Mike Warren/DN
NEBRASKA MIDFIELDER Najah Williams fights for a header against
University of Minnesota defender Noeilefapeohanseo in the first half at
the Abbott Sports Complex. Ml beat UM 5-0 te advance in the NCAA play
offs
< -
■ First half starts sluggish,
but Husker women turn it
around with second wind.
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
The No. 4 Nebraska soccer team
continued its eight-day layoff about 15
minutes too long Sunday.
But after an uncharacteristic slow
start, NU warmed up and looked as it
had all season.
Following a first-round bye, the
Comhuskers defeated Minnesota 5-0 at
the Abbott Sports Complex in the sec
ond round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 1,814 fans in attendance saw
Minnesota control the opening minutes
of the match.
: „ But once Nebraska, which moved
to 21-1-1 this season, woke up, it scored
all five goals in a 51-minute span.
“We were a little slow to get start
ed,” NU Coach John Walker said. “You
have to give credit to Minnesota. They
started die game with a lot of energy.
“Once we found our feet, it was
almost like a wake-up call. Then I
thought we played very well. The last
30 minutes of the first half and first 30
minutes of the second half were played
at a high level”
NU goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc
saved Nebraska from an early deficit
UM’s Jaime O’Gaia went at LeBlanc in
a one-on-one at the top of die 18-yard
box. O’Gara shot low to her right, and
LeBlanc made a fabulous kick save.
Becky Preston got the Huskers on
the board in the 17th minute.
The play started when Lindsay
Eddleman split two defenders in the
box and was able to cross the ball back
across the the mouth of the goal to
Preston. UM goalkeeper Dana Larson
partially deflected Preston’s right-foot
ed shot but wasn’t able to keep it out of
the net.
After that, Nebraska gained
momentum. Walker said it was impor
tant that his team was able to maintain
high pressure.
/“It’s really important (to stay
intense),” Walker said. “It’s human
nature after you score to let down a lit
tle bit We talk about trying to pick up
our intensity after, a goal and to not let
up.”
Nebraska went up 2-0 in the 35th
minute when Meghan Anderson took a
short pass from Sharolta Nonen on a
comer kick and blasted an 18-yard shot
just inside die near post to beat a diving
Larson.
“I don’t think we were in control
Nebraska 5
Minnesota 0
until I scored off of that corner kick,”
Anderson said. “I think after the first
goal, things picked up for us, but after
the second goal everything seemed to
go our way.”
The all-conference midfielder
would add Nebraska’s last goal and an
assist to increase her team-leading
point total to 53, for the season, moving
her into third place on NU’s single sea
son scoring list.
With the win, Nebraska will meet a
familiar foe, Texas A&M, in a 1 p.m.
match Sunday at the Abbott Sports
Complex. The Aggies beat Kentucky 3
2 in overtime on Sunday:
NU has defeated A&M the last
three times the schools have met,
including a 1-0 victory in College
Station, Texas, this year ami a 7-0 win in
Lincoln at the NCAA Tournament last
year.
***
In other second-round action, two
seeded teams were upset at home.
Hartford defeated defending national
champion and No. 3 seed Florida 1-0,
and Boston College upset No. 8 seed
Harvard also by the score of 1-0.
_V ’ *v/i
By David Diehl
•StaffWrtier
Lock Haven put eighth-ranked
Nebraska’s wrestling team in a 10-0
hole after three matches, but after an
NU comeback, it was Brad Vering
who eventually dug the grave.
Vering No. 4 in the country at 197
pounds, pmned Lock Haven’s Mike
Greenberg 1 minute, 34 seconds into
the first period and extended the
Comhuskeis’one-point lead into a 20
13 duaLchnchingscore.
The Bald Eagles picked up three
points in the heavyweight match, pro
viding the 20-16 final team score.
The win came despite the fact that
the Huskers had two true freshmen
wrestling their first-ever collegiate
match and a junior college transfer
taking on his first Division I opponent
Paul Gomez, the regular starter at
125 pounds, is academically ineligible
for the first semester. True freshman
Joe Malia wrestled in his place. Adam
Kastl got the start at 141 pounds in
place of Justin Flores, who is out after
having his knee scoped Nov. 8.
Vering said with new guys and
starters who aren t regulars in the line
up, the older oiks had to take control.
“Guys like Bryan (Snyder),
Charles (McTorry) and myself mid a
couple other guys really had to step it
up and score the bonus points,” he said
Head Coach Tim Neumann gave
credit to his two captains, Snyder and
Vering, ami how they brought his team
back. Snyder’s 20-4 technical pin and
Vering^s win combined to give NU I I
of its 20 points.
- “Vering and Snyder did what they
had to do,” Neumann said
Vering moved up a weight class
this season, up from 184 pounds last
year. He said wrestling at his more nat
ural weight benefited him. Weight cut
ting isn’t an issue now, which has
made him quicker, and he’s having
more fun, he said.
Neumann said the matches were a
great experience for the team because
it was tough coming out of the gates
and wrestling a dual right away, as
opposed to wrestling in open meets
such as they have done in the past.
“The matchup’s for a January dual
we’re wrestling in November,”
Neumann said. “You train them to
wrestle in November, and they had to
Nebraska 20
Lock Haven 16
#-——
Vering and Snyder
did what they had ? =
to do’’
Tim Neumann '
NU wrestling head coach
wrestle with the intensity of January,
and that’s good.”
Lock Haven had taken the first
three matches with one major decision
and two three-point decisions, build
ing a 10-0 lead. Joe Henson, Snyder,
Tony Denke, and Ati Conner won
Nebraska’s next four matches, claim
ing a 14-10 lead for the Big Red.
184-pounder McTorry’s upset bid
of Lock Haven’s 1 S^-ranked Dave
Murray was doused after Murray
came back from a 5-2 deficit and post
ed a 6-5 win, gaining a bonus point for
riding time.
Sanderford says Huskers prepared, not excited
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
As they entered the locker room
after their 88-70 exhibition victory over
Sweden on Sunday night, Nebraska
women’s basketball players found just
two words written on the board by
Coach Paul Sanderford: prepared and
excited.
His point? The 24th-ranked
Huskers held up their end of the bargain
in just (me of the two departments, and
it wasn’t the one he preferred.
“He’d rather have us excited than
prepared,” NU center Charlie Rogers
said. “We came out flat He kept telling
us during timeouts that if he paid
money to come watch us play, he’d
never come again because we’re so bor
* >»
Nebraska looked solid and orga
nized at some points, lethargic and
sloppy at others. The Huskers stormed
out to an early 11-4 lead and never
trailed.
The early pounding was due in
large part to the spirited play of Rogers,
who made her first six shots and scored
11 of her team-high 22 points in the
first three minutes. Rogers would have
enjoyed a career-high scoring night had
the game counted.
But after die opening rally, the next
37 minutes looked “sluggish” and
“tired” in Sanderford’s eyes.
Despite NU’s main post players,
Rogers and freshman Stephanie Jones
(15 points), picking up the scoring
[Nebraska88
Sweden 70
slack from foul-plagued guards Brooke
Schwartz and Nicole Kubik,
Sanderford was unhappy with their
defense and rebounding.
Rogers grabbed just two defensive
rebounds in 22 minutes, and Jones
siagged five total rebounds in 30 min
utes. The Huskers were without 6-5
junior transfer Casey Leonhardt, who
suffered a minor ankle sprain late in the
week.
It certainly wasn’t the same pass
happy, 102-51 frenzy the Huskers
enjoyed in their first exhibition display
Nov. 3 against Lithuania. To its credit,
NU shot 53 percent from die floor and
u
He kept telling us during time-outs that if
he paid money to come watch us play, he d
never come again because we’re so boring.”
Charlie Rogers
NU center
committed just 16 turnovers in its final
exhibition tuneup for its Friday season
opener against Georgia Southern in the
Time Warner Classic.
Also to Nebraska’s credit, it faced a
much tougher challenge from the
Swedes than the Lithuanians. Guard
Katja Johansson lit up NU with eight 3
pointers and a game-high 33 points to
lead die club team. \
“They knew what they were doing,”
Sanderford said. “They were doing a lot
of things we’d like to do. They moved
the ball well.”