Sports
NU downs Creighton again
By Brandon Schulte
Staffwriter
OMAHA - Playing in blustery conditions, the
Nebraska softball team needed ail seven innings
to overcome an upstart Creighton team.
With NU trailing 2-0 in the top of the seventh,
___——Jennifer Lizama was
Nebraska 3 t^ie ^ero w^° iaced a
. triple to right center
Creighton 2 field to score two for
.... the Huskers. Lizama
then scored on an Alice Brewer sacrifice fly to
give Nebraska a 3-2 win in front of 68 fans at Dill
Field.
Jenny Voss entered in the middle of the fifth in
relief of Lori Tschannen and picked up the win.
With the victory, Voss moved into first place in the
all-time victories list at Nebraska, though she did
n’t know the win had any significance until she
was told afterward.
“I’m not a big stats or numbers person,” Voss
said. “Right now isn’t the time to worry about the
record. We’re getting too wrapped up in it. I have
to stay focused at the task at hand.”
With the win, the Huskers have defeated the
Bluejays three times this season and improved to
17-11 for the year, while CU dropped to 13-20.
NU Coach Rhonda Revelle sees the squad
turning the comer, noting the come-from-behind
win.
“I think the last six games, we’ve started to
gain a little momentum,” Revelle said. “I believe
that the momentum will continue after the week
long break.”
Cindy Rothemeyer started things off the in the
seventh with a single to right when bad communi
cation between the CU right fielder and the first
baseman allowed Rothemeyer’s bloop to drop for
a hit.
Next, Ginger Taylor beat out the throw to first
on a bunt to put runners on first and second. Both
advanced on a wild pitch. That set up the triple by
Lizama.
Finally, Brewer bunted. CU looked Lizama
back to third, threw Brewer out at first, and then
threw back home to try and get out Lizama.
Lizama beat the tag.
“It was kind of a interesting call,” Revelle said.
“I told Alice to be ready to squeeze. I thought we
could decoy the infield by bringing in a right
handed hitter. It turned into a safety squeeze when
she bunted.”
With the lead, Voss mowed down CU for her
10th win of the season. Tschannen went 4 1/3
innings, giving up both Creighton runs.
“We’ll take die win either way,” Lizama said.
“We knew if we kept putting the ball in play, things
would happen.”
NU coaches
consider turf
replacement
By Darren Ivy
Senior staff writer
Imagine an artificial playing surface that
looks, feels and plays like grass, yet it doesn’t
wear out as grass does over the course of a season.
An artificial surface that eliminates painful
turf-bum injuries yet still gives the same torque
release as grass. A surface that allows athletes to
slide, pivot and twist in their cleats without wor
rying about catching a cleat in the turf and blow
ing out a knee.
The product is FieldTurf, and it may be
installed in several Nebraska athletic facilities by
2000.
Former Coach Tom Osborne already has
endorsed it. Earlier this month, NU Football
Coach Frank Solich and NU Baseball Coach
Dave Van Horn inspected a pair of fields in
Wichita, Kan., and Amarillo, Texas.
With the current AstroTurf in Memorial
Stadium due for an overhaul after the 1999 sea
son, Nebraska football coaches and NU facilities
managers are in the beginning stages of selecting
a new surface.
FieldTurf is one option, said John Ingram,
NU director of facilities.
“It’s promising,” said Ingram, who went
along with Solich and Van Horn on the one-day
trip. “As we’re moving toward replacing the field,
we need to look at all the right systems. We’re
examining options with many different artificial
surfaces. But only time will tell what happens.
Sometimes with these new systems, you need to
take a little bit of a leap of faith.”
Solich said the surface plays slower than
AstroTurf, but faster than grass. Unlike
Types ef playing surfaces
I Natural grass,
I AstroTurf J
.____
\ FieldTurf J
Natural grass is the slowest
surface of the three and also the
most forgiving. Wear and tear and
sloppiness in bad weather are
problems.
Astroturf gets rid of some of the
wear and tear, but is hard on the
knees and other joints. There is
padding below, carpet above.
FieldTurf is a supposed
combination of grass and
AstroTurf. Padding and carpet are
mixed together, much like grass
and dirt would be.
AstroTurf, which has padding underneath and
then the carpet stretched over the top, FieldTurf
incorporates the padding and turf together as one
piece. The padding or infill is made from graded
silica sand and ground rubber. It surrounds each
FieldTurf fiber like natural earth holds a blade of
grass.
From reports Solich has received, FieldTurf is
safer on injuries than AstroTurf. This is a major
consideration, Solich said. FieldTurf surfaces
also deliver optimal performance in wet or dry
conditions and provide the ideal playing condi
tions all year long.
Each blade of FieldTurf grass is UV protected
and is resistant to the most extreme temperatures.
Company officials promote the surface to last
as long as an AstoTurf field and cost substantial
ly less to install. FieldTurf surfaces are relatively
new, Ingram said, so no major colleges have
installed it in football or baseball stadiums.
Earlier this year, the Lincoln School Board
voted to install FieldTurf at Seacrest Field, 72nd
and Adams. The field is to be completed by July.
JON rRANK/JJiN
NU players and coaches hope the Lincoln Public
Schools will allow the Comhuskers to practice
several times there to see how they like it.
Two Huskers, senior safety Clint Finley and
junior receiver Matt Davison, already have tested
FieldTurf. They went on the trip with Solich.
Finley hopes the Athletic Department installs
FieldTurf because he said it’s easier on his knees.
Finley said they took all kinds of shoes and
tested each of them on the surface. All the shoes
worked well, Finley said, so it would be a matter
of preference as to which shoe to wear.
“I thought the detachable cleats worked better
on this than on real grass,” Finley said. “On real
grass you get a divot and your feet slide.”
Solicit also was impressed with the surface,
but he said NU officials are still looking at all
options.
“It seemed to hold up really well,” Solich
said. “It looked like the kind of surface that may
be very good for us. We are really looking at all
options right now. A decision on the playing field
surface doesn’t have to be made right away.”
Spring Report
Davison
seeks life
after MU
‘miracle*
ByAdamKunker
Senior staff writer
It is an image not easily removed from the
mind’s eye of Nebraska football history: the
Miracle in Missouri.
It happened in Columbia, Mo., in a game that
would ultimately be the deciding contest in the
Comhuskers’ 1997 National Championship sea
son.
It happened at such a precise moment in time.
It happened to one freshman player, in the right
place at the right time - a football falling awk
wardly toward the turf like a tumbling cosmic
body, bounding off other bodies and coming to
rest in the freshman’s hands.
They were Matt Davison’s hands. He pulled
the ball in, flopped to the ground and in almost
the same motion was back on his feet, holding the
ball in one hand, valiantly proclaiming the catch
to the nearest official.
Touchdown. NU goes on to beat Missouri.
Davison is an instant hero in his home state, wins
an ESPY award and the Huskers win their third
national title in four years - undoubtedly, a water
shed moment in his career.
“In some ways, it’s an incredible thing that
happened to him,” Nebraska Receivers Coach
Ron Brown said. “But Matt’s too much of a com
petitor to settle for that.”
But football, in an imitation of life, marches
on. And Davison goes right along with it. Indeed,
he said, he’s been trying to live down that catch in
Missouri.
A year and a half later - spring practice in
1999, and sure, they still talk about “The Catch.”
But that’s not all they talk about. For certain, the
luster on the 6-foot-1 junior-to-be from
Tecumseh is far from worn.
Fathers still flock to spring practices to get
their kids in a picture with Davison. Davison hap
pily hoists the younger ones up, cradling them in
his hands - those same hands that have plucked
the football from the blue sky hundreds of times
over, in practice, in games, in defeat, in victory.
They talk about his other catches, they talk
about what’s to come. Davison smiles. An auto
graph? No problem. How good are we going to
be this year? Always the competitor, Davison’s
Please see DAVISON on 9
McBride: Defensive line solid for ’99 season
By Darren Ivy
Senior staff writer
What a difference a year makes on the defen
sive line.
Last spring, sophomores Jeremy Slechta anc
Jason Loli were in high school. But injuries at tta
interior lineman positions during the fall forcet
them into immediate action.
This spring Slechta and Lohr are considerec
battle-tested veterans. Their experiences as tru<
freshman, along with the development of junio;
Luis Almanzar and the return of starters Lorai
Kaiser and Steve Warren give NU one of its deep
est interior lines in many years, NU Defensiv<
Coordinator Charlie McBride said.
That added depth could spell trouble for oppo
nents, Kaiser said.
“The depth will have a big impact,” Kaise
said “You get that rotation in there and keep every
body’s legs fresh. This way you don’t just have t<
I
> depend on two people. You have four or five people
[ you can depend on. It will make a big difference on
the pressure we get on the ball.”
I Pressure on the quarterback and in the back
> field was something that was lacking last year.
• Warren said the goal for this year’s group is to be a
l dominant defensive front again.
Applying the pressure from the rush end spots
; will be senior Aaron Wills and junior Kyle Vanden
Bosch. They replace departed seniors Mike
■ Rucker and Chad Kelsay as starters. Rush end is
another deep position and junior Brandon
r Mooberry and freshmen Chris Kelsay, Justin
■ Smith and Demoine Adams are likely to see action.
» Kaiser said Vanden Bosch and Wills are spe
cial players good enough to start for almost any
team in the country last year.
While McBride was mostly pleased with the
play of the defensive line last year, he said more
time would be spent on fundamentals this spring.
He said players put themselves in positions to
make tackles last year but broke down fundamen
tally.
“We’re going to hone in on running the same
thing over and over again,” McBride said. “I feel
really comfortable with doing that because you get
to a point where guys feel confident about playing
the base thing. You can win with those things just
because you’re fundamentally sound.”
Chemistry is another thing that makes this
spring’s defensive line a force to reckon with,
Kaiser said. Players aren’t only close on the field,
but off the field as well. It’s like “one big family
ready to kill some people,” he said.
Warren said the unity and chemistry was
already showing in spring practices.
“We’re bonded enough so we know what each
other is going to do,” he said. “I know what Kaiser
is doing, and Kyle and Aaron know what each
other is going to do.”
With Kelsay, Rucker and Jason Wiltz gone,
Warren appears to be the new leader of the group.
He knows that if die defensive line were to have a
bad year, it would come back on him because he is
the senior.
He watched last year as people lost hope mid
way though the season, and playing football
became a chore rather than a game. Warren doesn’t
want that to be the case this year.
“At practice I try to keep everybody having a
positive attitude,” Warren said. “I think this year we
need to go out and have fun. If you go out and play
hard and have fun, good things will happen.”
Almanzar said the hard work that everyone put
in during the winter should also bring good results.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize it, but (the
defensive line) is going to be one of our strong
points this year,” Almanzar said. “We should be
pretty good.”
