Pabst gives credit to Pettit
Sooners struggle defensively as NU dominates OU
By Brian Christopherson
Staff writer
Oklahoma Coach Miles Pabst
appeared very content after
Wednesday night’s match at the NU
Coliseum, surprisingly so for a coach
who had just seen his team taken out in
three quick games by the Cofnhuskers:
Pabst, in his 22nd season as head
coach of the Sooners, knew that an
upset at the NU Coliseum was not like
ly this season.
“I wish we could have given Terry a
better match,” Pabst said, “but we don’t
have the team this year.”
Oklahoma struggled all night
defensively, and Nebraska feasted
upon Sooner mistakes coupled with
OU’s low .143 hitting average, and the
fans were sent streaming to the exits
hardly an hour after the National
Anthem.
“They were inexperienced, and
their ball-handling is not as strong as
some of the top teams in the confer
ence,” Nebraska Coach Terry Pettit
said.
Pabst used most of his post-game
comments to praise Pettit and his
young team.
“Terry has a huge team, and they
tt
If we were at the same high school level in
Oklahoma as Nebraska, this would have
been a hell of a match...”
Miles Pabst
OU head coach
are a very good team,” Pabst said.
“They might be about a year away with
this personnel from really dominat
ing.” The Huskers, however, looked
very dominating Wednesday.
Oklahoma came into the match with
the second-best hitting percentage in
the conference at .258 but was held
way below that average by NU.
“If we could have passed the ball to
our setter all night, it would have been
a good match, but we did not pass well
or serve well,” Pabst said.
The lone bright spot for Oklahoma
was the play of junior Cathy Cook.
Cook hit at a .500 clip, but even she
could manage only eight kills on the
night for the 6-11 Sooners.
“Cathy passed well tonight and
attacked well for us and limited her
errors,” Pabst said.
Cook has been a solid contributor,
but Pabst said he was disappointed that
he could not find more players of
Cook’s quality within the state of
Oklahoma.
“Give Terry credit for getting high
school volleyball going in this state
way back when,” Pabst said.
“Basically, every high school plays
volleyball in Nebraska.”
The same cannot be said for the
state of Oklahoma. Pabst’s team has
two women from Oklahoma.
“If we were at the same high school
level in Oklahoma as Nebraska, this
would have been a hell of a match
tonight, and over the years,” Pabst said.
Nebraska has dropped the Sooners
in three games in each of the past 12
wins and has now won 14 of the past 15
matches.
Bench players spark Huskers
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
They watch and wait - in case they
are needed - like all understudies do.
But the reserves on the No. 4
Nebraska soccer team are more than
just insurance in case a star goes down.
Regularly called to duty, they have
been an integral part of the team’s suc
cess this season by providing rest for
the starters and a spark on the field for
the Comhuskers.
“The biggest thing about our team
is our depth,” said reserve forward
Danica Carey. “There shouldn’t be a
drop-off when people come in off the
bench. They should perform at the
level of the starters.”
So far this season there hasn’t been
a drop-off. ~ -
Reserves, all freshman or sopho
mores, have combined to score 36 of
the team’s 144 points on 14 goals and
eight assists.
Nebraska uses at least four substi
tutes per game to keep the team fresh
so it can play aggressively for all 90
minutes. Without strong back-ups,
Carey said, it would be tough for the
Comhuskers to play such a fast-paced
game.
“The most important part of our
game is to play a high-powered and fast
style,” Carey said. “If we didn’t have
depth, it would be difficult for us to
play our game.”
The luxury of team depth was evi
dent last weekend in games against
Denver and Colorado when starters
Lindsay Eddleman, Jenny Benson and
Amy Walsh missed time because of
injuries.
Freshman Christine Latham and
Breanna Boyd stepped into the line-up
and propelled the Huskers to victory.
In the two games, Latham scored twice
and Boyd scored once.
Through 14 games, Latham and
freshman Kori Saunders have been the
most successful coming off the bench.
Saunders, a native of Overland
Park, Kan., ranks fifth on the team in
scoring with three goals and three
assists. Her biggest goal may have
been at No. 22 Stanford when she
came off the bench to tie the score at
one in the second half of a game
Nebraska won 2-1. Latham, a forward
from Canada, has started three games
and scored three goals.
As a three-time First-Team All
Missouri player in high school,
Saunders rarely, if ever, didn’t start.
She said the adjustment has been diffi
66
If we didn’t have
depth, it would be
difficult for us....”
Danica Carey
NU reserve forward
cult.
“It’s definitely harder to come off
of the bench,” Saunders said.
“Physically it’s more challenging to
wait there for a half-an-hour and then
go into the game and play at the same
intensity as everyone else.”
Coach John Walker said the great
est advantage of having so many quali
ty back-up players is that each con
tributes to the team in her own way.
“Kori (Saunders), Christine
(Latham), Danica (Carey) bring a
high-energy level and are active physi
cal players, Walker said. “Najah
(Williams) has blinding speed. Each
has different types of problems that
they present. That’s nice because oppo
nents see something completely differ
ent from each, but they get the same
things done.”
Diednck learns he must be patient
uimjmt/iy rrom page 14
offense. On his club team in Canada,
he didn’t run the option, which is prob
ably just as well. Although several high
school teams in Nebraska run the play,
most of them don’t run it well.
For Diedrick, it was an eight- to
nine-month process in fully digesting
the Comhusker attack. By the end of"
two-a-days last season, he was finally
comfortable.
“You think, ‘Oh, it’s the option. It’s
just a little catch, a little 5-yard catch,”’
Diedrick said. “But start doing it. It’s
harder than you think. It’s timing.
There’s so much timing to it.”
He redshirted in 1999. And then
came the spring, when coaches hinted
at a move to fullback, which, to
Diedrick, figured they meant he had a
lack of speed.
“When testing came, I ran a good
40-yard dash time, and it sort of killed
the question,” Diedrick said. “I did bet
ter on all my tests. I really wanted to be
an I-back. I wanted to prove to them I
had die abilities to be an I-back.”
Diedrick looked good in spring
practice. He carried that performance
over to the fall, where a strong work
ethic and solid showings in late-game
action earned Diedrick practice time
with the No. 1 offense prior to the Iowa
State game.
Then, against the Cyclones, he had
the best game of his young career. He
didn’t run the option much - that might
have had more to do with inexperi
enced quarterback Joe Chrisman - but
Diedrick displayed a nice package of
toughness and moves in his 99 yards in
a little less than a half. He wears the
same No. 30 and has roughly the same
size as Green did, although he might
not have that kind of speed.
No matter - Diedrick represents a
tougher back who can gain yards
between the tackles. Just a redshirt
freshman, he’s a year away from reach
ing his full potential.
And he still has confidence - it’s
part of his nature. But it’s a better kind
of confidence, the kind that doesn’t
demand everything happen next week,
next game.
“Everybody wants to be the first
one on the field,” Diedrick said.
“Nobody aspires to be No. 2 or No. 3.
“But Correll and Dan are great
players. I’ll do the best I can when I get
in there. I know my time will come,
whenever I get to start.”
And Diedrick has to realize he’ll
have to fight for time even when
Buckhalter and Alexander leave. The
Huskers recruited Robin Miller and
Josh Davis last season, DeAntae
Grixby is recovering from an injury
and they already have one oral com
mitment for next year.
“We’re Nebraska,” Diedrick said.
“We’re going to get the best I-backs in
the country. I’m going to be competing
with the best every year. But my learn
ing experience will help me through
that.”
As it does every NU player. It’s
Diedrick’s turn to watch others learn.
His time is now.
Samuel McKewon is a senior
news-editorial and political science
major and a Daily Nebraskan senior
staff writer.
Williams’ solo dinger
propels Yanks to win
NEW YORK (AP) - With a lead
off homer by Bemie Williams in the
10th inning, the AL championship
series opened with one of the oldest
stories in baseball: the New York
Yankees overtaking the Boston Red
Sox.
Williams hit the game-winning
shot off Rod Beck, and Scott Brosius
hit a two-run homer, triple and single
to lead the Yankees to a 4-3 victory
Wednesday night.
In the first postseason game ever
between the traditional rivals, the
Yankees won their 11th straight post
season game, and once again tortured
their neighbors from New England.
Boston took a 2-0 lead just seven
pitches into the game on a run-scoring
throwing error by shortstop Derek
Jeter and Brian Daubach’s RBI single.
Jose Offerman’s RBI infield sin
gle made it a 3-0 lead in the second
against Orlando “El Duque”
Hernandez, who had allowed just one
run in 20 career postseason innings.
Williams then opened the 11* by
sending an 0-1 pitch to straightaway
center field, over the 408-foot sign.
“I was due,” Williams said. “I was
just able to get a good pitch and turn
on it. I was just looking for a pitch out
over the plate. I definitely didn’t want
to pull out on the ball.”
Atlanta continues its
domination of New York
ATLANTA (AP) - Leave it to
Greg Maddux to bring pitching back
to this postseason. And leave it to
the Atlanta Braves to remind the
New York Mets who’s boss in the
National League.
Maddux shut down Mike Piazza
and the Mets for seven innings and
John Rocker sprinted from the
bullpen to finish them off, giving
the Braves a 4-2 victory Tuesday
night in Game 1 of the NL
Championship Series.
After two days in which baseball
fans across the country saw Boston
and Cleveland combine for 50 runs
in two AL playoff games, Maddux
and the Braves showed what really
wins in October.
Maddux, Mike Remlinger and
Rocker combined on a six-hitter as
the Braves beat New York for the
10th time in 13 meetings this year.
Atlanta, which sent the Mets into a
late tailspin that almost cost them
the wild-card spot, has defeated
them in 14 of the last 15 matchups at
Turner Field.
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