SportsThursday Daily Nebraskan Thursday, October 26,2000 Page 12 Oil's defense gains respect BY JOSHUA CAMENZ1ND When you think of Oklahoma, inevitably you think of offense - explosive offense. On average, Josh Heupel and company have put up 46.7 points and 472 yards per game. But amid all the offensive hoopla, the Oklahoma defense is quietly earning respect as a solid unit of its own. The improved defense, which is allowing 50 yards less per game than a year ago, is a major reason the Sooners are undefeated and ranked third in the country. “Football is the ultimate team game, and to win these games, we have played well on both sides of the ball,” Stoops said. One had to know that Stoops, a defensive mastermind as an assistant at Florida, was going to leave his mark on the defense soon. “I would run through a brick wall for this man,” said Sooner 7 would run through a brick wall for this man." J.T. Thatcher OU free safety on Bob Stoops free safety J.T. Thatcher. Stoops’ attitude and the defense’s renewed confidence are the main reasons for OU givingup an average of 294 yards and 16 points per game on defense. These are not spectacular numbers, but Oklahoma’s defen sive unit makes plays and, most importantly with NU coming to town, gives up only an average of three yards per rush. Thatcher said much of that has to do with an overlooked defensive line. “They are real good players,” he said. “Without those guys up front, the defensive backs and linebackers wouldn’t have any success.” Overall, OU has 11 intercep tions and 18 sacks on the season. Spearheading this attack on opposing offenses are Thatcher and senior linebackers Rocky Calmus and Torrance Marshall. Calmus leads the Sooners with 49 tackles and has three fum ble recoveries to go with his two sacks and one interception. Stoops said having Calmus' leadership stabilizes the defense, much like fellow Butkus candi date Carlos Polk does for Nebraska. “Rocky is an exceptional play er, no question about it,” Stoops said. "He does make plays that when you put it up on the board and diagram it, he shouldn’t make. “But he does. He finds a way to get to the ball and has a great Please see OUonll Courtesy photo It doesn't get the headlines, but the solid Oklahoma defense is a major reason the Sooners head into this Saturday's matchup against No. 1 Nebraska undefeated and ranked third in the country. OU is allowing 16 points per game this season. Senior Jenny Benson has been wearing leddeatsfor three seasons, the only Husker to do so. Benson, a premier Husker defend er, has scored a total of 92 points in her career at Nebraska. wine warren/un Jenny Benson's success grows with NU soccer It seems like Nebraska soccer player Jenny Benson - and her red Pumas-havebeen at NU forever. “We’re always joking with her about it," goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc said. "The other day, (NU Coach John Walker) made a joke, saying ‘Oh, thanks for introducing me to my wife,’ but they met 20 years ago.” The fifth-year senior has been on campus since 1996 - the Comhuskers’ third year of exis tence and first season in the Big 12 Conference. “I’ve been here so long, so I’ve seen pretty much everything that’s ^ going to come at us,” Benson said. A When Benson first joined the Husker ^ program, NU's combined record was just 24-12. Since then, it has been 97-11 -3. Walker said the program’s progress mir rored that of Benson. “As a freshman, she’d just run around, she didn’t know what was going on,” Walker said. “That was like the way the team was in ’96. We had no idea how good we’d be.” That was the year the Huskers put them selves on the college soccer map. NU won all 21 of its games during the regular season and won two NCAA Tournament games, ending the season ranked No. 6 nationally. Playing as a freshman, Benson scored a goal in each of the tournament wins. Benson played for the Huskers when the team won a double-overtime 1 -0 thriller over Texas A&M in 1997 to win the Big 12 Tournament. But Benson hasn’t just seen the highs of the Huskers rise to elite status. In 1999, she watched Notre Dame cele brate at the Abbott Sports complex after a loss to the Fighting Irish in a shoot out Benson and the Huskers suffered their first-ever home conference loss when Oklahoma upset NU 2-1 this season. It was only the second home loss the senior has had to endure. While Benson has grown accustomed to home wins and playing aggressive offense, Walker approached her before the 2000 sea son began about a position change to defender. The Huskers had to replace All Americans Isabelle Momeau and Sharolta Nonen. “It shows how great of an athlete and soccer player she is -the way she has the Please see BENSON on 11 Seniors key in Husker win at MU BY KRISTEN WATERS A storm swept through Columbia, Mo., tonight, and it wasn’t the weather. The Missouri Tigers took a back seat to a driven Nebraska volleyball team as the Huskers improved their record to 20-0 (12-0 in conference play) and finished the night with a three game sweep over No. 25 Missouri (17-4,8-4). "It was a big night for the Huskers,” NU Coach John Cook said. “We were very focused. It was a hyped-up game with a lot the coverage and the record crowd was electric.” The Huskers had no prob lem forcing a dead silence over the record-breaking crowd of 2,009 at the Hearnes Center in the first game. Senior Kim Behrends came out swinging hard, slamming down six kills. Meanwhile, sophomore Laura Pilakowski made it impossible for Missouri to run an offense with three ace serves. Missouri started to make a comeback late in the first game with six straight points, but the damage by Behrends and Pilakowski had already been done, and NU ran away with a 15-7 first game win. The Huskers had total con trol in the second game of the night as Behrends continued to slam down balls, and the Huskers’ serves continued to fall on Missouri’s court. NU captured a 15-4 win. Missouri put up a fight in the third game, the tightest game of the night, as the teams battled to a 4-4 tie. But the 14 match kills for Behrends, 10 kills by Pilakoski and eight by sopho more Amber Holmquist made MU unable to keep pace as they fell 15-11 to the Huskers. Nebraska’s seniors stepped up in the team’s road games this week as the Huskers defeated Texas in four sets on Saturday J V before sweeping Mizzou on Wednesday night. Behrends’ 14 kills vs. MU were a career high, and she added a service ace and five digs. “Kim was in the zone tonight, especially in the first game,” Cook said. “She really stepped up the tempo.” Senior Angie Oxley also set the tempo for the Huskers with a team-high hitting percentage of .429 with six kills, two service aces and eight digs. “Our goal for tonight was to give Oxley the ball,” Cook said. “She got a lot of side outs for us. The seniors really made a state ment tonight.” The Huskers will next see action on Saturday night at 7 p.m. taking on Kansas at home. “We’re going to take a day off to relax and recover from the road games, but we’ll still do what we have to do to prepare for Kansas Saturday night,” Cook said. T/ ISU's inside-out duo look to lead balklub KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Angie Welle and Megan Taylor will final ly be in the foreground for Iowa State, and people are taking notice. Welle and Taylor, after lurking in the immense shadow of Stacey Frese, the third-highest scorer in ISU history, have been picked as preseason All-Big 12 selections. Coach Bill Fennelly said the pair will lead the Cyclones in 2000. “With these two, we have one of the better teams in the confer ence," he said. Welle, a 6-foot-4 junior, has been selected as the conference preseason Player of the Year by the coaches and is joined on the All Big 12 first team by Taylor, a senior guard who has started all 99 games in her career at Ames, Iowa. The inside-out tandem is expected to help Iowa State main tain its national prominence. The team has a record of 77-22 in the last three years. Should that suc cess continue again this year, it will come after losing Frese and forward Desiree Francis, who combined to average 27 points in 1999. “When you lose two players to the pros and people still pick you to win the league, it says a lot about your team,” said Fennelly, who is in his sixth year at ISU. "And it says a lot about Angie and Megan.” The task for the pair will be to Please see ISU on 11 £>