Tourney puts Huskers back on track
■ The Huskers adjust to
their new 6-2 offense as
they defeat Florida.
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
The disparity in the level of confi
dence and perception between a top
five volleyball team and one on the
fringe of the top-10 can be tremendous.
But that,gap can be very small in a
tight match where a point here or a point
there can mean the difference between a
win and a loss.
The fifth-ranked Nebraska volley
ball team found that out the first two
weekends of the young season.
Nebraska lost close matches to No.
1 Pacific and No. 2 Penn State in its first
two of the season at the State Farm
Classic. But at the SunTrust Invitational
last weekend, right side hitter Nancy
Meendering said NU took a step back in
the right direction and showed improve
1 ment in defeating No. 6 Florida on the
Gators’ home court.
The Cornhuskers showed this
improvement by surviving two game
points after exhausting their substitu
tions, before coming back to win the
first game of the match, 18-16. They
would go on to win the match in four
games.
With the victory, NU Coach Terry
Pettit said the team took an important
step.
“Every top team has to go some
where, like Florida, with a tough envi
ronment and beat a great team like that,”
Pettit said. “The earlier that happens, the
better.”
If they hadn’t won that tight game
and ultimately the match, Pettit said, his
team may have fallen out of the top 10.
Florida stymied Nebraska hitters in
the first game, and instead of relying qn
stellar offensive hitting to win the game,
the team used blocking, serving and
passing to overcome the Gators in the
key game.
“The most important thing we do is
serving, blocking and passing,” middle
blocker Jenny Kropp said. “Because
you can win gamps with those, but you
can’t win games just by hitting because
if you can’t serve and you can’t pass,
you’re not going to hit.”
Meendering contributed 19 kills, 14
digs and seven blocks in the Florida
game en route to being named the MVP
in the SunTrust Invitational.
She said some of the hitting woes
stem from the change to a 6-2 offense,
and the time it has taken for each player
to adjust to her new role in the offense.
“It took us awhile to get used to it,
and the first weekend showed that we
still were adjusting to it,” Meandering
said. “We never changed our goals
though. But I just think we realized that
we might have to give up something
now - in terms of winning matches - to
play at the best we could at the end of the
season.”
The Florida match may have been
one game out of 40 for Nebraska this
season, but Kropp said the win did more
than secure a high ranking. It gave the
young team confidence.
“We kind of matured as a team,”
Kropp said. “It was more a mental thing
for us to push through and win.”
Crouch breaks his silence
CROUCH from page 9
myself in every way. I was a little
disappointed to see the decision, the
way it was made.”
The sophomore played two
series in the first half against the
Hawkeyes, scoring NU’s only
touchdown of the first 30 minutes
for a 7-0 halftime lead. He added
two rushing touchdowns later in the
game.
Crouch said that he delayed
comment on his situation until
Tuesday in order to adequately pre
pare for the game.
“The reason why I wanted to
wait is I wanted everything to kind
of settle down,” Crouch said. “I did
n’t want to have to think every day
about what I was going to tell people
or how I .was going to explain
myself.
“I wanted to prepare myself to
play against Iowa because, most
importantly, it’s how I play on
Saturday and not how I explain
myself about rumors that I hear Or
things that people are telling me.”
And boy, did he hear some
rumors.
There was, of course, the trans
ferring to Ohio State tale. One
story had him going to the
University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Another had him going to
California. Yet another had him;
/■*. ©Y» ©I© ©I© nTa"~'nT a
quitting altogether. Crouch said he
even heard someone mention he
was going to go be a coach.
“There was a lot of stuff going
around,” Crouch said.
And after rushing for 92 yards
on five carries against Iowa, Crouch
said he was a bit disappointed that
Husker fans would think he’d quit
the team.
“It did bother me, in a way, that
people would kind of put that per
spective out there, that once some
thing didn’t go right that I would
automatically give up and quit the
team, and that’s not the type of per
son I am.
“I think the situation would have
to be almost life-threatening or very
traumatic for me to give something
this important in my life up.”
Beyond addressing those issues
in his first day of full dialogue with
the media since the decision,
Crouch said he would “do anything
to help the team” and gave
Newcombe praise for his play in the
scrimmages and Saturday’s game.
Solich, meanwhile, held firm to
JiisTdea of using both quarterbacks,
witK Newcombe getting most of the/
snaps in the game but Crouch seeing
time in both halves as well.
However, Solich said, the cur
rent situation could change, and
Newcombe must continue to per
form well.
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“That’s understood in the pro
gram by our players that when you
are the No. 1 guy, you still need to
perform at a level that would dictate
that you still be the No. 1 guy,”
Solich said.
Newcombe, dressed slightly
down from the three-piece suit he
wore last week, remained upbeat
about the entire quarterback situa
tion.
He sees no controversy, nor does
he have a problem with Crouch hav
ing success on the field.
While he can play better, he said,
he’s prepared to Rattle California
this week.
“Surprisingly, I feel no nerves,”
Newcombe said.
So for now, Crouch said, the sys
tem will remain the same, and he
will do what he can to help the team.
Losing the starting job was a bitter
pill to swallow but one he has to live
with.
“At the beginning of last week it
was kind of tough,” Crouch said. “I
had a lot of emotions running
through my mind and how I was
going to come back still kind of
determined on how I played during
the practice.
“I kept telling myself I had to get
better somehow, and the only way to
do that is to come out here and prac
tice hard and give everything that I
could.”
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Wildcats aim for title
CATS from page 9
Leading the Cats’ pack on defense
is senior Mark Simoneau, who led the
team in tackles last season.
The secondary will once again be
one of the top units in the nation, with
players at all four positions with starting
experience.
“We will be a defense that runs well
and is aggressive,” Snyder said. “Can
we be as good as in the past?
“I would venture to think so.”
Even without a Heisman-caliber
quarterback, the Wildcats are looking
for bigger and better things in 1999. The
preseason polls didn’t seem to indicate
that happening, ranking K-State as low
as No. 23.
But Snyder has never been a big fan
of the polls, and Simoneau said the goal
for this season hasn’t changed from the
fourth quarter of last year’s conference
title game.
“Winning the Big 12
Championship is our next goal as a foot
ball team,” Simoneau said. “Hopefully
the breaks will go our way.”
2 QBs lead California
CAL from page 9'
^quarterback position. Clemons will
start again this week against the
Huskers, but Boiler will likely play,
Holmoe said. Last week, it was Boiler
who came in to spell Clemons after a
botched series inside the Rutgers’ 10
yard line.
Boiler was touted as one of the top
high school quarterbacks last season
after completing 63.9 percent of his
passes for 4,838 yards and 59 touch
downs in one season at Hart High
School in Newhall, Calif.
“Though Kyle made mistakes,”
Holmoe said, “he’s got good control of
the offense. That was important to
Offensive Coordinator Steve Hagen,
and he decided to finish up the game
with him.”
I Holmoe said the green offense must
i lean on a strong defense. It returns
seven starters and has one of the
I strongest linebacking crews in the
■
nation with Sekou Sanyika and Matt
Beck. Cal runs a 6-1 defense, which is
similar to a 4-3, except the outside line
backers will sometimes line up as
defensive ends.
Last year, Cal held up well against
the Husker offense, yielding only 24
points - 10 of which didn’t come until
the fourth quarter.
“Our defense has to carry the
weight right now,” Holmoe said. "They
understand what they’re getting into.”
Preparing to face two separate quar
terbacks, Holmoe said, won’t be that
hard, as both Eric Crouch and Bobby
Newcombe are similar in style. The
only problem is that they’re both good.
“It’s difficult in that there’s two great
players they can alternate,” Holmoe
said.
“With Newcombe and Crouch,
they’re both going to run the same plays
regardless of who’s in there. So it’s not a
matter of having to prepare for two dif
ferent philosophies on offense.”
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