Volleyball team methodical match after match
BY JASON MERRIHEW
The No. 1 Nebraska volleyball
team is coasting through the Big
12 Conference season.
The Comhuskers are coming
off a thorough beating of 24th
ranked Missouri on Wednesday.
The Huskers swept the Tigers 15
7,15-4,15-11.
Nebraska will now face Kansas
on Saturday at the Cook Pavilion.
The Jayhawks enter the match
with a 12-9 overall record, but KU
is only 3-9 in the Big 12.
"(The Jayhawks) are a good
team,” NU junior middle blocker
Jenny Kropp said. "They have a lot
of athletic girls.”
Kansas has sputtered ever
since it faced Nebraska the first
time. NU grounded the Jayhawks
on Sept. 20 in straight sets 15-7,
15-5,15-6. The Husker offense was
unstoppable. As a team, it hit .495
with 50 kills and four errors in 93
attempts.
The Jayhawks have gone 2-7
since playing the Cornhuskers,
including a loss to 21st-ranked
Texas A&M in Lawrence, Kan., on
Wednesday. Texas A&M won the
match 15-10,15-13,15-12.
In that first game with KU,
sophomore outside hitter Laura
Pilakowski led the charge for NU,
hitting .484 with 17 kills. Freshman
outside hitter Anna Schrad had
five kills in seven attempts for a
.714 hitting percentage.
The Cornhuskers defense
handcuffed KU with a .193 hitting
percentage and out-blocked the
Jayhawks 9-2.
Despite the success Nebraska
has had over Kansas already this
year, the Huskers will not overtook
the threat the Jayhawks may pres
ent
"We’re expecting a good
game,” NU senior outside hitter
Kim Behrends said.
The Comhuskers don’t expect
a letdown when matching up with
border-rival Kansas.
“Our team really tries hard to
:ake one game at a time,” Kropp
aid.
The Huskers also know that
inference teams like Kansas will
ceep trying to knock them off their
ofty perch high above the Big 12.
"Everyone is going to play
heir best, to beat the number one
:eam in the country," Behrends
aid.
Fans, players cherish NU-OU rivalry
BATTLES from page 6
meaning than just a game,” he
said.
“It builds character, tou’re
sticking 18,19-year old kids out
there irt front of 85,000 people,
and you’re out there making
memories. It’s a lot like being on a
battlefield in a war.”
Game of the Century
“In the land of the pick-up
truck and cream gravy for break
fast, down where the wind can
blow through the walls of a diner
and into the grieving lyrics of a
country song on a jukebox-down
there in dirt-kicking Big Eight ter
ritory- they played a football
game on Thanksgiving Day that
was mainly for the quarterbacks
on the field and for self-styled
gridiron intellectuals every
where.” - Dan Jenkins, "Sports
Illustrated,” Dec. 6,1971
Nebraska defeated the
Sooners in a 1971 classic that has
come to be accepted as the great
est college football game of all
time.
“Both teams played to win
and not to lose. There was one
penalty. It was the first time that
Nebraska was behind all year,”
Jack Mildren, Oklahoma’s quar
terback of 1971, said. “It was the
kind of game that young men
dream of.”
The game set up to be a gem
from the first score of the game,
when NU’s Johnny Rodgers field
ed a punt with Oklahoma’s Greg
Pruitt directly in front of him.
Rodgers juked Pruitt and the
rest of the Sooners for a 72-yard
touchdown return.
“The closer they are, the easi
er they are to shake,” Rodgers
said of the play. "I didn’t think
about fair-catching because I
didn’t do that. The ref got in the
way, but I was able to get to the
end zone.”
The game would go back and
forth from that point.
"They got up early on us, and
it was like we were running uphill
all night long even when we took
the lead,” Mildren said.
The Sooners grabbed a 31-28
lead in the fourth quarter, but
Nebraska drove it down in the
late going behind the legs of Jeff
Kinney, who scored on a 2-yard
plunge with 1:38 remaining to
give Nebraska the 35-31 win.
Mildren remembers going up
to the press box after the game to
do a radio broadcast with his
coach, Chuck Fairbanks.
“Chuck gets a phone call up
there, and it’s President Nixon.
Even though we lost the game,
the president called to say what a
great game it was.”
Still, the real celebration
belonged to the football crazy
state of Nebraska on that day.
“I remember we had so many
people there to greet us in that
darn airport when we got back.
They knew we had just won the
national championship,”
Rodgers said.
NU made it official with a 38
6 drubbing of Alabama in the
Orange Bowl and finished the
season on top. Right behind
them in the final poll: Oklahoma.
Game of the new Century?
Things are back as they were
in 1971, with Nebraska coming
into the 2000 match-up No. 1 and
OUNo.2.
However, the Sooners are just
now finding rejuvenation under
the direction of their new coach
Bob Stoops, after down years that
included 73-21 and 69-7 drub
bings at the hands of Nebraska in
the two teams’ last meetings.
The rivalry has even lost
interest with the modem players.
“The only game I really
remember is in 1997, when we
beat them so bad, and I think
there were a couple of close
games a few years before that,
but they were pretty bad,” fresh
man Nebraska fullback Judd
Davies said.
Nebraska Coach Frank Solich
said today’s players can’t be
blamed for not knowing every
thing about their school’s rivalry
with other schools.
"These players aren’t from the
era of a lot of the great Nebraska
Oklahoma games, but yet I’m
sure they know about the proud
tradition of their school and our
players know about the proud
tradition of ours,” Solich said.
For those who have wit
nessed the history of these two
teams’ battles, they are happy to
see it back in the limelight this
year.
“This is the way it’s supposed
to be,” Sooner’s play-by-play man
Bob Barry said. “This is
Nebraska-Oklahoma.”
The rivalry just might not be
dead yet.
“If you're going to have to
have a rival, I’d pick Oklahoma.
They’re a great team, and they’ve
had so much history in the past,”
Nebraska running back Dan
Alexander said.
How about a game of the cen
tury for the new century?
"No, as far as I’m concerned,
I’d rather just stomp them,”
Alexander said.
That’s Nebraska-Oklahoma.
The Boz would love such an atti
tude.
Stoops trying to take Sooners to the top
STOOPS from page 7
proud empire had fallen. The Sooners were
regular national-title contenders and three
time champs, under Barry Switzer from 1973
88, but recruiting violations and legal troubles
forced OU out of the national elite and Switzer
out of Oklahoma.
His replacement, Gary Gibbs, at least kept
up the winning, but less.
After he was fired following a 6-6 cam
paign in 1994, former Miami and Louisville
leader Howard Schnellenberger bombed in
his only year in 1995.
Then came alumnus John Blake, who was
a complete disaster, bringing the program to
its knees over the course of three losing sea
sons. Worse yet, OU lost any sting it had
against arch-rival Nebraska, losing 73-21 and
69-7 in Blake’s two humiliating contests.
Enter Stoops.
"They had the talent there already, and
they always do. It’s got enough of a name, and
it’s in a hotbed of talent to get that,” said Texas
Coach Mack Brown.
But the coaching wasn’t there, and neither
were the fans. OU fell 10,000-20,000 seats short
of a sellout in the mid-90’s. Rock bottom may
have been back-to-back losses to Nebraska.
Texas pummeled Oklahoma 34-3 in Blake's
last season and Brown’s first in 1998. Losses to
such arch rivals were the clear-cut proof OU
had lost its mettle.
Two years later, the Sooners, under 275
yards from Heupel, scored on their first seven
possessions and flip-flopped the point margin
from '98 by 80 points. That’s improvement.
“Their quarterback and their coaching are
no doubt a big reason why they’re winning.
Like I said, they had the talent, and they have a
proud tradition there. All it took was a push
and a coach like Bob Stoops.”
One more push over Nebraska would cer
tainly be the clear-cut proof that the Boomer
Sooners are back.
But don’t tell that to Stoops. After all, as
Gibbs, Schnellenberger and Blake found out,
nothing is engraved in stone - not even in an
empire like Norman.
"In the national picture, there is interest
from our fans, so this is good,” Stoops said.
“We’re smart enough to know we’ve got a
long season in front of us. Even winning this
football game isn’t the end-all for us.”
Hiqh-scorinq teams ready for showdown
OU from page 12
national titles in 1974, '75 and
'84.
Now Stoops is in Switzer’s
shoes - not to mention the main
reason OU is back near the top -
thanks to record-setting passer
Josh Heupel and a defense that
■ I I /
won't make things easy for
Heisman-hopeful Eric Crouch.
The two teams lead the
nation in scoring. OU is first at
46.7 points per game, and NU is
second at 46.3. The Sooners
bring the nation’s fourth-best
passing offense, and the Huskers
bring the nation’s best rushing
f r
unit. The defenses are ranked
15th (NU) and 18th (OU) in total
defense.
NU is favored to win the
game by about a field goal,
according to most odds-makers.
NU kicker Josh Brown, a
Foyil, Okla., native who was
recruited heavily by both
schools, hopes it doesn't come
down to that.
"I’d rather we just kick their
butts than have me kick the win
ning field goal,” Brown said.
"I love these kinds of games.
They’re the kind of games that
show you what kind of man you
are.’’
neupei surgeon Tor pass-nappy ^ooners
HEUPELfrompage7
University in Ogden, Utah, and
blossomed at Snow Junior
College in Salt Lake City.
He then arrived in Norman,
Okla., where he was immediate
ly anointed the starter by Coach
Bob Stoops before ever taking a
regular-season snap.
“I felt I fit in with this team
right away,” he said. "We work
extremely hard; you believe all of
that’s going to pay off.”
Dutiful as he may have been,
Heupel was prone to mental
errors, last tossing 15 intercep
tions to go along with 30 touch
downs. He had yards but costly
mistakes in losses to Texas and
Colorado. The butcher’s bill:
three and four interceptions in
each game, respectively.
This season, he has only four
interceptions to his 11 touch
downs and zero in the two
biggest wins this season over
Texas (63-14) andKSU.
Nebraska figures to be at
least as tough of a defensive test
as Kansas State, which also had a
home crowd and vaunted sec
ondary to boast. The Huskers,
like the Wildcats, will attempt to
blitz Heupel, leaving corner
backs on man-to-man routes.
Against KSU, Oklahoma’s
line managed the pass rush,
which left Heupel to take his pick
of fast, large OU receivers.
Accuracy is not a problem, as
evidenced by his 68-percent
pass completion rate this year.
"I don’t know if I’ve ever seen
a more accurate passer than
Heupel,” Nebraska Defensive
Coordinator Craig Bohl said,
“and if you give him a lot of time,
he’s like a surgeon.”
Against a similar offense in
Texas Tech, NU succeeded in rat
tling quarterback Kliff
Kingsbury. Heupel, with his oft
unconventional throwing styles,
can get himself out of those
jams.
“They’re very aggressive,”
Heupel said of the Blackshirts.
"They like to run you all over the
field. The front four will be very
active. Good secondary, great
athletes; they’ll try and play
some man-to-man with us. It’s a
good test.”
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Colorado runners
favored in meet;
NU seeks second
BYJILLZEMAN
High altitudes and a fiercely
competitive school defending
its turf are the challenges facing
the Nebraska cross country
team as it heads to Boulder,
Colo., for the Big 12 Conference
Championships on Saturday.
The University of Colorado
will host the Big 12 teams for the
biggest meet so far this year.
Colorado's top-ranked men's
team and its fifth-ranked
women’s team will present for
midable tasks for the
Cornhuskers, said Coach Jay
Dirksen.
While the Buffaloes may end
up on top at home, Dirksen said,
it will be a battle for the remain
ing top spots.
On the men’s side, No. 11
Oklahoma State will be tough to
beat, but Dirksen said his No. 23
Huskers have a shot to top the
Cowboys.
Leading the Husker charge
should be senior captain
Marcus Witter.
Dirksen said Witter’s
strength is complemented by a
strong, deep team.
"If one of the guys doesn't
have a good race, someone will
pick up the slack,” he said.
Senior Aaron Carrizales and
sophomore Mike Kamm have
been improving and should
have solid races, he said.
Texas, Missouri and Texas
A&M will run right along with
the Huskers, vying for the top
spots, he said.
On the women’s side,
Colorado is the favorite, fol
lowed by No. 9 Kansas State,
Dirksen said.
“If one of the guys
doesn’t have a good
race, someone will
pick up the slack. -,
Jay Dirksen
NU cross country coach
The unranked Huskers, with
its younger team that is short on
numbers, will aim to place in
the top five, he said.
“It all depends who's on that
day,” Dirksen said.
Leading the pack for the
women are senior captain Amie
Jorgensen, sophomore Kathryn
Handrup and freshman Ann
Gaffigan.
"We don’t have a Marcus
Witter like the men’s team
does," he said.
Both teams will face the
challenge of adapting to
Boulder’s altitude and its diffi
cult, hilly course, he said.
The Huskers, who practice
at Pioneers Park, are accus
tomed to a course with more
natural, hilly terrain and have
an advantage over the teams
who practice on golf courses, he
said.
Only Colorado, and to a less
er extent Texas Tech, practice in
high altitudes, Dirksen said.
The team, with six meets
under its belt this year, has been
preparing all season for the big
meets such as the champi
onships, Dirksen said.
"Our season really begins
now," he said.
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