Huskers take third after loss in classic CUSSICfrompage12 “\\fe were much better and moved out to a 19-point lead. Then, I thought we lacked the toughness to counter them.” Nebraska was led in the tour nament by its two representatives on the All-Tournament team, Cookie Belcher and Kimani Ffriend. Belcher totaled 35 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and five steals in the two games. Ffriend also scored 35 points on 15 of 19 shooting and added 13 rebounds and eight blocks in front of a com bined crowd of about 12,000 for the two-night event Joining Belcher and Ffriend on the team were UMKC’s Michael Jackson and Michael Watson and Pacific's Jono Metzger-Jones. Pacific’s Mike Hahn, a graduate of Lincoln Northeast high school, earned tournament MVP honors. Collier and the Huskers will now take to the road for nearly three weeks, competing in Miami San Juan, Puerto Rico and Minnesota before returning home again to face Murray State on Dec 30 and Creighton on Jan. 2. NU hasn’t won a road game since beating Kansas in Lawrence two years ago, but Cochran isn’t looking to abandon ship yet “It's not any time to press the panic button by any means,” Cochran said. Husker Notes: NU point guard John Robinson will join die team in die final game of the San Juan Shootout after becoming eligible as soon as grades are released this semester and after serving a three-game suspension handed down by Collier before the season began. Women get needed win ST. PETER'S from page 12 his team needed the victory badly. His response, after a head shake and snicker: "Does Santa Claus need a sled?” TheHuskers (5-3) beat a savvy Peahens team before a statewide television audience that saw bas ketballs and bodies flying every where for two hours. Despite outshooting SPC 62 28 percent from the field in the second half, NU couldn’t stop the Peahens' 1-3-1 zone defense or the offense of SPC’s Beth Ann Dickinson, who poured in a career-high 32 points with 14 of 14 free throw shooting and kept NU from slamming the door. SPC (3-3) went to the 1-3-1 after the Huskers took a com manding 29-15 lead 12 minutes into the game. It worked. The Peahens went on an 18-2 run to take a two-point lead before NU freshman K.C. Cowgill-who led NU with a career-high 23 points - buried a3-pointer right before the buzzer to give NU a 34-33 half Nebraska 83 St Peter* 70 time lead. “Halftime could not have come sooner,” said NU sopho more forward Stephanie Jones, who recorded her second double double of the season with a career-high 15 points and career high 10 rebounds. The outsized Jersey City, N.J. Jesuit college forced 27 Big Red turnovers that led to several easy buckets. Lindsay Gonzalez made one of them, a lay-up off a steal to cap a 9-0 run and cut a once-com fortable NU lead to 65-62 with three minutes left After that, it was an SPC foul fest and the Huskers made 18 of 26 free throws in die last 2:44 of a game that seemed to never end. NU is now 5-0 at home and 0 3 on the road, and die road doesn’t get any easier. The Huskers will travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico, next week to take on No. 11 Auburn (9-0) in the first of three games of die San Juan Shootout Game-two comeback helps Huskers win war BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON Nebraska senior right side hit ter Angie Oxley didn't care that she was running recklessly into the Nebraska bench. The only thing on Oxley's mind was keeping a ball alive for her team, and she did. Oxley kept the ball in the air, hitting it over her head to sopho more defensive specialist Lindsay Wischmeier, who saved it to soph omore setter Greichaly Cepero, who finally played it over die net Arizona, shocked that NU had returned the ball, hit its return into the net giving Nebraska the point and a 12-11 advantage in a hotly contested game two on Saturday night To win the war, you have to win the small battles, and that's what Nebraska did on that point and throughout the entire NCAA quarterfinal volleyball match. Nebraska has won most of the small fights en route to a 32-0 sea son, but there was a little more tension in the NU Coliseum when Arizona threatened to take a sec ond-game duel away from the No. lComhuskers. Arizona Coach David Rubio said he sensed his team was about one play from changing the momentum of the match in his team’s favor “Tb win that game changes the whole dynamic of the match,” Rubio said. “It would shape our confidence for game three.” Nebraska Coach John Cook was telling his players the same thing. And Nebraska's intimidating block forced a nervous Arizona team to hit costly errors, finally giving Nebraska an 18-17 edge. Sophomore outside hitter Laura Pilakowski ended up being the hero, making the hometown fans erupt when she hammered homeoneofher 17 kills to give NU the game 19-17. “Psychologically, that was a huge win,” Cook said “To hang in and win that game we had to trust each other and show character. Tb win that that’s where I felt we won the match.” Rubio said he still felt his team could win the match, but Nebraska could smell the Final Foul “Only one more game to go,” Nebraska Assistant Coach Craig Skinner said to jubilant fans as he walked off the floor during inter mission. There would be one more small battle for the Huskers in game three. Nebraska, down 11-9, sent senior outside hitter Kim Behrends to the service line “needing someone to take control of the match,” Cook said. Six Behrends’ serves and two aces later, NU players were taking victory laps around the Coliseum. "Kim on that last point just went down and was bawling,” Pilakowski said. “She was excited, and with her being a senior... it was awesome.” Nebraska had not only won all the small battles, but the war. NU Final Four bound with victory over Arizona WIN from page 12 he thought his team should have won. “The second game was actu ally the game that was the turn ing point of the match,” he said. “We had lots of opportunities to win that game but couldn’t con vert” What impressed Cook during game two, he said, was the way his players kept trusting each other. “Even when we weren't play ing well, they just hung in there and found away,” Cook said. “I’ve been saying it all year - that’s the core of a championship team. “I realty thought that's where we won the match. Arizona gave us their best shot there. They had several chances to put us away and they couldn’t do it” Game three had NU jump out to an 8-1 lead, but then fall behind 11-9. Senior Kim Behrends, the right side hitter who replaced Meendering in die lineup, served Nebraska to six points in a row to close out the match - a scoring run that included two ace serves. Cook said he couldn’t have been more proud with the way his captain performed "It’s very fitting,” Cook said. "Kim is making the most of her opportunity, and her opportuni ty came about when Nancy Meendering redshirted. If she doesn’t, Km’s probably sitting the bench her senior year. “She willed die third game for us with her serve. We needed somebody to go back there and take over the match, and she did it It's a great story.” NU continued to use its bal anced hitting attack, having five hitters in double figures in kills and one with nine. Sophomores Greichaly Cepero and Laura Pilakowski and senior Angie Oxley were named to the all-tournament team. Cepero was the tournament’s most outstanding player. After a season that had so many obstacles, Oxley said, NU has only one more job to com plete. “We were the underdogs at the beginning," Oxley said. “We knew we had to prove ourselves to the rest of the country. It's a pretty awesome feeling that the team has made it this far.” Nebraska wrestlers sneak by Ohio State in final match of dual BY DAVID DIEHL It wasn’t pretty, but since style points don’t count in compiling team records, the No. 7 Nebraska wrestling squad still stands at 5-0, and it is much thanks to Ati Conner. Conner, the country’s ninth-ranked 174 pounder, saved Nebraska from suffering its first loss of the year by defeating Ohio State’s Ryan Hieber 6-3. The win gave NU a 20-19 victory after it trailed by two entering the dual’s final match. The win over the No. 15 Buckeyes came after NU defeated a stingy Oregon State team 23-10 earlier on Saturday. Conner, who lost his first match of the day to Oregon State’s 15th-ranked Nathan Coy, came back to control, but not overly dominate, his match against Hieber. Ohio Stale 20 19 “I just knew we needed to get the win," Conner said. “That’s basically it I was in the zone." Conner was put in the must-win situa tion after NU's 165-pounder Ryan Schultz got pinned by Ohio State’s Johnny Clark after Schultz held a 13-9 lead in the third period. The win gave OSU six points and a 19-17 team lead heading into Conner's match. Nebraska Coach Mark Manning told Conner his match wasn’t a work of art, but it was still a confidence booster. “I told him ‘Hey, it wasn’t your best match, but you proved to yourself you can wrestle when there’s pressure on,’" Manning said. “ That’s big - if you do it once, you can do it again and again.” The win was one of six against the Buckeyes. That came after NU won seven of the 10 against the Beavers earlier in the day. The most anticipated match, Nebraska’s top-ranked Brad Vering against Ohio State’s third-ranked Nick Preston, proved to be no surprise as Vering controlled all seven min utes, winning 4-1. “If that’s die No. 3 guy in the country and I'm three points better than him,” Vering said, “that feels good right now.” Besides Vering’s win, the other matchup of top-10 opponents had NU’s Bryan Snyder easily defeat Oregon State’s seventh-ranked Eric Jorgenson 9-4. Snyder, ranked second at 157 pounds, was one of five Huskers to win two matches on Saturday. 4? (tUfflVC