Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 2000)
I SportsMonday One chance, last chance: Husker golf tryouts not easy on dreamers Larry Romjue, Huskier golf coach,watches players trying out for the Nebraska golf team on the fifth hole of Highlands 6olf Course on Saturday. Qariddastn/DN BY MATTHEW jj&MSEN The final group of walk-ons at the 2000 Nebraska golf team tryouts stood on the first tee at Highlands Golf dub on Saturday. The first golfer in the group stepped up. Not five feet away, and directly across from him, stood Larry Romjue, NU’s Golf coach. He chooses who to keep and who to discard. The walk-on stood over the ball for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he swung. Hie ball traveled no more than 100 yards before hooking violently to die left, where it crashed in die rough, between a large pine tree and a sand bunker. Romjue said nothing. When the rest of the golfers in the group had hit, two in the bunker, one 240 yards down the fairway, he still said nothing. When they were gone, off down the fairway to chase their dreams of making the NU golf team, Romjue spoke. “Did you see those four drives?" Romjue said. “Do any of those guys have a chance? No.” Then there was Ken Soell, the perfect fed-good story of die tryouts. The 29-year-old walk-on was trying to make the squad. He, unlike the final group, had a fighting chance to do so, Romjue said. Soell had a good swing. He exhibited a can-do attitude. He even had a good story line that included a stint in the military for interested writers to fill note books with. But this was real life, where these things rarely work out And this was the golf tryouts, where things work out even less. Soell lost a ball on die second hole at Highlands Golf Course. He piled up bogey after bogey. He missed a one-foot tap-in on the ninth green. Walking off that green, he wore the type of look that makes others look away in embarrassment By the 14th hole, he was gone. Please see GOLF on 10 NU pounds foes over weekend ■Soccer team sets both offensive and defensive record in blowout victory and are now 2-0 on season. — ■**——»_ Only one word can describe the Nebraska soccer team’s 11-0 win against Arkansas-Little Rock Sunday, and it was the first word out of NU Coach John Walker’s mouth at his post game press conference. "Wow,” he said quietly after picking up the stat sheet that displayed his team's domina tion against the Itojans. Walker’s Cornhuskers out shot Arkansas-Little Rock 59-1. They held the visitors without a shot on goal. NU’s 30 shots on goal shat tered the team’s all-time record by six shots. The 11 goals also tied a school record. The impressive statistics started piling up at the 11:44 mark in the first period when defender Christina Gluck scored her first goal of the sea son. In the next 20 minutes, NU would go on to score six more goals, including two each by Meghan Anderson and Brooke Jones. In the midst of the scoring run, Christy Harms and Brooke Jones broke the school record by scoring back-to-back goals just 20 seconds apart. Walker said he was pleased with the various ways the team scored. The Husker coach said the team spent a lot of the game working on cross passes, getting to the end line, cutting back and beating a defender one-on-one. Despite playing only one half and not seeing a shot NEBRASKA 11 ARKANSAS-UTTLEROCK 0 attempt against her, Goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc said she learned something from each game, even 11-goal wins. “I learned to see different things our players may do, or different defensive angles they may take,” LeBlanc said. Leah Lamale replaced LeBlanc in the second half, but wouldn’t see much more action. The Trojans weren’t able to attempt a shot until the final two minutes of the game. With such a lopsided victory, Walker was able to give all the freshmen on the team time to play. Lacey woou scored ner nisi career goal at NU, while Harms tallied a goal and an assist. Yet another freshman, Kelly Haxton, assisted on two goals. With games on the horizon against top-10 teams Florida and Connecticut, giving inexpe rienced players field time will pay off down the road, Walker said. "Certainly for our young players, it was a good chance to give them quality minutes," he said. "A big thing for them is understanding that competing means every possession." Husker starters played limit ed minutes because the team hosts Southwest Missouri State on Tuesday. Each starter was able to rest for the final 35 min utes of the game. The win boosted the Huskers to 2-0, including a 4-0 win at Minnesota on Friday. NU’s defense also was stellar in that win, allowing just five shots on goal. David Oasen/DN Husker Danka Carey tries to control the ball near Arkansas' goal in the second half of the game on Sunday at Abbott Sports Complex. Nebraska won the game 11-0. A&M coach confident for2000 BYDAVPDgHL_ Texas A&M is home of the 12th man, a walk-on full of school spirit who gets his chance on the kickoff team every season. If 2000 goes anything like the last half of 1999, he'll be an angry 12th man. Coach R.C. Slocum enters as an optimistic coach in his 12th year at College Station, Texas, roughly eight months removed from a 24-0 loss at the hands of Penn State in the Alamo Bowl. It was his seventh loss in nine bowl appearances. Now, the problems that doomed Slocum’s Aggies through the last six games of the season and accumulated into a bowl shutout return to Kyle Field. It is likely that usually ambi Ptease see AGGIES on 10 Pilakowski, Behrends step forward in match BY BRIAN CHRtSTPPHERSON Nebraska volleyball Coach John Cook bore the sly look of a proud papa after watching his first-born Nebraska team com pete in the annual Red-White game on Saturday. There was a positive vibe shared by players and coaches afterwards, even with the knowl edge that they will be without outside hitter Nancy Meendering, who is redshirting the season. But Cook had Laura Pilakowsld and Kim Behrends up his sleeve to take the place of Meendering. The two-headed attack ofPilakowki and Behrends led the starters to a 15-4,10-15, 15-7,15-13 win before an esti mated crowd of 1,900 at the NU Coliseum. “Look how many times Behrends and Pilakowsld bailed us out,” Cook said. “Last year, that was Meendering doing that for us.” The sophomore Pilakowski led the Red team with 17 kills to go along with 15 digs and a .357 hitting percentage. “It’s reassuring,” junior mid dle blocker Jenny Kropp said of Pilakowski’s performance. “But we know that Laura can play that good. She does the same thing in practice.” Not to be outdone, Behrends, a senior, planted 14 kills on the other side of the net with a .324 hitting percentage and a remark ably high total of seven service aces for the match. “We’re a different style of team, and those guys did a great job for us tonight,” Cook said. “They were doing that against probably the best right side blocker in college volleyball.” It should be a confidence builder for the projected starting unit, which went up against the likes of Meendering, senior setter Jill McWilliams and former j, China Olympic star Li Guo Jun. p Meendering and Jun record ed 23 and 15 kills respectively for the White squad. Cook said he believes that the i test of playing the difficult White squad and of having to play in front ofa large crowd will help his ] team prepare for the opener ] against Northwestern on Friday Scott McOurg/DN ebraska outside hitter IGm Behrends attempts a kill over white squad members am Krejd, left, and Jill McWilliams during Saturday night's scrimmage. light. “There was a big crowd here, rhey were nervous," Cook said Of lis team. “This is huge for us to lave a match like this.” Pilakowski said it felt good to be in competition again. “We do this every day in prac tice," she said. “We go to war." The official season will open Please see SOilMMME on 11 Huskers nominate 6 captains RV IfWHMI PIMBIHND Lack of leadership shouldn't be a problem for the NU football team this season. Nebraska selected its cap* tains on Friday before its final scrimmage and a problem arose: More players than the customary four were deemed right for the honor. So the Huskers picked six three on offense and three on defense. Representing the offense are linemen Jason Schwab and Russ Hochstein and running back Dan Alexander. Linebacker Carlos Polk will lead the Blackshirts, along with rush end Kyle Vanden Bosch and defensive tackle Loran Kaiser The six cap- _ tarns are a nrst for NU, with five being chosen in 1995 and 1998. “Normally, we elect four captains, but a lot of players got votes and it seemed to make sense,” Coach Frank Solich said. “There were a lot of players to choose from, but if you get elected a cap tain, that really “Normally we elect four captains but a lot of players got votes and it seemed to make sense.” Frank Soltek NU coach says someuung - about you as a player and a person." Schwab and Hochstein offi cially take the reins of the offen sive line, but both agreed much leadership wouldn't be needed "There’s a lot of leaders on this team,” Schwab said. "There could have been ten.” But you won’t see the sixth year senior slacking off. "Tb be respected, you have to be able to back it up on the field,” said Schwab, who mentioned 1999 captain Mike Brown as a model example of that trait Said Hochstein: "The line we have is very cohesive, and we are a unified bunch of guys. There is really not a need for anyone to step forward and say what needs to get dona Everyone pretty well knows what needs to gk done." The offense got the job done in the last scrimmage of the sea son. The offensive line opened holes all day long, paving the way for NU's top three I-backs to rack up 283 yards and three touch downs on 10 carries - a gaudy average of 28.3yaids per touch. All in all, the Huskers rushed for 473 yards and seven touch downs against scout teams repre senting San Jose States schemes. Alexander, who had 126 yards and two touchdowns on the day, said he was pleased with the per formance. But, he said, there is always room for improvement "What looks like a perfect play is never perfect" he said. “I know there are a lot of things that I could have done better.” The senior said he was sur prised at being selected a captain, and he felt a “renewed determi nation." "I want to pick it up and make sure they don’t regret their deci sion,” he said. All the seniors admitted to feeling a little emotional and nos Pfease see CAPTAINS on 11