NU stung by Yellow Jackets, end tourney at 1-2
BY SAMUEL MCKEWON
As its pitchers went in the
Holiday Inn-Crowne Plaza/Rice
Invitational, so did the No. 5
Nebraska base
ball team - likely
right out of the
top 10.
Though rankings won’t be
released until today, it’s probable
that NU’s l-£ record over the
weekend, which included book
end losses to No. 12 Rice (16-2)
and No. 1 Georgia Tech (15-8),
won’t entice voters to keep the
Comhuskers near their preseason
position, especially after yielding
35 runs and 41 hits in three games,
nowhere close to the stellar 3.14
earned run average NU showed
foledi 15
j» -«-■— o
wemaaa o
off in 2000.
Still, Nebraska, which has
none of the warm weather prac
tice time Rice and Tech enjoyed,
finished 1-2 in this tournament
last season and still fared well.
And Coach Dave Van Horn
had praise for the defense and hit
ting output in the last two games -
- th GT loss and a 10-4 win over
Lamar on Saturday.
“We found out a lot about our
selves this weekend,” Van Horn
said. “I was pleased with the way
our position players played and
the character our team showed in
fighting back after Friday.
“We’re not ready to beat the
caliber of Rice and Georgia Tech
this early in the season. We will be
there soon.”
The weekend started sourly
for the Huskers, as Shane Komine
missed his scheduled start after
hurting his back in a game of ping
pong last Wednesday.
Sophomore Jamie Rodrigues
started instead and lasted only
one and one-third innings, giving
up three runs and five hits through
10 batters. Rice led 3-0 after two,
but NU scored one in the third
when Will Bolt reached second on
an error and Josh Hesse singled
him in. But Owls' pitcher Jon
Skaggs handcuffed Nebraska
most of the afternoon, striking out
10 batters in six and two-thirds
innings.
MSkaggs pitched well, but it
was not anything we hadn’t seen
before,” Nebraska Coach Van
Horn said Friday. “I was disap
pointed in our play tonight
because our pitchers kept falling
behind in the counts, and they
jammed our hitters all evening.”
Rice didn't blow the game
open until the eighth, when, hold
ing a 5-2 lead, Hunter Brown hit a
grand slam off of NU freshman
Jason Burch to increase the lead to
9-2. By the game’s merciful end,
the Huskers had given up seven
more.
Saturday in a 10-4 win over
Lamar, Nebraska wasted no time
in mounting a 4-0 lead in the first,
as Nebraska took advantage of
two balks from Cardinal starter
1
Christopher Norris. Van Horn
praised R.D. Spiehs, who threw six
innings and gave up four runs,
and freshman reliever Justin
Pekarek, who struck out four in
retiring nine consecutive batters
for the save.
Nebraska pounded out 20 hits,
led by third baseman Jeff Blevins,
who drove in five in his first colle
giate game, including a three-run
triple in the eighth after Lamar
had dosed the lead to 7-4.
"We came out and hit the ball
well today,” Blevins said. “Last
night, we were almost timid at the
plate, and we came out and got
some hits early.”
Sunday, Nebraska jumped out
to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the
fourth on the top-ranked Yellow
Jackets, who lost 4-3 to Rice on
Saturday night. But GT exploded
for 14 runs in the fifth and sixth
innings -10 in the fifth - to blow a
close game wide open. Komine
gave up five runs on five hits after
holding Tech without a run
through four innings.
The only strong performance
from the six pitchers NU used in
the game came from freshman
Mike Sillman, who gave up one
run through three innings of work,
well after the game had been
decided. Though NU had fallen
behind 14-3, it did rally for five
more runs to make the final score
look more respectable - a little bit,
anyway.
DN File Photo
kha Kelley says she was asked to leave
the Nebraska basketball team.
Kelley no
longera
Husker
BY LINCOLN ARNEAL
Sophomore guard Isha Kelley
said she was asked to leave the
Nebraska women's basketball
team by Coach Paul Sanderford
last week.
A press release distributed
before the NU’s game against
Colorado Saturday announced
Kelley was no longer on die team,
not elaborating on details.
Reached at home on Sunday
night, Kelley said that Sanderford
forced her out
"It wasn't my decision (to
leave)," Kelley said. “(Coach Paul
Sanderford) had his reasons.... I
am really disappointed.
"1 know when I am cared for,
when I am being liked, and I was
n't feeling that vibe.”
Sanderford, reached at home
Sunday, refused further com
ment. Neither gave specific rea
sons for die departure.
The Lincoln Southeast gradu
ate started seven games this sea
son, including the first three, aver
aging just more than 15 minutes
per game during the non-confer
ence schedule. That number
Please see KELLEY on 11
Steven Bender/DN
Nebraska forward Paige Sutton takes on a Colorado defender during Saturday's game at the Devaney Sports Center.The No. 19
ranked Buffaloes defeated the Huskers 81-65.
NU again beaten
by own formula
BY JOHN GASKINS
The shoe was on the other foot
Saturday; and it wasn’t a comfy fit
for the Nebraska women’s basket
ball team.
When Colorado visited the
Bob Devaney
Sports Center last
year, the veteran
led Huskers gave
the young and restless Buffaloes a
ball-handling clinic, sending CU's
guards into a turnover tailspin in a
13-point win.
Oh, how the tables have
turned. A year older and wiser, the
same Buffaloes were the ones
doing the schooling, beating the
young and restless Huskers 81-65
before a crowd of3,552 people.
While l^-ranked CU (17-5,
8-3) snapped its four-game losing
streak in Lincoln, NU (10-14,2-9)
lost its fifth-straight home contest
for the first time in school history
and finished its three-game
homestand with three losses to
top-20 opponents by an average
of 20 points.
Colorado 81
NenasKa u
"This year, since we’re so
young, we’re gaining a lot of expe
rience,” said NU sophomore
guard Shahidrah Roberts, who led
the Huskers with 14 points.
“Watching what Colorado has
done with their team, it’s positive
Like their 87-69 win over NU
in Boulder Jan. 24, four Buffaloes
scored in double figures led by
Sabrina Scott's 16 points. CU com
mitted 15 fewer turnovers than it
did in its loss to NU last year.
Junior guards Mandy
Nightengale and Jenny Roulier,
who combined for 18 of the
Buffaloes' 26 turnovers in that
loss, combined for 25 points and
just four turnovers while helping
to force 18 NU cough-ups.
Eleven of those turnovers
came from six of the Huskers’ 11
freshmen and sophomores.
“I can definitely understand
(Nebraska's) situation,” said
Colorado Coach Ceal Berry,
whose squad went 10-19 and 4-12
in the Big 12 last year.
“When you play a lot of young
players in the Big 12, it’s baptism
by fire. It’s not a pleasant experi
ence.”
Although the Huskers kept the
Buffs on the ropes for the first 25
minutes, experience outlasted
youth in the final 15. Down just
46-40 at halftime and 55-47 with
14 minutes left, NU failed to score
on its next six possessions as the
Buffs reeled off 11 straight points
to go up by 19.
u comminea iour iouis m
that near-three-minute stretch,
the most devastating one at the
13:27 mark when center Casey
Leonhardt picked up her fourth
foul. That sent NU’s leading scorer
- who finished with 13 points and
12 rebounds - to the bench.
“That was fairly big because it
took her out of the game,” Roberts
said. “She didn't have any leeway
to do what she wanted to do and
get the shots because she was
worried about fouling out and not
being able to finish the game.”
While the Huskers took
another blow to their egoes,
Coach Paul Sanderfoid, who suf
fered his 14th loss of the year, the
most in his 19-year career, took
the worst blow of the day from an
official who accidentally elbowed
him in the jaw while signaling a
time out in the second half.
As if things needed to get
worse for Nebraska.
"I took the charge, though; I
hung in there,” Sanderford said to
reporters’ laughter after the game.
"I didn’t say anything bad. I
smiled.
“I'm glad I can laugh. I want to
cry.”
Mixed weekend for Verinq
FROM STAFF REPORTS
It had been quite a while since
Nebraska’s top-ranked Brad Vering had his
hand raised in victory after a match with
Oklahoma State’s Marie Munoz. It also had
been almost two years since he had lost to
anybody but Munoz.
In a weekend that saw ninth-ranked
Nebraska (11-5) lose big to No. 2 Oklahoma
State and eighth-ranked Oklahoma, both of
those trends came to a halt
Vering, the defending national champi
on at 197-pounds, put a stop to his four
match losing streak to fourth-ranked
Munoz by earning a 5-4 double overtime
victory over his main rival. Oklahoma State,
however, won the dual 29-12, taking seven
of 10 matches on Saturday.
Vering then suffered a controversial 3-2
loss to Oklahoma’s No. 11 Waymon May in
NU’s 33-7 loss to the Sooners on Sunday.
Vering, down 3-2 in the third period,
had May on his back and was in position to
score three near fall points when the referee
stopped action with a dangerous hold call.
Not being able to score another point,
Vering eventually lost his first match to any
body other than Munoz since he lost to
West Virginia's Vertus Jones in the 184
pound third place match at the 1999 NCAA
Championships.
Against Munoz, Vering avenged a 3-2
loss at the Jan. 29 NWCA All-Star Dual.
Both earned an escape at the beginning
of the second and third periods respective
ly, but Vering took a 3-1 lead with a third
• ‘ IBS? zam;
period takedown. Munoz earned an escape
and then a takedown to take a 4-3 lead, but
Vering got out of it, tying the match at four
and sending it into what would be a score
less first overtime.
Vering got to choose which position he
wanted to start in at the beginning of the
second overtime because he scored the
match’s first offensive point. Vering chose
down and earned a match-winning escape
in the 30-second extra session.
Nebraska has now lost four of its last five
duals and five out of its last seven, although
they have seen five consecutive top-20
opponents since the National Duals on Jan.
20.
The weekend did have its bright spots
as Nebraska's 133-pounder Todd
Beckerman went 2-0 and, in what may have
been his biggest win of the year, pinned
Oklahoma State’s second-ranked Johnny
Thompson, a freshman, in 1:31.
Beckerman trailed 2-1 in the first period
when he put Thompson on his back, earn
ing the fall.
157-pounder Bryan Snyder, ranked sec
ond, also went undefeated in both duals. All
but claiming his spot as the No. 1 seed for
the conference tournament, Snyder scored
an 11-5 decision over OSU's 16th-ranked
Shane Roller and a 28-13 technical fall over
Oklahoma’s No. 19 Witt Durden.
The Huskers will close out their home
season on Friday against Iowa State at 4
p.m. in the track pavilion of the Devaney
Center between sessions of the Nebraska
state wrestling tournament.
Variety of combinations working for tennis
BY VINCE KUPPIG
The doubles teams led the unde
feated Nebraska women’s tennis
team, and NU swept through its
competition this weekend.
For the fourth consecutive
match, NU (5-0) did not allow its
opponent to get on the board by
defeating Indiana State, 7-0,
Saturday and Montana State, 7-0,
Sunday.
“I think (Sunday’s) match was far
and away the best team performance
that we’ve had all spring,” NU Coach
Scott Jacobson said. “Everyone came
to play. It was just a great team effort”
The effort started off with wins
from the three Huskers’ doubles teams, a
feat NU has accomplished at every dual
this season.
For the first time, Jacobson used dif
ferent combinations at No. 1 and 2 dou
bles on Sunday. Freshmen Leslie Harvey
and Elissa Kinard, who usually play
together at No. 2, had little trouble mov
ing up to No. 1 as they defeated MSU’s
duo, 8-3.
Juniors Katarina Balan and Amy
Frisch played together for the first time at
the No. 2 spot on Sunday, winning 8-3. At
No. 3, NU’s duo of Stacy Tomkiewicz and
Rebecca Harvey, also playing together
for the first time, shut out the opponents,
8-0.
“We mixed a few doubles combina
tions,” Jacobson said. “Both (No. 1 and
A
N(J freshman
Rebecca Harvey
returns a serve
against Indiana
State on
Saturday.
Harvey's victory
helped the
undefeated
Huskersbeat
Indiana State
7-0.
No. 2) really responded. (Rebecca and
Stacy) played awesome together.
“It seems like the kids are influenced
positively by the changes that we make.
It’s a really healthy situation to have a
team that is really comfortable playing
with different people.”
Playing in her third consecutive
match at No. 1 singles, Leslie Harvey
once again demolished her opponent,
defeating MSU’s Stacy Voelker, 6-2,6-2.
In her five matches this spring, Harvey
has yet to give up more than two games
in a set
In men's tennis action, NU dropped a
close match to eT^-ranked Rice, 4-3, on
Saturday after winning its first two
matches this weekend in Houston
against Lamar, 6-0, and the University of
Derek Lippincott/DN
Texas-San Antonio, 6-1,
on Friday.
Against Rice, NU started off down a
point, losing its three doubles matches,
and could never catch up. The Huskers
picked up wins at No. 2,3, and 5 singles
but lost two tough three-setters.
Junior Lance Mills improved his
record to 4-0 at No. 2 singles while Big 12
Preseason All-Conference selection
Jorge Abos Sanchez dropped to 2-2 on
the year at the No. 1 spot
The NU men and women each
return to action with three matches next
weekend. The women are at home on
Friday and Saturday, while the men trav
el to Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday and
Sunday.