Sports
Defense dominates spirited scrimmage
By Darren Ivy
Senior staff writer
It was evident Saturday at Memorial Stadium
that the Nebraska football team was tired of prac
tice and ready for its first live action of the spring.
Players jawed with one another, offensive and
defensive players dished out big hits, and everyone
played with a high level of intensity.
“This is the first time we have gone live since
Arizona,” said Kyle Vanden Bosch, a junior rush
end. “It feels good to be out there having the
defense flying around again and making some big
stops.”
The defensive and offensive units both left
Saturday’s scrimmage feeling good about the
progress each group has made thus far during the
spring. The offensive units scored three touch
downs and two field goals while showing some
big-play capability.
The defensive groups, meanwhile, made a
habit of being in the offense,’s backfield, collecting
14 sacks and giving up just three rushing yards per
carry. The defense also had two interceptions and a
fumble recovery.
“The scrimmage went about how I expected in
some ways,” Coach Frank Solich said. “There
were some good individual performances. We had
a lot of young players playing, and things get a lit
tle rugged when the younger guys are still learning
what they are doing. I thought the top units to a
degree performed well, and the hitting was good.”
But Solich said he was frustrated with the num
ber of holding and illegal-motion penalties. He
said those penalties ended several drives.
Execution was another problem area, he said.
Sophomore quarterback Eric Crouch under
stands Solich’s concerns, but he felt the offense
played well for the first scrimmage.
“I think anytime you can say our offense is
competing against our defense at a pretty high
level, that says a lot of things about our offense this
year, because our defense is one of the best
around,” Crouch said.
The No. 1 offense did show some big-play
capability against the top defense.
Crouch, who wore a green jersey signifying he
couldn’t be hit, had a hand in the two biggest plays
by the No. 1 offense. On the first big play, he faked
the ball to the fullback going up the middle, and
then carried the ball around the outside for a 35
yard touchdown run.
“Two-hand touch doesn’t apply when offen
sive line makes big holes like that,” Crouch said. “It
was a designed play, where everyone bit on the full
back and there was a big, huge hole leading to the
end zone. That was probably one of the better plays
we executed on all day long.” c
Oh the other one, Crouch rolled to one side and
then threw the ball back across the field to a wide
open Chris Butler, who rambled 35 yards.
Third-team quarterback Jeff Perino scored
another touchdown on a 53-yard scramble. Paul
Kastl, who saw action at the I-back spot, scored a
71 -yard touchdown on the last play of scrimmage.
Kastl finished with a team-high 92 yards on 11 car
ries.
Despite a few big plays by the offense, the
defense controlled the scrimmage. The defense
totalled 14 sacks and put a lot of pressure on the
offense.
“Effort-wise, the defense was great,” said
Vanden Bosch, who was named the 1999 lifter of
the year before the scrimmage. “It’s good to see
players fired up because that means we are getting
after the offense. When we’re fired up, it seems like
everyone is flying around and making big plays.”
Gabe Fries made the biggest play for the
defense, intercepting a Perino pass and returning it
62 yards for a touchdown.
The Huskers will practice Monday,
Wednesday and Friday and have another scrim
mage Saturday.
Rick Townley/DN
SOPHOMORE LANCE MILLS reaches for a ball in his match against Indiana State's Peter Magnusson on Saturday at the Woods Tennis Center. Mills
went on to win the match 4-6,6-1, and 6-2. Mills wore a rib brace in all of his weekend matches because he injured his ribs coughing during a
recent case of bronchitis.
NU scores two wins over weekend
By Jake Bleed
Staff writer
After watching the No. 71 Nebraska men’s ten
nis team beat Big 12 rival Colorado 4-3 on Friday at
the Woods tennis complex, Coach Kerry
McDermott was upbeat but apprehensive.
The win was Nebraska’s second conference vic
tory of the season and the best the team has done in
conference play since 1995. But McDermott’s team
was scheduled to meet No. 52 Indiana State on
Saturday morning, and two of his singles players,
Lance Mills and Juan Hamdan, were injured.
“A win tomorrow,” McDermott said, “would
really set the tone for the rest of the season.”
Nebraska triumphed over the Sycamores 4-3
after a long, tough match. This weekend’s wins will
give Nebraska a better seed in the Big 12 tournament
and a better chance of making the NCAA tourney.
Indiana State (10-3) arrived in Lincoln on a five
game winning streak. In their first season in the
national rankings, the Sycamores scored early
against Nebraska.
Only the No. 2 doubles team of Mills and Joige
Abos-Sanchez won for NU 8-5. The No. 1 team of
Dinko Veizi and Andrew Weise lost 8-6, and the No.
Nebraska 4
Indiana State 3
3 team of Kai Reike and Ryan Haith lost 8-2.
Singles play started on a bad note for NU. No. 6
Andrew Weise was the only Husker to win his first
set. Indiana State’s Gareth Keating played well, mak
ing some impressive shots in No. 1 doubles and in
No. 4 singles against Reike. Keating won 6-3,6-2.
In the adjacent No. 5 court, Nebraska’s Juan
Hamdan also fell in two sets. Playing with a shoulder
injury that probably will require postseason surgery,
Hamdan lost to Jacek Wolicki 7-6,6-4.
Nebraska’s No. 3 Abos-Sanchez gave up his first
set 6-3 but came back against Indiana State’s Stefan
Him, winning the next two sets 6-3,6-3. The win put
Abos-Sanchez’s record at 14-3 on the season, a team
best.
At No. 6, Weise picked up the second Husker
point, beating Nathan Crick 7-6, 2-6, 6-3. Weise’s
mother was courtside Saturday, in town from
Flushing Hills, N. Y., for the holiday.
“I can’t lose in front of her,” said Weise, who also
won against Colorado, “or else I get hit.”
Weise’s victory was followed by a win at No. 2.
Lance Mills said he had a case of bronchitis last
«
“This is the win we ve
needed all year. We really
showed them our mental
toughness today ”
Kerry McDermott
NU men’s tennis coach
week and injured his ribs coughing. He played both
matches this weekend with a rib brace, losing against
Colorado but triumphing against Indiana State’s
Peter Magnusson, 4-6,6-1,6-2.
The match score was tied after Mills’ victory. A
crowd gathered around the No. 1 court where Verzi
was in the third set against ISU’s Jonas Piibor.
Verzi triumphed 5-7,6-2,6-3, taking the win for
NU.
Please see TENNIS on 10
A&M puts
stops on
win streak
By Jay Saunders
Staff writer
The glass slipper fell off this week
end for the Nebraska baseball team.
A&M quickly ended the Huskers’
11-game winning streak Friday with a
14-4 win.
Then, the Aggies swept a Saturday
doubleheader 16-5 and 3-2. This is the
second time this season the Huskers
Texas A&M 14 16 3
Mebraska^_^^_^_^
have been swept. Lamar University
took a pair of games from Nebraska in
February.
Going into this weekend’s series at
Texas A&M, the Cornhuskers were
first in the Big 12 Conference and were
climbing the national rankings at No.
18.
NU is now 20-11 overall and 8-4 in
the Big 12. With this weekend’s losses,
the. Huskers fall from first to fifth in the
conference standings.
In the first game on Saturday, Texas
A&M jumped out to a 6-1 lead after
two innings.
Junior Scott Fries gave up six runs
in 1 2/3 innings. Fries was replaced by
senior Jarod Bearinger, who didn’t fare
much better.
The Aggies put up six runs in the
fifth inning, and followed that up with
four runs in the sixth off of freshman
Dave Schneider.
The second half of the doublehead
er was quite a bit closer. Freshman
Shane Komine, who hadn’t started a
game in two weeks because of a back
injury, threw a complete game.
Komine allowed 10 hits in 9 2/3
innings, but the Hawaii native didn’t get
as much offensive support as in past
starts. The loss was Komine’s first of
the season (5-1).
NU’s offensive attack was silenced
by the Aggie pitchers.
The Huskers, who scored 32 runs in
a three-game sweep of Texas last week
end, were only able to put 11 runs on the
board in three games against Texas
A&M.
Aggie hurler Chance Caple got the
win in the first game Saturday. Caple
struck out four Husker batters while
surrendering only three runs in 6 1/3
innings.
Chris Russ picked up his eighth win
of die season in the second game, pitch
ing 41/3 innings of relief.