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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2000)
SportsMonday Nebraska 15 15 15 Kansas 9 3 11 NU goes to 21-0 in rout ofKU ■ The win leaves the volleyball team as the only undefeated Nebraska team ups their record to 13-0 in the Big 12 conference. BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON And then there was only one. The Nebraska volleyball team took to the NU Coliseum floor Saturday night as the lone remaining undefeated fall sports team at the University of Nebraska after the football team’s afternoon loss to Oklahoma. The Cornhuskers left the Coliseum floor the same way they entered it, unde feated and relatively unchallenged with a 15-9,15-3,15-11 whipping of Kansas. The No. 1 Huskers upped their record to 21-0 overall, 13-0 in the Big 12 confer ence. The 3,899 fans in attendance saw the Jayhawks fall to 12-10,3-10 in confer ence. “I thought our team was really pumped up to play tonight,” Nebraska Coach John Cook said. "Our blocking was really solid, our serving was exceptional, and I thought we passed really well.” It was Nebraska’s service game that thwarted an early KU upset charge. The Jayhawks led game one 7-3 until Nebraska’s senior outside hitter Kim Behrends toed the serving line. Behrends ran off six straight points on her serve, including two aces, helping NU gain a 9-7 lead and take control of the opening gam£. “In thQ first set I felt like we kind of needed a little boost so I was back there to serve aggressive and try to get them off guard,” Behrends said. Behrends hit KU with a career-high five aces for the match, helping Nebraska claim 10 aces as a team, a season high for NU in a three-game match. “When you factor the 10 service aces into what they’re doing with their block, their transition, that makes it extremely difficult,” Kansas Coach Ray Bechard said of NU’s serving success. “They are not allowing any detail to go unnoticed.” Nebraska relied on tough blocking in game two to slow down the hot first game hand of KU's outside hitter Amy Myatt, rolling over the Jayhawks, 15-3. Despite a match-high 10 kills by Myatt, KU struggled to a .078 hitting per centage for the match. The bright spot for Kansas was in game three, where Bechard said “at least we made (Nebraska) pay attention.” Angie Oxley digs a ball during the Huskers defeat of Kansas at the HU Coliseum. The Huskers won the match 15-9,15-3,15-11. "When you factor the 10 service aces into what they’re doing with their block, their transition, that makes it extremely difficult. ” « Ray Bechard __'Kansas volleyball coach KU had the Huskers off-balance, ral lying with eight straight points to tie the game at nine. In game three the Huskers committed an uncharacteristically-high nine errors, dipping their hitting percentage to a lowly .263 for the match. . However, NU subbed freely in the game and Cook said the Huskers weren’t going up against the same push-over team it swept a month ago in Lawrence. "The rash of errors in the third game was a disappointing way to end the . match,” Cook said. “I want to give Kansas credit. They are twice the team we played down in Kansas.1” Despite the errors, the Huskers right ed the ship in time to take a 15-11 win in the third set and notch their 11th sweep of the conference season. Coincidentally enough, the match ended on an ace by sophomore defensive specialist Lindsay Wischmeier. NU just had too many weapons for Kansas, maybe for anyone, Bechard said. “I hope they continue to get better and go deep in the tournament and are a great representative of our conference,” he said. “I think they got a great chance to win it all.” Photos by Steven Bender/DN Sophomore outside hitter Laura Pilakowski cele brates during the Huskers'match against Kansas on Saturday. Latham shines in shut out against ISU ■The Huskers beat Iowa State 2-0 behind two goals from the sophomore forward. N U must now prepare for this week's Big 12 tournament. BY TOBY BURGER For the third-ranked NU soccer team, it was business as usual. The Huskers traveled to Ames, Iowa, on Friday after noon and made short work of Iowa State in a 2-0 victory. NU out-shot Iowa State 21-5 while allowing only one shot-on-goal en route to the win. Both goals were scored by sophomore forward Christine Latham. Her 19th and 20th goals also upped her Big 12 conference lead in goals and pushed her confer ence best in points to 47. Latham’s first score came at the 8:10 mark off mid fielder Meghan Anderson’s corner kick. Midfielder Kori Saunders headed the Anderson kick, and Latham blasted the rebound in for the score. In the 64th minute, Latham added her second goal in similar fashion. Forward Becky Boyd headed the Anderson comer kick, and Latham shot in the rebound for her second and final goal of the game. As been the case for most of the season, Latham has provided the offense and goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc the defense. Both have lead the Huskers, and Friday’s game proved no different. LeBlanc needed only one save to provide the Huskers their 13th shutout of the season. LeBlanc’s efforts low ered her conference best 0.40 goals-against-average. While the victory against ISU closed out their regular season, last weeks 4-1 victory over Texas Tech clinched the Big 12 regular-season title. The team finished with a 18-1-0 overall record and 9-1-0 conference record. Post-season play is up next for the Huskers. Wednesday, the number one seed Huskers face number eight seed Texas Tech at 11 a.m. at the first round of the Big 12 tournament in San Antonio, Texas. The tourna ment runs from Nov. 1-4. Men finish fifth in Big 12 cross country meet BYJILLZEMAN Colorado's cross country team proved Saturday there's no place like home, as both the men’s and women’s teams took top honors in the Big 12 Championship meet in Boulder, Colo. Nebraska’s men’s team finished fifth, an improvement from last year’s sixth place show ing. The Comhusker women placed seventh of the 12 teams. NU Coach Jay Dirksen said members of the team ran solid races, but he was disappointed the men’s team didn’t finish higher. Senior captain Marcus Witter was the Huskers’ top finisher, taking 11th place in the 8,000 meter race with a time of 25:31. Dirksen said senior Aaron Carrizales, who finished 13th in 25:34, had the best race of his career. Sophomore Jed Barta took 38th place and freshman Kyle Wyatt placed 43rd out of 101 par ticipants. On the women's side, sophomore Kathryn Handrup was the first Husker to finish the 6,000 meter race, placing 20th in 21:43. Senior captain Amie Jorgensen took 22nd place, her highest ever finish at a conference meet. Freshman Ann Gaffigan placed 31st and junior Jenna Lucas finished in 45th place of 94 competitors. “No one ran terrible races,” Dirksen said. “We’re just suffering from the lack of a front runner.” Dirksen said the high altitude played a fac tor in the meet Many of the runners either took off too fast and couldn’t keep up the pace, or ran the race too cautiously, he said. In contrast, runners from Colorado’s team ran with ease in the high altitude, claiming six of the top 10 slots on the men’s side and four top 10 finishes in the women’s race. “You could see they knew how to run the course,” said Dirksen. The team will take a week off and then com pete Nov. 11 in the NCAA Midwest Region Championships in Waterloo, Iowa. The meet will be test for the Huskers, where the team has a shot to qualify for nationals. “We’ll have to really run well,” Dirksen said. “No one ran terrible races. We’re just suffering from the lack of a front runner." Jay Dirksen NU cross country coach Ga Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops was asked after the Sooner's 31-14 victory over Nebraska if he felt his team was the best in the country. ■ For more Stoops gamedaycov wouldn’t direct- e rage, please ly answer, only seepages** saying Well, there sure are a lot of people walking around with their fingers in the air.” Pollsters felt that OU was the best in the nation, as they gained all but one first place vote in the AP poll and all but four in the coaches’ poll. *** The loss ended Nebraska's 13-game winning streak and NU’s 10-game winning streak as the nation's No. 1 team. The loss sent NU to fifth place in the writ ers’ poll and sixth place in the coaches’. It was the first time a No. 1 team lost in the regular season since Michigan State upset Ohio State 28-24 in Columbus, OH., Nov. 7,1998. **♦ The 17-point Sooner win was Nebraska's largest deficit in a loss since 1996 when they were shutout at Arizona State, 19-0. *** Fans rushed Owen Field in celebration after OU’s 40th victo ry in the series, which stands 40 36-1 in the Sooner's favor. Security tried to prevent the south goal post from being over taken by students by using pep per spray. The attempt was in vain as the uprights came down with the PA announcer berating them, “Now that you’ve got it down, what are you going to do with it?” *** Oklahoma blocked a Dan Hadenfeldt punt in the second quarter, the first time Nebraska had a punt blocked since the 1999 Iowa game. Ironically, Stoops said, OU had a return play on. Said NU Coach Frank Solich: “The blocked punt was crucial. We did not play well in the special teams area. That contributed to the loss.” *** The game was the first ever regular season meeting between Bowl Championship Series Nos. 1 and 2 teams. NU will find out where it stands after the loss when the BCS rankings come out Monday night. "We’re not too worried about the national championship right now,” rush end Kyle Vanden Bosch said. “We just need to go home, reevaluate and improve our play the rest of the season.” ♦»* Troy Watchom’s team-lead ing fifth interception of the year was his fifth in six games. It con sequently was OU quarterback Josh Heupel’s first interception in 145 attempts. To that point, Heupel had completed 100 of 145 passes in conference play with out a pick. *** Nebraska allowed Heupel to run and pass over its defense for 346 yards of total offense, the most ever for an individual Sooner against Nebraska. The previous record was Jack Mildren’s 271 in the 1971 “Game of the Century." *** , » The two Husker turnovers were the most since they gave the ball away three times vs. San Jose State. The turnovers led to seven OU points. “If you can stop our offense from executing then you can beat us and that’s what they did today,” quarterback Eric Crouch said. “Without the interception and the fumbles who knows what happens?” *** Crouch passed Turner Gill and Mike Rozier on NU’s career total offense chart with his 270 total yards Saturday. He ranks fifth all-time at Nebraska with 4,839 yards. Compiled by David Diehl
