Freshman set to start
By Brian Christopherson
Staff writer
With the Nebraska volleyball team
searching for the right medicine to ease
the pain of a 10-4 start, Head Coach
Terry Pettit has made yet another
change to the starting lineup with the
insertion of freshman Amber
Holmquist.
Holmquist stepped into the starting
middle-blocker role against Texas
A&M last weekend and is slated to
start there again - instead of senior
Tonia Tauke - on the road in a 7 p.m.
game against Iowa State.
“Amber adds another dimension
and is probably the second most physi
cal player on the team after Nancy
(Meendering),” Pettit said. “Amber has
dominated practices the last month,
and we were just waiting to put her in
there when she felt she was ready.”
Holmquist credited her change on
the starting position to a raise in her
confidence level.
“I wasn’t sure of myself until a cou
ple of weeks ago, and then I just started
getting more confidence every day,”
l
Holmquist said. “I’m feeling comfort
able with the coaches and everyone on
this team.”
.Holmquist and the Huskers will
have the opportunity to dominate pro
ceedings tonight as they go up against
a Cyclone team with a 2-9 record (0-4
in Big 12 Conference play).
However, Nebraska has lost two of
four in conference play and is playing
with a relatively inexperienced roster.
Tauke is a player who has been
noticeably missing from the floor dur
ing conference play. She began the year
as a starter, but Pettit has been encour
aged by the play of Holmquist and
sophomore Jenny Kropp in practice
and is now throwing more playing time
their way.
“Tonia has had a lot of things going
on in her life over the past year,” Pettit
said. “And she may have let herself go
for a little bit. What Tonia is going
through, every player goes through at
some time.”
As of now, Pettit seems set on play
ing Holmquist and Kropp in the mid
dle blocker slot, with the veteran Tauke
coming off the bench.
Holmquist and Kropp should pro
vide more firepower to a Nebraska
attack that has struggled at times this
season, including the loss on Saturday
to the Aggies.
Despite NU’s early setbacks, Pettit
said he isn’t ready to nail the coffin yet.
“We are going to be a great team,
and maybe that will be next year,” Pettit
said. “But maybe even later this year.”
Pettit’s concerns about the four
losses are put at ease by the fact that all
were losses to ranked teams, with three
of those matches coming down to the
fifth set.
“We are not as good as people
maybe thought we would be before the
season,” Pettit said. “But we are also
not as bad as people might think we are
right now.”
Pettit said he believed that the tin
kering of the lineup throughout the sea
son will pay off by season’s end.
“My philosophy for the last 10
years has been to not worry about
what’s best for the moment,” Pettit said.
“But we need to do what is best to com
pete at a national level.
“I really believe that the freshman
on this team are going to be on a team
that wins a national championship.”
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Top I-back taking
snaps at fullback
■ Dan Alexander stays
versatile, playing two
running positions.
By Lindsay Grieser
Staff writer
Before he moved to I-back in the
spring of 1997, Dan Alexander and
his roommate Willie Miller were both
slotted as fullbacks.
And after another role change,
Alexander and Miller will share the
same position yet again.
Alexander will be alternating
between fullback and I-back to add
more depth to the fullback position
behind Miller, NU Coach Frank
Solich said.
“This gives us really an ideal sce
nario in terms of being able to use
Dan as an I-back and as a fullback,”
Solich said.
“Anytime you have a guy that
knows two positions, it probably adds
to your football team - especially
when you travel on the road.”
Solich also said Alexander’s
blocking abilities would be more of
an advantage at the fullback position
than at I-back.
During last Saturday’s game
against Oklahoma State, Alexander
and Buckhalter alternated at I-back
for the first three quarters. Alexander
took over solely as the fullback in the
fourth quarter after Miller suffered an
ankle injury. Alexander had one carry
for three yards at the position.
“Right now, Willie (Miller) is
playing very well, but he’s also been a
guy who’s been banged up a little bit
the last couple weeks,” Solich said.
“So it made sense in that regard also
to (alternate Alexander) to get more
depth at the fullback spot.”
Miller had been listed No. 1 at the
fullback position, while freshman
Tyrone Uhlir was a second stringer.
Alexander will figure in between
Miller and Uhlir. Third-string full
back Ben Kingston is still battling an
injury, leaving a gap that Alexander
can fill.
Alexander said he is looking for
ward to helping out at his roommate’s
position.
“Fullback is probably one of the
hardest positions on the team to
learn,” Alexander said. “Having
somebody who’s in there doing it suc
cessfully and being so close to that
person - as well as being able to ask
them questions on a regular basis - is
a really good way for me to learn the
position a lot faster.”
Meanwhile, at the I-back posi
tion, Alexander is still No. 1 on the
depth chart, and Buckhalter is No. 2.
Third on the depth chart is Dahrran
Diedrick, a redshirt freshman, fol
lowed by sophomore DeAntae
Grixby.
Note:
■ Freshman walk-on fullback
Eric Sweeney left practice Tuesday in
an ambulance with a neck injury. The
5-foot-10, 200-pounder was released
from the hospital Tuesday evening.
More tests will be done later, his
father said, though “it appears he will
be all right.”
Despite seeing fewer passes,
NUs Brown still can't relax
BROWN from page 11
and one touchdown for the Cyclones
this season.
In other words, it’s not a game
where the comerbacks can let down.
“You can’t take a play off,” Brown
said. “I think last year I kind of relaxed
on a few plays, thinking that they might
not throw the ball my way, and that’s
when balls would be caught on me.
Maybe like a second down or some
thing. Now I just expect the ball to be
thrown my way.”
Rectifying those types of mental
mistakes has been key for the sec
ondary, rover Mike Brown said, espe
cially in eliminating big plays. Through
five games last season, NU had allowed
six completions of more than 30 yards.
This season, that number is three, and
none have been longer than 37 yards.
Knee injury to
keep transfer
out for season
MAZYCK from page 11
guy.” Nee is out of town until Thursday
and could not be reached for comment
Gooding said that it will not be
known if Mazyck can fully recover
until he gets his strength back around
April or May.
Mazyck will have two seasons of
eligibility remaining at NU after his
rehabilitation.
Another player is also going to
miss a portion of die season. Freshman
walk-on Ben Chestnut from Millard
North High School in Omaha, broke
the fifth metatarsal in his right foot last
week. Surgery will be used to repair
the injury next week. Chestnut will be
out about two to three months.
Gooding said Cookie Belcher is
coming along better daily. He was sup
posed to start shooting this week with
the wrist that he is rehabbing.
“People were just a couple steps off
of where they should have been,” Mike
Brown said “You’re a couple steps off,
or you’re not thinking out there, and
you won’t make the play.”
Consequently, Ralph Brown said,
the team worked hard on correcting
those mistakes and on better form tack
ling for the secondary. And while he
doesn’t tackle quite as well as his team
mate Mike Brown, Ralph Brown has
19 stops this season, including a career
high nine tackles against OSU.
And making tackles, it seems,
might have to do for Ralph Brown. At
least until someone tests him again.
“I don’t concentrate on the run,”
Brown said. “I concentrate on the
receivers, and every play they go out,
I’ve got to put it in my mind that they’re
going to throw the ball to my guy. I
can’t get lackadaisical out there.”
McWilliams
accepts new
setter role
SETTER from page 11
It’s the point in the season where
players are accepting their roles and
becoming acclimated to college
volleyball.
But the transition period to get
to this point has affected everyone,
McWilliams said.
“I think the reason it has been so
frustrating is because we have 15
players, and each one of them could
be on the court,” she said. “Early in
the season, there was still a lot of
competition within our team. I think
that was distracting people.
“They were worrying more
about playing perfect so they could
stay in the match than just giving to
the team. I think we have realized
we have to stop doing that.”
I
