Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1999)
Sports Page 10__ Monday, September 27,1999 Gill satisfied with offense vs. Tigers By Joshua Camenzind Staff writer Nebraska’s 40-10 win over Missouri on Saturday showed that Head Coach Frank Solich has not run out of tricks in his bag - and the offense is capable of moving the football. The sixth-ranked Cornhuskers racked up 476 total yards, and the running game was awak ened by Correll Buckhalter, NU’s first 100-yard rusher of the season. Buckhalter gained 132 yards on 14 carries, and Eric Crouch ran for 92 yards on 15 carries. The ground output moved NU up to second in the Big 12 Conference in rushing offense, behind Iowa State. The Huskers are averaging 228 yards per game after two sub-par performances at home against California and Southern Mississippi. Quarterbacks Coach Turner Gill said Crouch came into the game prepared, and it showed. Crouch, now second in the Big 12 in passing efficiency, ran for two touchdowns and threw for another. “Eric Crouch played a very good football game,” Gill said. “No question about it. He played at a great level of intensity and had total control of the offense.” Overall, Gill credited the offense for playing as a unit with concentration and focus on execu tion. “Last week was probably the best prepara tion for all of us,” Gill said. “Offensively, I think coaches and players had a better focus in prepar ing for Missouri.” Gill said the coaches came into the game with the knowledge that passing was key, and the offense was going to have to open it up a bit. The various plays and sets that NU used kept the Tigers off balance and allowed the ground game to get going. In the past, it has been the running game that opens up the passing game. But against the Tigers, the passing game opened up the run. NU also benefited from turning the ball over only twice and staying relatively free of penal ties. In the first three games, the Huskers contin ually killed themselves with inopportune penal 66 They know they can get it done now. They just have to keep that same approach Turner Gill NU quarterbacks coach ties and turnovers - something Gill did not see much of on Saturday. “We really felt like, for the most part, this whole season we have really hurt ourselves offensively,” Gill said. “If it’s not the turnovers, it’s the penalties and those kind of things. For the most part, we have stopped ourselves.” Because NU had the game in hand by the third quarter, backup quarterback Jeff Perino took some snaps. He is coming off an injury, but Gill said Perino is progressing every week because he knows he must be ready to play at any time. Gill said that Bobby Newcombe, formerly NU’s No. 1 quarterback and now a wingback, is stili taking about 10-15 snaps per day at practice. Newcombe caught a 53-yard touchdown pass from Crouch in the third quarter. Despite Newcombe’s performance at wing back and the solid play of Perino, the Husker coaching staff is keeping Newcombe sharp at quarterback to guard against an injury to Crouch. “If Eric goes down - as of last week - we were going to go with Bobby,” Gill said. “We are probably still going to go with Bobby as the No. 2 guy next week if Eric goes down. We are going to keep evaluating week after week, but I think we are always going to have Bobby all year take some amount of snaps.” Gill and the rest of the offense prepare for Oklahoma State this week, hoping to keep the focus they had against Missouri. “They know that they can get it done now,” Gill said. “Now they’ve just got to keep that same approach and keep it at that same level.” Miyy Warrrn/HN NEBRASKA QUARTERBACK Eric Crouch runs down field on a quarterback keeper in the fourth quarter against Missouri. Crouch finished the game with 92 rushing yards, and the Huskers totaled 333 yards on the ground. NU avoids disaster against Texas Tech ■ Following a loss to KSU on Wednesday, the Huskers dig out of a hole, preventing a second upset. By John Gaskins Staff writer Another disaster was in the making for the No. 4 Nebraska vol leyball team Saturday night. Already having experienced uncharted waters Wednesday, los ing to Kansas State and starting with a 0-1 record in the Big 12 Conference for the first time ever, the Cornhuskers once again found themselves in the dark. Texas Tech bashed through the first game and took a 5-0 lead in the second. Then, the Huskers’ switch flicked on. Nebraska (9-3 and 1-1 in the Big 12) stormed back to win the ' game, en route to a 9-15, 15-11,15 7, 15-1 victory over the unranked Red Raiders (10-2 and 0-1). After the match, NU Head Coach Terry Pettit was happy his players finally woke up. “It took us about a game and a half to get organized,” Pettit said. “But I’m really pleased with our effort.” As usual, junior outside hitter Nancy Meendering provided the most offensive punch for the Huskers, ripping a match-high 18 kills. But it was the Husker bench that came to the rescue when NU found itself in yet another hole. Junior left-side hitter Kim Behrends, nearly a nonfactor in NU’s loss to K-State, recorded a team-high 13 digs and seven kills, six of which came in the third game. One of the kills was a crashing spike off the head of Tech’s Colleen Smith early in the game that set the tone for the Huskers’ turnaround. Blockers Katie Jahnke and Jenny Kropp also came off the bench to provide NU with a few sparks. Jahnke followed a nine-kill, seven-block performance Wednesday with six kills and seven blocks Saturday, while Jenny Kropp dropped seven kills and recorded a match-high .455 hitting percentage. “Kropp, Behrends and Jahnke came off the bench and played great,” Pettit said. For a while it was Tech’s defense that got the better of Nebraska. The Please see TECH on 11 Nebraska settles for tie After a 9-goal win Friday, Huskers come up empty By Darren Ivy Senior staff writer After the Cornhuskers scored nine goals Friday night against Tulsa, Nebraska Soccer Coach John Walker wished his fourth-ranked team would have saved one for Sunday against Clemson. The Huskers, 8-1-1, attempted 15 shots on goal compared to just four shots on goal for the Tigers, 6 3-1, but NU couldn’t get one past the goalie and settled for a 0-0 tie before 655 fans in Clemson, S.C. Walker said the tie was indica tive of the competitive battle between the two teams. “It was an NCAA Tournament type of game,” Walker said. “Clemson is a good, solid team, and we knew that coming in. They played hard and we played hard. They had a good crowd that was vocal and into the game. It was just a good game. “I think 0-0 is probably a fair score. We were better than them in the first half, and I think they played better than us in the second half. We outplayed them in the overtime, but we just couldn’t get the goal. That’s just the way it goes sometimes in soccer.” Senior forward Lindsay Eddleman attempted five shots, and sophomore midfielder Meghan Anderson took four. But they couldn’t beat Clemson sophomore goalkeeper Katie Carson, whose 15 saves were a school record. The Tigers managed just four shots on goal among 16 total shots. Junior goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc had four saves to preserve the shutout for the Husker defense, recording her second straight shutout and fifth of the season. “The 0-0 tie, that is very rare,” Walker said. “We’ve never had a 0-0 game in the history of the program. Clemson scores about as many goals a game as we do, so it just shows that there was great goal keeping.” Walker also praised the Huskers’ playing in front of LeBlanc. “Defensively, I was very pleased with the way we played,” Walker said. “Clemson is a talented attack ing team, so shutting them out is an accomplishment.” Clemson was ranked in the top 10 early in the season before losing three straight matches to No. 11 Richmond, No. 16 Wake Forest and No. 2 North Carolina. On Friday, NU wasted little time in putting the ball in the goal against Tulsa. The Huskers scored three goals in the first 20 minutes of action and breezed to a 9-0 win over Tulsa in front of 1,359 fans at the Abbott Sports Complex. Sophomore midfielder Shannon Tanaka scored a pair of goals in the first 12 minutes to set the tone. Tanaka, a Calgary, Alberta, native, notched the game-winning goal and the first goal of her career at the 4:32 mark off an assist from All America defender Sharolta Nonen. Tanaka added her second goal at the 11:29 mark. Danica Carey and Michele Culbertson also posted the first goals of their NU careers. Meghan Anderson became the team’s season scoring leader by adding two goals. Amy Walsh, Kori Saunders and Kelly Rheem rounded out the scor ing. Tulsa was one of four unranked teams NU has faced this season. “I can’t imagine that there’s a team in the country up to this point that’s played a harder schedule than us,” Walker said. “This kind of game just hardens a team.”