SportsMonday
NU swimming coaches suspended
Swimmers allege coaches violated NCAA rules
“(Swimmers) would
take a cut in their
scholarships, and (the
coaches) would pay
them under the
table”
Justin Kapinus
former NU swimmer
BY SEAN CALLAHAN
One current and one former member
of the Nebraska swim team said they may
be able to shed some light on why NU
Athletic Director Bill Bryne suspended
Coaches Cal Bentz, Keith Moore, Kelly
Nordell and Rick Paine last week.
Byrne announced Friday the four
coaches were suspended indefinitely and
named Paul Nelsen as interim coach.
Byrne gave no specific reason for the sus
pensions. 4'
But Sara Jowsey, a fifth-year women's
team member, and Justin Kapinus, who
completed his eligibility in 1998, both
said during their careers at Nebraska they
heard of several NCAA violations com
mitted by people affiliated with the swim
ming team, including the suspended
coaches.
Jowsey said she knows athletes on the
men’s and women’s swimming teams
who received money to fulfill scholarship
promises.
"(NU swimming coaches) would ask
people to give up some of their scholar
ship so they could give the new people
money,” Jowsey said. "The people that
lost some of their scholarship would then
be paid back."
Kapinus backed Jowsey’s allegations,
saying knowledge of the wrongdoing was
widespread.
“(Swimmers) would take a cut in their
scholarships and (the coaches) would
pay them under the table,” Kapinus said.
“I know a couple of my buddies were
asked to take a cut in their scholarship
money. I’ve seen a couple of my buddies
taken into the office and talked to about
the money.”
The men's swimming and divjng team
have 9.9 scholarships. The women have
14. Around 60 athletes comprise both
teams.
Moore and Nelsen both declined to
comment on the suspensions or the
alleged violations. Bentz and Nordell
could not be reached for comment.
Paine, a 17-year assistant, said Byrne
gave the coaches specific instructions not
to comment about the situation.
He said he is just as confused as every
one else.
“We’ve been instructed as of Thursday
not to have any contact with the team,”
Paine said. “I feel bad for the kids right
now. They’re kind of left out in the dark.”
Jowsey said when she was a freshman,
her class was made up of more than 20
members.
Please see COACHES on 11
Two more
shutouts
forsoccer
■NU goalkeeper Karina
LeBlanc completed her 10th
scoreless game this year.
BY JAMIE SUHR
Nebraska soccer goalkeeper
Karina LeBlanc must seem like a
brick wall to Husker opponents.
With her back-to-back road
shutouts in the Comhuskers’ 2-0
win over No. 24 Missouri and a 3
0 victory against Kansas, LeBlanc
has pitched six straight shutouts
for the No. 3 ranked
Comhuskers.
The senior hasn’t allowed a
goal in more than 600 minutes.
To put things in a little better per
spective, LeBlanc hasn’t been
scored on in 10 hours of game
time.
Following her 10th shutout of
the year, LeBlanc now has a
career goals-against average of
0.55 - the seventh best in NCAA
history. On the season, LeBlanc is
allowing a conference-best 0.31
goals-per-game. In all, the 12-0
Huskers have outscored oppo
nents 56-3.
m inu s victory over me
Tigers, LeBlanc, a finalist for the
prestigious Hermann Trophy,
faced only three shots on goal.
The Huskers would get all the
goals they would need when for
ward Christine Latham scored
7:43 into die game.
To round out the scoring,
freshman Kelly Haxton notched
her fourth god of the season to
drop Missouri to 6-5 on the year.
“It was a tough battle/1 NU
Coach John Walker said. “We
played well defensively. It was a
good, tough road win against a
ranked team.”
The game also marked the
return ofKori Saunders, who has
been out all season since being
hospitalized Aug. 10 when an
eight-inch shard of glass pene
trated her back after she fell
through a glass table. The sopho
more played nearly 40 minutes
against the Tigers and picked up
her first assist of the season.
The Huskers used the same
formula of great goal tending and
an early score by Latham to claim
victory.
LeBlanc, a preseason All
American, only faced four shots
in NU’s 3-0 win against the
Jayhawks.
“Overall, it was just a good,
solid performance,” Walker said.
With 16:59 remaining in the
first half, Latham took a pass
from midfielder Shannon Tanaka
and scored her 12th goal of the
season.
In the second half, Latham
would return the favor, assisting
Tanaka's second goal of the sea
son.
Latham would then add her
conference-best 13th goal with
1:55 to go in the game. The score
gave Latham the league lead with
29 points.
“She’s done a good job of
shooting,” Walker said. “She
always has a shooting mentality.”
The shutout wasn't all
because of LeBlanc. NU didn’t
allow any corner kicks for the
Jayhawks and took only eight
shots.
The Huskers will return
home to play Texas on Friday at
the Abbott Sports Complex.
The Longhorns will enter the
contest 8-3 and 3-0 in the confer
ence for the first time in school
history.
Stepping
up the
pressure
ABOVE: Senior Lindsay Wischmeier dives for the bail against Texas
A&M Saturday.
LEFT: Senior iiil McWilliams,left, shares excitement with junior Kim
Behrends after winning a point against Texas A&M on Saturday at
the NU Collesium.The Huskers improved their record to 13-0 with a
sweep of the Aggies before a crowd of 4,007 fans.
BY BRIAN CHRtSTOPHERSON
When you’re undefeated, sometimes you have to
nit-pick.
So last week, Nebraska Coach John Cook took
junior middle blocker Jenny Kropp aside. They
examined her play, and both agreed that she could
improve a few aspects of her game.
Maybe Saturday afternoon’s match against Texas
A&M was what they had in mind.
Kropp, a Grand Island native, hammered 12 kills
to go along with four blocks and a .455 hitting per
centage in a NU15-3,16-14,15-6 sweep of the Aggies
before 4,007 fans at the NU Coliseum.
The match improved No. 1 Nebraska's record to
13-0 overall, 6-0 in conference play. A&M fell to 8-4,
3-2 in the conference.
“I told Jenny there were times we needed her to
step up,” Cook said. "And she did it blocking, attack
ing and with her serve. That's what's so great about
coaching this team. You have people who are capa
ble of stepping up.”
Not to be outdone by Kropp, fellow middle
blocker Amber Holmquist stepped up to pour a
game-high 15 kills and nine blocks on A&M.
Holmquist hit .522 for the match.
Freshman outside hitter Laura Pilakowski was
sandwiched in between Holmquist and Kropp with
13 kills, but hit well below the blockers with a .207
, - . /<
hitting percentage.
"Our left sides were struggling a bit, and we felt
like A&M would struggle to stop those two, so we
kept encouraging Greichaly (Cepero) to set them,”
Cook said.
Kropp said she and Holmquist sensed a mis
match at the net early in the match.
“I think we were sutcessful because they were
smaller blockers, and when Greichaly sets so fast,
that’s a really hard set to block,” Kropp said.
“And when you’re successful, it gives you motiva
tion to keep swinging away. We kept swinging and
that is why we were so successful.”
Aggies Coach Laurie Corbelli said Kropp and
Holmquist’s domination of the middle blocker posi
tion caused her team to struggle offensively.
"The effectiveness of their middles took our mid
dles out of the mix in a lot of ways, and we rely heav
ily on our middles being effective,” Corbelli said.
The constant harassing at the net caused the
Aggies to hit only .096 for the match with 28 errors.
Meanwhile, NU logged a solid .287 hitting per
centage for the match.
Cook would like to bottle his team’s aggressive
play up and save it for matches down the road.
“That’s how I want Nebraska volleyball to play, to
constantly pressure teams with our serve, our blocks
ing, our defense,” Cook said. “A&M had an uncharac
teristic amount of hitting errors for them and that’s
because of our serve, block and defense.”
, If there was a bright spot for the Aggies, it was in
game two, when A&M’s outside hitter Erin Gibson
discovered her shot, pounding down 10 of her 11
kills after her team’s miserable game one showing.
“The jitters finallv wore off, we mmmammmm
got into our rhythm in game two and
attacked more,” Corbelii said.
Behind Gibson’s play, the Aggies
led the second game 11-9, until a
four-point run by the Huskers.
The game stood tied at 14 until
Holmquist powered a kill to the
floor, and a hitting error by A&M
gave the game to Nebraska.
Nebraska rolled through game
three by concentrating on shutting
down Gibson.
“We made a great adjustment on
Gibson who looked all-world in
“A&M had an
uncharacteristic
amount of hitting
errors for them, and
that’s because of our
serve, block and
defense”
John Cook
NU volleyball coach
gcUlie IWU, L.UUK ScUU.
Gibson was blanked in the kills column and the
Aggies were sent home as another Nebraska victim.
“It was a good match for us. Texas A&M pushed
us in that second game, and it stressed us,” Cook
said.
“It was good to see us go through that, work
through that and win that second game and come
out and take it to them in the third game.”
Opposing quarterbacks might
want to call in sick for Nebraska
week. Missouri’s Kurt Farmer will
sit out at least four weeks after
breaking his left clavicle. Farmer
becomes NU’s second quarter
back victim. Notre Dame’s Amez
Battle is still watching games from
die sidelines after suffering a bro
ken hand on his first play against
Nebraska.
Missouri’s 24 points against
Nebraska were the most put up by
allger team in Lincoln since 1978,
when Missouri knocked off
Nebraska 35-31.
***
Nebraska was outgained 492
484 in the total yards category by
Missouri. The last team to beat the
Huskers in that category was
Colorado Nov. 26, 1999, when
they totaled 504 yards to NU’s 400
in a33-30 Nebraska overtime win.
Please see NOTEBOOK on11
Record Pts Pvs
1. RoridaSt (42) 5-0 1,745 2
2. Nebraska (28) 4-0 1,731 1
3. Virginia Tech 4-0 1,576 4
4. Kansas St. (1) 5-0 1,574 5
5. Ctemson 5-0 1.451 7
6. Michigan 4-1 1,353 9
7. Miami 3-1 1,274 10
8. Ohio St. 4-0 1,218 12
9. Oregon 4-1 1.031 20
10. Oklahoma 4-0 1,017 14
11. Texas 3-1 999 13
12. Florida 4-1 940 3
13. Washington 3-1 920 6
14. TCU 4-0 875 16
15. Auburn 5-0 869 19
16. UCLA 4-1 831 15
17. Southern Miss 3-1 608 21
18. Southern Cai 3-1 514 8
19. Georgia 3-1 455 25
20. Mississippi St. 3-1 406 NR
21. Tennessee 2-2 364 11
22. Northwestern 4-1 312 NR
23. Oregon St 4-0 279 NR
24. Wisconsin 3-2 210 17
25. Notre Dame 2-2 118 NR
?ou
Pts Pvs
1,452 1
1,434 2
1,334
1,295
1,180
1,120
1,119 10
1,033 12
885 3
r*
Record
1. Nebraska (37) 4-0
2. Florida St. (21) 5-0
3. Virginia Tech 4-0
4. Kansas St. (1) 5-0
5 Ciemson 5-0
6. Michigan 4-1
7. Ohio State 4-0
8. Miami 3-1
9. Florida 4-1
10. Texas 3-1 856 13
11. Washington 3-1 734 6
12. Oklahoma 4-0 713 16
13. Auburn 5-0 697 20
14. TCU 4-0 695 18
15. Oregon 4-1 613 25
16. Southern Cal 3-1 582 7
17. UCLA 4-1 550 17
18. Southern Miss 3-1 531 21
19. Georgia 3-1 455 24
20. Mississippi St. 3-1 355 NR
21. Tennessee 2-2 338 11
22. Wisconsin 3-2 242 14
23. Oregon St. 4-0 171 NR
24. Northwestern 4-1 140 NR
25. Michigan St 3-1 136 15
NU falls to 2 in AP poll
FROM STAFF REPORTS
The Nebraska Cornhuskers
are no longer tops in college
football, at least according to
Associated Press voters.
After start
ing the season
as the No. 1
team in the AP
Poll and main
taining the top
position for
five weeks,
Nebraska dropped to No. 2 fol
lowing a 42-24 win over
Missouri.
Previous No. 2-ranked and
defending National Champion
Florida State is now No. 1 after a
59-7 pasting of Maryland on
Thursday night.
The last time a team fell from
No. 1 without losing was in 1997
when Nebraska beat Missouri in
overtime and fell to No. 2.
The Cornhuskers still sit atop
the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’
Poll.
■ For complete
gameday
coverage see
pages
6-7.
NU Coach Frank Solich said
he didn’t know if his team
deserved to be No. 1 or not.
“It’s still anybody’s guess as to
who the best team in the country
is, and I think people understand
that at this point in the season,” •
Solich said. “Certainly we’re not
disappointed in any way shape
or form. We just feel good that
we’re 4-0 and still in the ball
park.”
Last week, the Huskers led
FSU in first-place votes 39-30,
but now trail 42-28. Overall, the
Seminoles have 1,745 points to
Nebraska’s 1,731.
Florida State’s No. 1 ranking
will be put to the test on Saturday
when they play at No. 7 Miami.
“(The No. 1 ranking) doesn’t
mean a thing at this time,” said
Florida St. Coach Bobby
Bowden. “Especially when we’re
going to a place like Miami this
week. It just gives them more fuel
for the fire.”
The Associated Press con
tributed to this report