• >*
Revelle upbeat
going into break
NU hopes to improve 7-9 record
___riiuajf, ■ uany neorasmm ■ rage ij
—WOMEN’S SWIMMMING —
By Sean Callahan
StaffWriter
The Nebraska softball team miy
be 7-9, but that doesn’t mean they’re
not a good team.
Even with a sub-.500 record, the
Comhuskers are still ranked No. 25 in
this week’s poll. Part of the reason is
seven of the Huskers’ losses have
come to teams ranked 16th or higher.
Five losses have come to teams cur
rently ranked in the top 10.
NU will start their first of two tour
naments in California today. Nebraska
will begin play in the National
Invitational Softball Tournament in
Sunnyvale, Calif.
From there, the Huskers will stay
in California for the week before trav
eling to nearby Sacramento, for the
Capital Classic Tournament.
In the NIST tournament, NU
opens pool play with games against
Kent State (54), Utah State (4-8) and
No. 6 California (22-1). The Huskers
will then be put into a bracket based on
their pool record.
Nebraska Coach Rhonda Reverie
said even though their overall record
doesn’t show it, the Huskers are get
ting much better as a team.
“We were in quite a few of those
games,” Revelle said. “Even against
No. 1 Washington, going into the fifth
we were ahead 2-1.”
This weekend, there are only two
other ranked opponents in the field at
the NIST, compared to 15 in last
week’s tournament.
Besides the Huskers and the Bears,
No. 4 Arizona State also is ranked. NU
has already lost to ASU (19-3) twice
this season.
^ It helps us to
play against the
best because we
learn from the
best.”
Rhonda Revelle
NU softball coach
Sophomore shortstop Leigh Suhr
said she is not disappointed with NU’s
slow start. She said it is better to lose
early than later this year.
“I think there are definitely some
things we need to improve on,” Suhr
said. “It helps us to play against the
best because we learn from the best.”
Suhr said she doesn’t think
Nebraska has played particularly badly
in some of its losses. She said she
thinks NU was only one or two mis
takes away from winning some of the
games it lost
“We were playing tough but it
seemed like we just bite,” Suhr said.
“We had one bad inning, and good
teams just pick up on that. So we just
need to stay consistent throughout the
game.”
Going into this weekend Revelle
said she isn’t going to give any predic
tions on how the Huskers will finish.
Revelle said she and her team
know what it is going to take to pull
together.
“If we play our game, I feel we
have a good opportunity to be success
ful,” Revelle said.
Mike Warren/DN
COACH DANNY NEE LAU6HS after a reporter asked him what he thought of
his “job security” at the press conference after Thursday’s game. The
Huskers fell to Baylor 63-55.
JN U ends season; Nee
not talking about future
MEN from page 16
a little better, and we started playing
our zone a little more aggressively,”
Bliss said.
Baylor then hit three three-point
ers between 4:12 and 2:34 remaining,
including a Tevis Stukes’ four-point
play, to seal NU’s fate and its season.
Stukes’ three-pointer came with
NU leading 50-49. The Huskers had
just forced Charlie Naihe into a three
point miss.
Baylor’s Terry Black out-hustled
every Husker to the offensive
rebound and kicked it out to Stukes,
who took the three from the top of the
key and was nailed on the head by
NU’s Larry Florence.
Stukes had 22 points for the
game.
“It’s shots like that that proves
Tevis has the green light,” Bliss said.
NU would never regain the lead.
A three-pointer by Wendell
Greenleaf, who had 14 points off the
bench, forced the Huskers to foul
down the stretch.
The Bears made five of seven
free throws down the stretch and sent
the Huskers packing, and maybe Nee
as well.
Nee declined to comment on his
future at the post-game press confer
ence and NU Athletic Director Bill
Byrne said he and Nee will meet next
week.
“We have a normal process that
we go through with personnel evalua
tion,” Byrne said. “We’re going to be
doing that and visiting with Danny
just like we do with every other coach
this time of year, and I’ll be talking
with him next week.”
Huskersprepare jor NCAA meet
By Brian Christopherson
Staff uniter
There’s water to swim in, but it’s
not exactly a Cancun spring break on
the beach for five women on the
Nebraska swimming team.
Instead, these Comhuskers have a
date with laps in a swimming pool
next week, climaxing with the NCAA
meet March 16-18 in Indianapolis.
NU goes into the championships
playing with fewer chips than it is
accustomed to, having only five
swimmers competing. The swimmers
only qualified in three of the five
relay events as a team.
“We’re used to having eight or ten
girls competing for us there, but with
some injuries this year and people
redshirting for the Olympics, we had
trouble qualifying as many,”
Associate Coach Kelly Nordell said.
The relays are what Nordell said
will keep Nebraska from improving
on its No. 12 finish last year.
“Not competing in all of the
relays this year like we usually do is a
huge factor because relay points are
worth double,” Nordell said.
Nonetheless, the coaching staff is
riding its hopes on some fantastic
swims from the events that the swim
mers will compete in.
Elvira Fischer, Helene Muller,
Shandra Johnson, Sasha Pine and
Lyndsey Highstrom are the survivors
* Wherever you finish up, it’s not
necessaily your place, but it’s more
about racing the time clock.”
Shandra Johnson
swimmer
who will compete.
All-Americans Johnson and
Muller are the headliners for the
Nebraska team with both competing
in three events.
Johnson is competing in the 200
and 400-meter freestyle events and
the 200-meter backstroke.
Muller will race in the 50-, 100
and 200-meter freestyle events.
“I just want to go out there and put
out my best times or close to them,”
Johnson said.
“Wherever you finish up, it’s not
necessarily your place, but it’s more
about racing the time clock.”
Nordell said Nebraska might
make its presence felt in the 200
meter freestyle event, which both
Muller and Johnson are swimming.
“We’re thinking that Helene and
Shandra can finish top six in the 200,
and if Elvira and Sasha post top eight,
we’re going to be top 20, and that
would be very good for us,” she said.
Fischer is swimming the 200
meter breaststroke while Sasha Pine
will wage war in the 400-meter indi
vidual medley.
Highstrom will compete in the
100-meter backstroke.
Muller said she is hoping to catch
her top times at the NCAA meet after
she tapers. She was not tapered for
the Big 12 conference meet, and she
hopes that will give her an added
edge.
“I don’t think the Big 12 meet had
much pressure, because in the back of
my mind I knew I wasn’t tapered,”
Muller said.
“This week is more pressure, not
that I mind, because I like pressure.
But those two weeks of rest I got
make your body ready.”
Muller said she anticipates that
her teammates will also handle the
pressure well.
“All the girls that are going are
very good individual swimmers,”
Muller said.
“We’re all swimmers with inter
national experience, so even without
the rest of the team, we will go hard.”
Clones’ pressure too tough;
Huskers wait for NCAA bid
WOMEN from page 16
she tied the contest at 16 with 9:36
left in the first half.
Iowa State kicked its game into
high gear after that. Forward Desiree
Francis hit a jumper to put the
Cyclones ahead 18-16. Then Frese
hit two shots - the second a 22-foot
three-pointer - and Erica Haugen
added a trey to put ISU ahead 26-16.
Sanderford called time out.
Then Iowa State’s defense suffo
cated Leonhardt and forced her to
commit a third foul at the 5:27 mark.
Center Angie Welle (15 points) hit
two free throws to cap a 14-0 run,
leaving Nebraska down 30-16. ISU
led 40-23 at halftime.
Though Sanderford said he was
optimistic his team could mount a
second-half comeback, the gap only
widened. And Iowa State just kept
getting better. It scored the first eight
points of the second half for a 48-23
lead and accelerated from there.
The final statistics for Nebraska
were ugly: 27 percent shooting from
the field, 17 percent shooting from
behind three-point line and only one
player, Leonhardt, in double figures,
with 11.
Schwartz only had two, Kubik,
seven, just one day after the senior
from Cambridge scored a tourna
ment-record 32 against Kansas. She
fouled out with 8:10 left in the ball
game, with Iowa State ahead 72-37.
It was end of a long week in which
NU had played four games in seven
days and three games since Tuesday.
“I think the third day had to take a
toll on Nebraska,” ISU Coach Bill
Fennelly said. “Their shots were a lit
tle short, and I think that really made
a difference in the game.”
Sanderford and the NU players
refused to'blame the loss on fatigue,
saying they don’t believe in excuses.
“The most frustrating thing for us
is that we did not play to our poten
tial,” said Kubik, who moved into the
No. 5 slot on the all-time NU scoring
list. “I think a lot of that had to do
with impatience.”
Nebraska needs patience now in
its wait for the selection show, which
airs at 4 p.m. Sunday. Five teams in
the Big 12 should have a lock on a
Big Dance Invite. The Huskers, with
their 18 wins and 10-6 conference
record, make a strong case, as well.
Sanderford made that case again
Thursday.
“I’ll repeat what I keep saying -1
don’t have any control over the com
mittee,” he said. “This team has
^ The most
frustrating part
for us is that we
did not play to
our potential."
Nicole Kubik
guard
played tremendously hard and
tremendously Well over the last
month. Is the Big 12 good enough to
send six teams? I certainly think they
deserve to go.
A couple of those teams (Kansas
and Oklahoma) went home yester
day. We’re still around in the semifi
nals two years in a row.”
But the final image tourney offi
cials have of NU - on the wrong end
of a 37-point blowout - didn’t escape
Sanderford’s attention.
“I am concerned that people
watched (the loss) on TV,” he said.
“But I don’t think they watched the
second half. I tried to leave a couple
times tonight.”
have a safe,
and HAPPY
Spring
Break
C
