Meend _ _ „gh start around
LEADER from page 9
have to look at your failure in the face.
That’s what I was feeling: ‘What if I
fail? What if I try, and I can’t do it?”’
No, she’s not perfect. Yes, she’s
human. Yes, sometimes she’s afraid
things won’t work out.
It’s hard to beGeve It,‘judging by
her performance over the past three
years. It’s a good thing Meendering
convinced herself to take the big step
because she has exceeded those lofty
expectations.
She made first-team All
American as a sophomore and is a
shoo-in to do it again. She’s the newly
crowned Big 12 Player of the Year.
She reached 1,000 kills faster than
any player in NU history. She even
graced die cover of Volleyball maga
zine.
And it’s hard to believe
Meendering’s anxiety judging by her
physical presence on the court.
Nebraska setter and fellow junior
Jill McWilliams knows that presence
better than anyone. McWilliams, also
_ from Iowa, who sets many of
Meendering’s earth-shattering kills,
roomed with Meendering their flesh
man year and laughed when asked
about the first time she realized the
hitter’s power. — __ —
“I remember in our senior all-star
game, she played on the team against
me,” McWilliams said. “And all I
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remember is her coming from the out
side and swinging with her left hanc
and she hit down inside the Khfoc
line on the other side of the net, an<
everyone was just like, ‘Whoa, she’
awesome.’
“She’s just a very powerful playei
very dominating and intimidating oi
the other side of the court. I wa
always hoping she would come here,
was excited about her being on m;
side of the net, instead of trying t<
defend her.”
Things are much different fo
Meendering now than they were ii
1997, when she and Me William
arrived.
“She’s really developed as far a
decision-making,” McWilliams said
“When she first came in, she could hi
really hard, and that’s all she did. Sh
didn’t have any shots. She’s devel
oped off-speed shots. Her passing an<
defense has improved a ton since sh
came in as a freshman.
“She’s matured as a person, too
She understands her role on the tean
now. It’s a huge responsibility an<
takes a lot of giving.”
So, what exactly is that role?
Said McWilliams: “Keepin]
everyone fired up. Keeping everyon
encouraged. Some big-time player
get on people hard when they’re no
playing well. She does that, but she’
very good at positive feedback.”
It sounds like the role of a leadei
a court general, something you wouli
not expect Meendering to be whei
talking to her. It’s not that she is shy o
passive, she just seems too nice, to<
generous, too down-to-earth to taki
on that role on the court, where she’
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- an intimidator.
, And although it’s not her favorite
t thing in the world to be the team’s
1 media darling and spokeswoman after
s matches and practices, she under
stands that is just what comes along
, with being the go-to player on the
i team.
s “The coaches told me (before the
I season started) what they expect of
/ me, and they expect a lot,”
) Meendering said. “They wanted me
to be a leader. But I wanted to take
r that role. They told me the team needs
i me to be consistent when we’re hav
5 ing a bad match.”
It is a role Meendering said she
5 couldn’t have handled two years ago.
. That season, the Huskers, as they
t always do, had their fair share of
? dominating players and leaders -
- especially in first-team All
1 Americans, setter Fiona Nepo and
; Meendering’s predecessor and
“hero,” Reitsma.
Meendering was OK with that,
l She played in the back row and
1 showed signs of future greatness. But
-she also got her first taste of Big Red
pressure.
I That included living up to her All
; American potential, living up to
5 Reitsma’s legacy and, on some days,
t the pressure of having to deal with not
s being the world beater she was used
to being.
, “When I was a freshman, I
1 thought I had to be perfect,”
i Meendering said. “And it didn’t mat
r ter what people told me. And I think
> that’s because I saw Lisa succeeding
; so much on the court, and I so badly
} wanted to do the same thing. It was
hard. But by the end of my freshman
year, I grew out of that.”
What helped Meendering grow
out of it was help from the team lead
ers, including Reitsma.
“I can remember on those days
when I kept saying, ‘What am I doing
here? I suck.’ We played the same
position. In drills, we’d take turns
with each other, and she'd be the one
that Would come over and shake my
shoulder and be like, ‘Hey, you’re all
„ right. Just relax,’ and keep me in per
spective.”
Reitsma graduated after 1997,
leaving Meendering to fill her shoes.
Did she ever.
Meendering broke the school
record for kills in a five-game post
season match (32) in leading the
Huskers to a win over Pepperdine.
a
It was frustrating for me when Coach Pettit
said, ‘These freshmen are going to be great
in two years! For us upperclassmen, we
looked at him and said, ‘Hi, we re still here,
you know. Give us a shot! ”
Nancy Meendering
NU volleyball player
She broke the school record for
attacks in NU’s Regional
Championship win over Wisconsin
(78), then did it again in a final four
loss to Penn State, with 80.
Meendering did not have the extra
burden of leading the team, or of
being the motivator when things were
going wrong. That role belonged to
Nepo. At the end of the season, both
players earned first-team All
American honors, and Meendering
became only the third player at
Nebraska, behind Nepo and Reitsma,
to do so as a sophomore.
With Nepo gone, coaches told
Meendering she would not only be the
go-to player but the on-court fire
cracker this season. She was not
expected to show discouragement in
front of the younger players.
If she had, Meendering said, her
teammates would get down.
It wasn’t easy, considering the
start NU got off to in its first 20
matches, losing five close matches to
top-ranked opponents and sinking
lower in the Big 12 standings. It was
not the 32-2 joyride Nepo got to lead
the 1998 team on.
Team failure, more than at any ~
other time, finally stared Meendering
in the eyes.
Meendering, along with some of
the older players, found motivation
and a way to lead. She saw that some
ofNU’s freshmen, the recruiting class
Pettit called his best ever, were
already acting like Nebraska was just
a team of the future and not a title
contender now.
“It made us really mad,”
Meendering said. “It was frustrating
for me when Coach Pettit said, ‘These
freshmen are going to be great in two
years.’ For us upperclassmen, we
looked at him and said, ‘Hi, we’re still
here, you know. Give us a shot.’
“We just wanted him to let us have
a successful year this year and to quit
talking about next year. We don’t care
about next year yet. We’re thinking
about this year.”
Now, Meendering’s the one that
fires everyone up. She’s the one who
goes to the young phenoms, like Big
12 Freshman of the Year Greichaly
Cepero, to tell them to relax.
And since NU’s fifth loss, at Texas
on Oct. 23, the team, like
Meendering, has continued to grow.
NU’s numbers reflect her numbers.
She smashed 5.53 kills per game in
the last 10 matches and provided the
big plays at the right time to help the
Huskers to 10 straight wins and the
Big 12 Championship.
How’s that for leadership?
“She has the ability to take over a
gym, not just a team,” Pettit said. “If
we’re not alert as a team, she’s the one
that will make us alert. Things get real
sharp, real quick. It’s hard not to be
alert when someone is pounding the
ball that hard.
bne s all ot a sudden raised ner
level of play. That’s how she leads -
with her play.”
Meendering still fears failure. She
still has bad days on the court She still
feels pressure about leading the team.
But now she has played to the
level everyone said she could. Just
watching her play and watching how
the team reacts shows that.
“Coach Pettit said to me, ‘If you
start getting tentative, your whole
team senses it and does things the
same way.’ They expect me do things
70 percent right. I expect myself to do
it 35 percent more right. I expect to be
perfect.”
The difference now is she can
relax when she’s not.
NU looks to turn up heat on Drake
By Brandon Schulte
Staff writer
The Nebraska women’s basketball
team hopes the revamped Devaney
Sports Center will be good to them
once more.
Home has been good to the
Comhuskers since Paul Sanderford
came to NU three years ago.
Since he became coach, NU is 29
3 in the building. But after losing its
last home game to Wisconsin on Nov.
21, NU will be trying to avoid its first
two-game home losing streak under
Sanderford on tonight as it starts a
four-game homestand against Drake
at 7:05.
Sanderford said it is important for
his team nationally to start a new home
winning streak.
“We fell out of the top 25 with die
loss to Wisconsin,” Sanderford said. “I
' think it’s important to establish that we
are a good basketball team.
“I don’t think we’re at a critical
stage yet, but I’m a little disappointed
that we lost at home. I’ve always said
you have to win at home. We have four
straight at home and all of them are
against pretty good teams. We have
our work cut out for us.”
Drake, which enters the match at
1-3, might seem to be die ideal oppo
nent on which to start a new home
winning streak. But the Bulldogs
0
I think its important to establish that we
are a good basketball team.”
Paul Sanderford
women’s basketball coach
played NU tight last year before losing
75-72 in Des Moines, Iowa, and are
picked to win the Missouri Valley title.
Sanderford said he’d like to press
the Bulldogs some because he thinks
the Huskers (2-1) have superior depth.
Nebraska hasn’t pressed too much this
season, as Sanderford teaches four
freshmen the entire defensive pack
age.
NU’s Nicole Kubik said the team
wants to set the tone at the beginning
of the game this year. Typically,
Nebraska has been able to jump on
teams at Devaney with a barrage of
steals and points in the first five min
utes of the contest.
“We definitely don’t want to play
like we did last year,” Kubik said. “We
want to put them away early instead of
waiting until the last two minutes of
the game. We have them at our place
this year, so I’m sure they’re going to
want to come out and "try to knock us
off” -
Three Drake players have an added
incentive to play well against
Nebraska, because they came from
Nebraska high schools. Freshman
center Carla Bennett from Omaha has
averaged 7.5 points per game and 4.5
rebounds per game as a starter. .
Bennett will be countered by NU
center Casey Leonhardt, who is aver
aging 13.7 points per game and 9
rebounds per game. She ted 21 points
and 17 rebounds in a 70-58 win over
Montana.
Sanderford hopes Leonhardt’s
play against Montana last Saturday
was a sign of good things to come
from her.
“Casey Leonhardt really played
well at Montana,” Sanderford said.
“We haven’t had those kind of num
bers from a post player since I’ve been
at Nebraska.
“I hope that was a breakthrough
game for her. I guess we’ll find out
(today) because Drake is big and
strong inside. She’ll have to perform at
a high level if we expect to win.”