knowing that former players are proud
of their experiences playing at
Nebraska.
“Tisha Delaney, who was an All
American here in 1986, told me, kind
of wistfully, ‘It took me a long time to
not be so demanding on other people. I
learned to be so accountable here. I
assumed that’s the way everybody was,
and I still am,”’ Pettit said.
“That was a good thing for me to
hear.”
The Office of Campus Recreation
would like to recognise the following
Sport Clubs on their outstanding finishes
Men's 8e Women's Crew
1st overall against intercollegiate competition
at the Quad Cities Rowing Classic.
Men's Water Polo
2nd in the Collegiate Great Lakes
I Water Polo Championships.