Matt Miller/DN
THE NEBRASKA VOLLEYBALL team finished the season with trip a to the national semifinals, where
they lost to Penn State in four games.
NU volleyball squad builds
‘brick house’ at De vaney
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
Brick house.
Those were the two words that
dawned the Nebraska volleyball team’s
1998 media guide in huge red letters.
Below die phrase were the team’s three
powerhouse seniors - Fiona Nepo,
Megan Korver and Jaime Krondak -
standing up against a brick wall in the
Nebraska Coliseum. .
Quite a simple, yet powerful, state
ment. The tough thing to figure out was
did those words represent the building
where the team went undefeated and
kept alive a 59-match winning streak?
Or was it what NU’s opponents were
going up against 32 out of 34 times in
’98?
Whatever it was, it worked, and it
stuck from the beginning. The Huskers
gave Coach Terry Pettit, who practical
ly built the “Brick House” tradition
himself, his sixth Final Four birth, 20th
1
conference championship and 700th
career coaching victory in 22 years at
NU. Not to mention, they gave Pettit
undoubtedly one of his best teams ever.
But it was not Pettit who spoke the
words that epitomized Nebraska vol
leyball in 1998. Those came from fel
low Big 12 and Top 20 power Texas
Head Coach Jim Moore.
“People around here might not
want me to say this, but (Nebraska)
proved for many years, consistently,
that they are the best program in this
conference,” Moore said
“Last year when they came down to
Austin and we beat them three to noth
ing, they fought to the end hoping to get
back into it”
Those words came just days before
the Huskers hooked then-No. 12
Longhorns and avenged that 1997 loss
in straight sets at Austin. Nebraska
came into the 1998 match after having
lost for the first time all season the
night before in five grueling sets to No.
22 Texas A&M.
“It’s just unacceptable for them to
lose,” Moore said.
It took NU almost three months
and 26 matches to do so before the
Aggies beat them. It would be the only
regular season or Big 12 loss for
Nebraska all year.
The loss came at the start of NU’s
four-match road trip to end the regular
season after the Huskers had finished
defending their guard at the Coliseum,
closing out a perfect 13-0 home record.
Nebraska came back to Lincoln to
squeeze out two five-set thriller victo
ries over Pepperdine and Wisconsin in
the NCAA Pacific Regional, which
gave them a trip to the Final Four in
Madison, Wis.
It was there that the team’s dreams
of winning a second national title for
Pettit ended with a four-set loss to Penn
State in the semifinals.
The Huskers finished the season
32-2 and ranked No. 3 in the nation and
Nepo gained All-America honors for
the third straight time.
Wins over KU
highlight year
for Nebraska
NUprepares for sizable
recruiting class in 1999
-—-4
By Adam Klinker
Senior staff writer
It was some kind of ride for the Nebraska men’s basketball team in the
1998-99 season.
Maybe it was a roller-coaster - full of ups and downs, twists and turns;
maybe a merry-go-round - seeing some things twice, including wins over Big
12 Conference bastion Kansas.
The Comhuskers finished the season with a record of 20-13, including an
11-7 mark against Big 12 foes. But the record alone may belie the history that
was made this season.
There was one particular instance for the Husker squad and it came in two
chapters.
On Jan. 27, NU 9
trounced Kansas 84-69 in
front of 13,680 fans at the
Bob Devaney Sports
Center. It was the first
time the Huskers had
bested KU since 1994.
At that point,
Nebraska Coach Danny
Nee said, “Maybe some
of the magic is back.” The
Huskers had won five in a
row, and though they
would lose at Iowa State
in their next contest,
another game with the
Jayhawks loomed around
the corner, this time in
Lawrence, where Nee
had not won in his 13
year career and NU had
not won since 1983.
stunner against KU, DNPtTpH
Nebraska squared off HE>S 60NE N0W but Chad Johnson helped the
hostile confines^ofPhog men’s basketball team t. a 20-13
Allen Fieldhouse and record last season.
once again pulled out a --
victory.
“It was kind of a David and Goliath story,” senior forward Andy
Markowski said afterwards. “At the start of our season, to say we could sweep
Kansas was probably a stretch. But with our heart, we fought to the end.”
The 64-59 comeback win put the finishing gloss on the middle of the sea
son, when the Huskers won 9 of 10 games. Following the second KU win and
a revenge victory against ISU, Nebraska lost its next three games to Oklahoma
State, Texas Tech and Kansas State. The skid and a win against Texas A&M
carried NU into the Big 12 Tournament as the fifth seed.
After a win over Tech in the first round, the Huskers were once again look
ing straight into the eye of a haunting specter that was the Kansas Jayhawks.
Beaten twice already by NU and coming off their worst conference season
in the 1990s, the Jayhawks were looking for redemption in the way of a con
ference tournament title.
The road there started with a win over the Huskers, which they got by a 24
Please see HOOPS on 9
_ • /
Husker women visit big dance once again
I Nebraska looks for
ward to solid recruiting
class and more experience
L to help out the team next
season.
By Jay Saunders
Staff writer
If people didn’t know any better,
they may have thought Nebraska
Women’s Basketball Coach Paul
Sanderford took teams to the NCAA
Tournament every year.
In his second season at Nebraska,
Sanderford found his way back to the
Big Dance for the 14th time in his
career. But Sanderford said this wasn’t
the smoothest season.
f , / / / 7 / > / r'j / , t A r t J
That could have been because the
Huskers started off winning 11 of their
first 12 gamp.
“Our team is known for starting off
strong,” junior Brooke Schwartz said.
“We just seemed to hit a cliff where we
fell off. I like roller-coaster rides, but
not in this situation.”
The first stretch of the season con
sisted of a win against nationally
ranked Arizona. The Huskers then
went on the road for a tour of the
Missouri Valley Conference.
In a pair of games at Drake and
Creighton, NU was able to come from
behind and win on the road.
The Big 12 Conference season was
a different story. NU was not able to
win a game on the road for a two
month stretch of the season.
Not only did NU have road woes,
but a 27-game winning streak at the
Bob Devaney Sports Center was
snapped against Baylor.
But the Huskers saved the best for
last. In the Big 12 Tournament, NU
beat both Texas A&M and Texas to
earn a berth in the NCAA
Tournament.
With the performance in the Big
12 Tournament, the Huskers were
awarded with a trip to Los Angeles for
a first round game against Kentucky.
The Wildcats proved to be too
tough for NU, who pulled in a 98-92
victory. It was the most points any
team had scored on the Huskers all
season.
Sanderford said the early exit from
the tournament boiled down to
rebounding.
Last season, the Huskers were only
outrebounded in two games. This year,
15 of NU’s opponents were able to win
the battle of the boards. That list
included Kentucky.
“The same thing that kept us from
winning games in the regular season
happened to us (in the NCAA tourna
ment),” Sanderford Said. “We ended
up losing the rebound battle by six.”
Even though the team was not the
rebound machine it had been the year
earlier, there was plenty of offense for
the Huskers.
Junior Nicole Kubik led the team
in scoring this season with 19.8 points
per game. Backcourt teammate
Brooke Schwartz also averaged in
double figures, scoring 13.2pointsper
contest
But it wasn’t just offense that made
Kubik into a second team All-Big 12
selection. The Cambridge native led
the country in steals for most of the
season, and was named the defensive
player of the year by one college bas
ketball publication.
“Nicole is a gamer,” Sanderford
said. “She makes me look like a better
coach.”
Kubik and Schwartz will both be
back next season. In fact, the Huskers
will lose four seniors. Even though >
NU must replace only four players,
Sanderford hit the recruiting trail hard.
Highlighting the class is Omaha
native Stephanie Jones. Jones chose
Nebraska over national powerhouse
Connecticut.
NU also landed a pair of players
from Kansas City, Mo. Jones is not the
only local player to sign this year.
Lincoln Southeast guard Isha Kelley !
will play for Nebraska next season.
“We definitely helped ourselves
by recruiting speed and athleticism,”
Sanderford said. “Not Only did we gain
great speed, but we added excellent
shooters and size. I think this is one of
the Top 20 recruiting classes in the
nation.”