HUSKER LADY ATHLETES

   ARE NUMBER ONE.

I don’t know where the term, distaff side, came into practice, but the athletic Husker Ladies are far from the distaff side of Nebraska Athletics. Lets review where they all stand with regards to accomplishments in their first year of the Big Ten Conference.

Soccer: The Nebraska soccer team saw its 2011 season come to a close with a 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Gophers. Sophomore Stacy Bartels tied a career high with two goals to lead the Huskers, while junior Jordan Jackson also added a goal for NU.

Nebraska juniors Morgan Marlborough and Jordan Jackson each earned All-Big Ten honors. Marlborough was a first-team pick at forward, while Jackson was a second-team selection at midfielder. Sophomore Stacy Bartels was also honored as Nebraska’s nominee for the Big Ten Soccer Sportsmanship Award.

Marlborough ranked second in the Big Ten this season in both points (2.56) and goals (2.56) per game, while also ranking in the top ten in assists with 0.33 per game.

Nebraska junior defender Ari Romero has been named to the Mexican National Team’s Under-20 team that will compete at the upcoming CONCACAF Championships in Panama City, Panama. This will be Romero’s second CONCACAF event of 2012, as the she was a member of the Mexican Senior National team that completed in January at the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Vancouver, British Columbia. Romero is one of five under-20 players that was named to both rosters.

Women Track and Field: The Nebraska women’s track and field team completed the 2012 Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships in historic fashion with a 114.50-106 win over defending champion Ohio State. The 2012 Championship makes the Huskers back-to-back indoor conference champions as they captured the Big 12 Indoor Conference Championship in 2011.

The win also adds to the historic 31-year resume of Head Coach Gary Pepin, who now holds 68 conference titles dating back to his first Big Eight win at the 1981 indoor meet.

Following the women’s conference win, Coach Pepin was acknowledged as B1G coach of the year. Additionally, the Huskers saw three female student-athletes earn All-Big Ten first-team nods as Breanna Bussel, Mara Griva and Ashley Miller received accolades.

Volleyball: The No. 2 Nebraska volleyball team (24-3, 17-2) clinched the first Big Ten Conference title in school history with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-19) sweep of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Nebraska has now captured 32 conference titles overall.

“This is not an easy conference to win,” head Coach John Cook said. “We did it while dealing with a lot of things, but through the leadership of our captains, we found a way to come together and hang tough. We had to outlast all these other teams, a new coaching staff and had some big-time players to replace.”

The Nebraska volleyball team saw its season end shorter than it has in 18 seasons, while Kansas State advanced as far as it ever has in the NCAA Tournament, as the unseeded Wildcats upset the second-seeded Huskers, 3-2.

The Nebraska volleyball team had four players earn all-region honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). Junior Gina Mancuso was named to the 14-member Mideast Region first-team, while sophomore Morgan Broekhuis, junior Lauren Cook and junior Hannah Werth were named honorable mention. Mancuso, who was named a unanimous First-Team All-Big Ten pick, has been key for the Husker offense and defense in 2011.

Gymnastics: With youth in the lead, Coach Ken Kendig scheduled a match against the No.1 squad, the Florida Gators. The results for the No. 6^thranked Husker squad was three of the four event titles and had two gymnasts tie for first place in the all-around in its196.95-196.825 loss to the No.1 Florida Gators at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in front of 2,472 fans.

Jessie DeZiel and Emily Wong both won the all-around with scores of 39.45, while also tying for the floor title. Janelle Giblin and Lora Evenstad posted 9.925s on bars to capture the event title and Jamie Schleppenbach and Jessie DeZiel won the vault title with a pair of 9.90s. The Huskers outscored the Gators on the vault, bars and floor as a team.

“It’s kind of bittersweet obviously, not coming out on top,” Head Coach Dan Kendig said. “We never counted a major mistake today, for starters. We left a lot of tenths out on the floor, but we never counted a major mistake.”

True freshman gymnast Jessie DeZiel was awarded with the Big Ten Freshman of the Week award on Monday, a day after tying for first place in the all-around in Nebraska’s loss to No. 1 Florida. The Rogers, Minn., native has now won seven Big Ten Freshman of the Week awards and nine individual conference honors after capturing Gymnast of the Week on Jan. 16 and Feb. 20.

Following that loss Sophomore Jamie Schleppenbach won two event titles and took home the all-around crown while leading the No. 6 Nebraska women’s gymnastics team to victory over the No. 7 Utah Utes, 197.600-197.450, in Salt Lake City Utah. The Huskers improved their overall record 11-2 on the year and finished the regular season with an undefeated away meet record for the first time in school history.

Following the big Utah win, Jamie Schleppenback and Jessie DeZiel swept both weekly conference awards for the big Ten. Jamie was named Big Ten Gymnast of the week for the first time and Jessie won her eighth Freshman of the Week award. That was the second time the Huskers have won both weekly titles.

Softball: The Huskers were scheduled to appear in Sunday’s championship game, but that contest has been cancelled due to the threat of inclement weather. Nebraska will take a 13-12 overall record heading into today’s  home opener with South Dakota.

Now that might not be considered as a big won-loss record, but consider that the Lady Huskers have faced nine higher racked teams.

By the way today’s game with South Dakota starts at 3:PM and again will be on audio on Huskers.com. It’s a double header with the second game 30 minutes later.

Ashley Hagemann posted another impressive pitching performance as the Nebraska softball team held on for a 4-2 win over Loyola-Chicago on Saturday afternoon to close out a 3-1, weather-shortened weekend at the Mizuno Classic.

Women’s Golf: OK, golf is not considered a big sport in Nebraska, I mean what with the corn fields, etc. but Head Coach Robin Krapfl has added a number of outstanding competitors. While the team may not have competed in a team effort, individuals have done very well.

Katelyn Wright  finished off the best tournament of her collegiate career with a career-best 71 in the final round to lead the Nebraska women’s golf team at the Westbrook Invitational in Peoria, Ariz. Wright’s career-best round allowed her to finish with a career-best tournament score of 218 (73-74-71) and close in 15th place. Wright shattered her previous career-best 54-hole tournament score, which came with a 228 at the 2010 Alamo Invitational.

Earlier, Madeleine Sheils fired an even-par-72 in the final round to finish in eighth place individually at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic at the Rio Mar Country Club. Sheils’ 72 marked the third-best round of the day by any golfer in the 84-player field and allowed her to finish with a four-over-par, 54-hole total of 220. The senior from Boise, Idaho, finished seven strokes back of individual medalist Marta Silva Zamora from Georgia, who won the title with a three-round total of 213.

The Husker Ladies will be in Tucson, more specifically, the Mountain View Golf Course at SaddleBrooke starting March 23-24^th/ They would love nothing more than to see a good number of Husker fans cheering them on. Don’t forget this date. Its time to bring out those Big Red shirts, hats, and whatever and lets cheer them on.

Tennis: A recent heading on a Huskers.com post was “Nebraska Welcomes Ranked Opponents:. But then they don’t treat them very nice. The recently the No. 32 ranked Huskers welcomed No. 58 Iowa Hawkeyes and the No. 30 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes.

They won both matches.

Back in January, the ladies took on No.24^th Arkansas and No. 12 Northwestern. They split these but the loss to Northwestern was a very tight 3-4 loss. Another ranking match was against Wyoming which they also won. All total they have 4 wins against ranked teams in their 14-1 record for the year and 1-1 in Big Ten play.

Senior Madeleine Geibert is closing in on a school record for career combined wins, that includes singles and doubles. The record is 172 and she is now in second place with 164 wins and there are just five matches left.

Head Coach Scott Jacobson is looking for important wins in the next matches The two wins over Iowa and Tulsa raised his number of wins to 297 and he is getting close to the 300 career victories. Now the Huskers are entering into B1G play with ten matches in line.

Basketball: Four games in four days. The last one going two overtimes. They just fell a little short but they did record a Big Ten Tournament runner-up and a slot in the 2012 NCAA tournament where they will play their old rival, Kansas in the first round play in Little Rock Arkansas.

“I’m excited for our players and our program,” Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said during the team’s selection show watch party at the Hendricks Training Complex. “We’re excited to be going to Little Rock, which is a drivable distance for our fans. We obviously know the Kansas program very well and have great respect for them and the Big 12 Conference. We know it will be a great challenge, but we’re looking forward to being back in the tournament.”

Nebraska, in its first year in the Big Ten, was one of a conference-record seven teams to earn bids in the NCAA Tournament, while Kansas was one of seven Big 12 schools to claim spots in the 64-team field.

At the beginning of the season, it was hoped that the “Connie Clan” go do well, but no one ever expected the finish that ended Nebraska’s venture into the Big Ten with a 24-8 record.

Sophomore Jordan Hooper became Nebraska’s first first-team All-Big Ten award winner in women’s basketball when she was named to the five-player all-conference team by both the coaches and media.

Hooper was joined on the all-conference teams by Husker teammates Lindsey Moore (2nd), Emily Cady (HM, All-Freshman) and Kaitlyn Burke (Sportsmanship). While all of the honors are Nebraska’s first conference honors in the Big Ten, they mark the ninth consecutive season that the Huskers have claimed multiple all-conference awards under Coach Connie Yori.

Nebraska March Madness action starts Sunday at 5:30 PM. As of this time there is no scheduled coverage by B1G or on other TV coverage. But there is one way to tune in and that is the radio broadcast on Huskers.Com.

Yes, I would say that Nebraska has a bunch of high achievement oriented lady athletes.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

It Was A Long Hard Row…

But it was certainly worth it. They came into a new league noted for its strong female style of basketball. They entered with one playing senior and two juniors, a couple of sophs and all total, 6 freshman, two of whom were red shirts.

I mean, what could you expect with this lack of experience. Senior Kaitlyn Burke and Junior Lindsey Moore had played on the Big 12 Championship team of two years ago. Now they were charged with leading a gang of yesterday high school players. The only other experienced players were senior Harleen Sidhu and sophomore Adrianna Maurer, both were out for the season due to injuries. But there was also sophomore Jordan Hooper and Junior Meghin Williams.

After the game Coach Yori was asked, “I know this is moments after this game, but now that you’ve been through this Big Ten one season, just what comes to mind about the league, and maybe what your program — what step it has to take for year two in this league?”

“Well, first of all, I’m really proud of our kids because I’m pretty certain if they would have picked 1 through 12, you know, if they had a preseason poll to pick 1 through 12, we probably would have been picked 10, 11, or 12. And so for us to be in the championship game, to go into overtime, I think that says a lot about the character of our kids and the toughness that we have.”

“We gotta get stronger. That’s one of the things that we gotta do. We gotta get in the weight room. But we’re young. When I watch other teams in warm-ups, I’m like, whoa, they’re physically stronger than we are.”

“So that doesn’t mean we can’t — but that’s also part of the youth. When you’re not very old you haven’t been in the weight room so much. Those are areas we can improve.”

If you had attended any practice session what would you have seen at the start? Defense. Defense in the style of footwork, in pressure of forcing an opponent to take chances. That is what paid off for the Huskers. Defensively they were extra tough. All year long. What hurt at times was what Coach Yori said, “You live by the three and you die by the three.”

I totally fell in love with Nebraska Women’s basketball game this year. Yea, there were errors made due to lack of experience. Dribbling in with the ball high, just waiting to be picked off. Momentary lapses in defense to allow an easy lay up. But these will be improved with playing experience.

The game against Purdue for the Championship. If you remember the last meeting the two went at it for three overtimes. Today it was about the same: two overtimes as the two teams split their matches, although Purdue won the big one, 74-70. Their 8^h Big Ten Title.

Nebraska slipped to 24-8 overall after falling just short of becoming the first Big Ten team in history to win four games on the way to a conference championship. Purdue improved to 24-8 overall by going 3-0 in its home state for its Big Ten-leading eighth all-time tournament title.

Lindsey Moore and Jordan Hooper, who combined for 53 points in the first meeting between the two teams, pumped in a combined 52 points in the second showdown. Moore led the Huskers with 27 points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals while playing the full 50 minutes to earn a spot on the all-tournament team.

Hooper added her third consecutive double-double and 14th of the season with 25 points and 10 boards to join Moore on the five-player Big Ten All-Tournament squad. Freshman Emily Cady added seven points, while matching her career high with 12 rebounds. Senior guard Kaitlyn Burke added seven points for the Huskers.

Now its wait time for the assignment of NCAA Championship pairings that will be tonight.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

The Tornado Touched Down.

People who have lived in Nebraska have probably experienced a tornado. I know my family has.

Before the tornado hits there is a silent time, Absolute calm. And then, it hits.

Just maybe the Ohio State Buckeyes didn’t recognize that calm until it crashed on them in the semifinal game between Nebraska and Ohio State.

Quickly the Buckeyes took a 10 to 3 lead then expanded it to 21-8. All is calm and quiet. OSU has control and everything is just right.

Then the Nebraska Tornado hit. Freshman Brandi Jeffery was the sign of the tornado, hitting for three. That was followed by Lindsey Moore with two, Katlyn Burke for two and so it went until the tornado approached its peak going 16 – 2 to take a 27-26 lead. But it wasn’t over yet. At the end of the half it was Nebraska 36 and the three time consecutive Big Ten Champion 30.

Into the second half, quickly OSU scored two on a fowl but then the “Connie Clan” rolled off another unanswered 12 points to go up 48-32. The tornado wouldn’t subside. It just kept hanging around. The debris was on the streets, err court. Prahalis, the 4 time OSU All Big Ten selection was called for a personal fowl in her frustrations. Later on she laid on the floor in frustration , after committing a fowl, for at least 20 seconds.

Yes the “Connie Clan” style of defense had again subjected the opponents to a frustrating game.

It didn’t start that way with the Huskers hitting only 2 of their first 20 attempts. But the freshman Brand Jeffery, a true freshman from Louisiana lit the fire with a three pointer.

But then Moore, Burke, Hooper, Jeffery, Hoop, Cady and Burke followed with 2’s and 3’s to put Nebraska back in the game and set the pace for their semifinal win in stopping the Ohio State Buckeyes from competing for their 4^th straight Big Ten Title.

Tomorrow the Huskers will face Perdue who defeated No. 1 seeded Penn State with a last second lay-up, 68-66. Earlier this year, the Huskers beat the Boilermakers in a triple overtime, For the record, Perdue has won more Big Ten conferences than any other team. This is a new venture for Nebraska as they have never won a conference championship tournament game.in a preseason event.

 Roger

The Red Clad Coot In The Desert

Two Down, Two More To Go

Yesterday, after their win over Northwestern, Coach Connie Yori was asked, “You have beaten the Hawkeyes twice this year. Do you think you can make it three in a row?”

“Well when you’ve beaten them twice, its going to be real hard to beat them again. They have been playing great basketball since that last game so I am sure they are going to come out with all guns firing.?’ she replied.

How true she was. While the Huskers took an early 17-8 lead, Iowa was firing asway as they finally took the lead at 23-21. They built the lead to 36-28 and then Rebecca Woodberry and Lindsey Moore hit a two and a three to close the gap to 36-33 at half time.

Jordon Hooper, , the All Conference Forward, picked up two fouls in the first two minutes of the game and sat out the rest of the first half.

Iowa stretched their lead to 48-40 quickly at the start. Then with Hooper back in the game, she and Moore took over for Nebraska. Still trailing by five, Moore hit two 3 pointers to take the lead 49-48. Hooper then scored the next 5 points to take the lead with Cady adding two as the Huskers went up by four.

From that point on it was Moore and Hooper, or Hooper and Moore as they added the next 16 points for Nebraska as they closed out the Iowa Hawkeyes 80-68.

Hooper finished with 15 points, 13 of them in the second half while Moore added 20 of her 25 points in the second half to go along with her 6 assists and 5 steals. Freshman Emily Cady scored 13 and picked up 11 rebounds.

Tomorrow the “Connie Clan” will take on No. 1 seeded Ohio State in the semifinals. Now there has been some pretty high scoring by the Huskers as they have scored 88 and 80 in their first two games. Hopefully this will continue against the Buckeyes who they beat by 14 points a little over a week ago.

Again it was the defense of the Huskers which caused problems for Iowa. In addition, it was the constant sending in fresh players that gave the Huskers the physical edge throughout the game.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

One Down, Three More To Go

Nebraska’s All Conference forward, Jordon Hooper drilled a three pointer in the first minute of the game. Northwestern came right back and hit their 3 and the game was tied.

And that’s the last time it was tied.

From there on it was Nebraska leading: 10-7, 17-9, 27-10, 34-10, and after 9 minutes the Cats finally scored to make it 41-12, and then it was halftime with the Huskers up 54-25.

“Connie’s Clan” went to Indianapolis, the site of the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament, with just one thought in mind. “They were going to take it one game at a time and we are going to win, win, win and win.”

With their 88-56 win Nebraska moved on to face next door neighbor Iowa in the second round. Iowa was one of four seeded teams to draw a bye so they will be fresh but Coach Yori managed her team well as she cut the playing time for all starters and used her freshman bench bunch and everyone had lots of playing time. At more than one time in the second half the five Husker players were all freshmen and they performed like seasoned players.

In post game comments Jordon said the team came in with a mind set of playing the type of basketball they are capable of.. There was no doubt about that as again, the Husker defense was very efficient and forced Northwestern to commit 14 turnovers in the first half as they raced to their 29 point lead at half time. The Wildcats ended with 24 turnovers which the Huskers turned into 24 points.

Five Huskers would up in double digit scoring with Jordan notching 18, Moore 14, Woodberry 12, Sample and Simon 10 each. All total, the bench produced 39 points and 7 of the 11 steals.

Brandi Jeffery, the 5’7” freshman guard, a high scorer in high school, only connected for 5 points but on defense as well as offense, she was all over the place with 3 steals and 3 assists.

Remember, all games are on the Big Ten Network. So if you wont be home tomorrow, make sure you tape it.

Jordon Hooper in todays game became the first sophomore player in school history to top the 1000 point level.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

         From the Mound to the Plate.                  

  From the Tee to the Hole.

                                    These events are coming on strong.

Men’s Baseball:

At Corpus Christi, TX, Nebraska and New Head Coach Darin Erstad picked up their first win of the season. Sophomore pitcher Zach Hirsch got his first win as the Huskers won 5-2 over the Utah Utes in the opener of this tournament.

In the second round they again played the Utes and won 15-0 on Saturday and then pounded out a 7-1 win over host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. They finished off the four game meet with a Sunday win over UNLV 8-7.

At the plate, Richard Stock 9-20, Richard Sanguinetti 7-12, and Chad Christianson 6-18 lead the offense and the group accounted for 10 RBIs with Christianson accounting for 6 of them.

Women’ Softball: A slow start cost the 22nd-ranked Nebraska softball team a chance at an upset on Friday, as a first-inning grand slam powered 19th-ranked Oregon to a 4-2 victory at the Cathedral City Classic.

On Saturday, Cal Poly jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the second inning and scored 11 runs over the first three frames, leading by as many as 10 runs. Cal Poly was the only unranked team in the field of 6. After losing the first two games, the Huskers took on old rival Missouri an 11^th ranked team and set them down 6-4. On Sunday 8^th ranked Texas shut the Huskers our 3-0 and in the second game, 5^th ranked Washington nosed out the Big Red 6-3.

The Huskers now stand 9-7 after going 1-4 in this tournament but they have faced a number of rated teams.

Ashley Guile and Taylor Edwards pace the team with identical .426 batting averages and a combined 33 RBI’s and a total of 32 runs they have scored. Tatum Edwards, Taylors twin sister, ties Guile with RBIs at 18 and she also leads in home runs with 3.

Women’s Basketball: Last week I questioned if the women’s basketball may have peaked to early. They lost 3 out of the last 4. Well they made a dummy out of me when they took on Ohio State on Seniors day. Actually there were only two seniors on the squad.

Kaitlyn Burke is an advertising and business administration major at Nebraska and owns a 3.541 GPA. She was a first-team academic All-Big 12 pick in 2009 and 2011, and a seven-time member of the Big 12 Honor Roll.

The second Senior, Harleen Sidhu has bee plagued with injuries this season and has seen little playing time. A nutrition science major at Nebraska, Sidhu carries a 3.213 grade-point average and was a first-team academic All-Big 12 selection as a junior in 2011. She was also a four-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

Ok back to the Husker match up against # 7 Ohio State. It was Number 23 Nebraska against #8 Ohio State in the Husker’s home finale. If there was a better defensive game played by the Huskers, well clue me in.

This game was a projection as to what will be in the next three years. Emily Cady’s 24-point performance was just part of a huge day by all the Husker freshmen. The other freshman starter, Hailie Sample plays a very tough defense and added 5 points and 4 rebounds.

Playing on Senior Day for teammates Kaitlyn Burke and Harleen Sidhu, the NU freshmen combined for a whopping 49 points, 18 rebounds and five assists.

Brandi Jeffery, a 5-7 freshman guard from Vacherie, La., made huge plays for the Huskers at both ends in both halves off the bench. Jeffery finished with eight points and a career-high six rebounds, while adding three assists and a steal in 15 minutes.

Rebecca Woodberry, a 5-9 redshirt freshman from Phoenix, Ariz., matched Jeffery’s numbers with eight points and six rebounds while adding an assist and a steal of her own in 22 minutes off the bench.

Tear’a Laudermill, a 5-9 freshman guard from Riverside, Calif., pitched in four points and an assist in 10 minutes while providing pesky defense on the Buckeyes’ talented backcourt.

Sophomore forward Jordan Hooper, the Big Ten’s No. 3 scorer entering the game, was held to a season-low seven points but grabbed nine rebounds for the Huskers. Junior point guard Lindsey Moore, the Big Ten’s No. 8 scorer added nine points, two assists and two steals to help the Huskers.

While this was a let down, the underclass team hounded the Buckeyes into countless errors and exhibits of frustration as they dominated in a 71-57 victory.

But the game was decided by the alternate weapons on the two teams, and the Huskers dominated. NU’s bench outscored Ohio State’s, 22-9 thanks to the Husker freshmen. I do believe the returning players on this team will wreck havoc in the Big Ten ranks over the next three years, and it might start in the Conference Championships next week.

One word of advice: Tune into the Big Ten Network for the conference championships this next week.

Just announced late yesterday.

Sophomore Jordan Hooper became Nebraska’s first first-team All-Big Ten award winner in women’s basketball when she was named to the five-player all-conference team by both the coaches and media on Monday.

Hooper was joined on the all-conference teams by Husker teammates Lindsey Moore (2nd), Emily Cady (HM, All-Freshman) and Kaitlyn Burke (Sportsmanship). While all of the honors are Nebraska’s first conference honors in the Big Ten, they mark the ninth consecutive season that the Huskers have claimed multiple all-conference awards under Coach Connie Yori.

Men’s Basketball: Short of players, damaged by injuries, the Huskers continue to plow through a not to exciting season. The sixth-ranked Spartans used a 23-2 second-half run to put away a short-handed Nebraska squad, 62-34, Saturday night in East Lansing.

Injuries have plagued this team as just before half time Bo Spenser, the teams highest scorer, went out with an ankle injury and didn’t return for the remainder of the game.

Brandon Ubel led Nebraska with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting, while no other Husker had more than six points.

The Huskers struggled from the floor in the first half, hitting 26.9 percent from the floor, but held the Spartans in check offensively and trailed only 23-15 at the break.

Rifle: The Nebraska rifle team shot 2,345 in air rifle on Sunday to go along with Saturday’s 2,313 small-bore score, which earned third place for the Huskers at the GARC Championships. Nebraska shot a combined score of 4,658, which was a season high.

“I am so pleased with how the team did,” Head Coach Morgan Hicks said. “After we didn’t qualify for NCAA and knew we had had a rough two matches in Alaska, the team was ready for redemption. We knew we were capable of shooting these scores. We finally were able to put it together all on the same day. What a way to end the season!”

Kelsey Hansen turned in the second-best Husker air rifle score with her 587 on Sunday. Sunny Russell added a 584 to the Husker total, while Sheena Mahloch and Katelyn Woltersdorf shot 581 and 580, respectively. Janine Dutton led the Huskers in air rifle on Sunday, shooting 593 and finishing third overall. Her score was a season high for the junior.

Golf: Scott Willman fired a final-round 69 on Sunday to lead the Nebraska men’s golf team at the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate. The Huskers, as a team, compiled 910 strokes over three rounds and finished 21^st. UNLV won the team competition by seven strokes over Texas Tech, posting 844 at The Classic Club in California..

Willman’s 3-under-par 69 in the final round was joined by his second-round 76, contributing to his three-round total of 217. The senior paced his way to an even-par 72 in the first round and tied for 27^th for the tournament. Manuel Lavin turned in the second-best Husker performance, tying for 65^th. Lavin carded rounds of 75 and 77 on Sunday for a 54-hole total of 224. Like Willman, Lavin shot 72 in Saturday’s opening round.

The women’s team was in Peoria, AZ and in their final round moved way up the ladder in the Westbrook Spring Invitational. The Big Ten was well represented with Illinois taking first and Iowa and Indiana tied for 5^th while Nebraska was 7^th along with Wisconsin at 8^th.

Katelyn Wright, a sophomore, had one of her best tournaments finishing 15^th in individual play at 218. Senior Madeline Shields and true freshman Shelby Martinek added a pair of 221 scores. Another soph, Stephie Neisen added a 225 and Senior Kayla Knopik  had 228. Shelby probably knows that course very well as she is from Tempe.

The Lady Huskers will be in Tucson, more specifically in Saddlebrooke March 23-25 for the Mountain View Invitational. As we have for the past eight years, the players and coaching staff will be housed by resident Husker fans. Plan on coming out on these dates as it is a tradition with this tournament to have a large number of fans following all the teams. It is the one tournament on the collegiate list that garners the largest number of fans that could be a record.

Women’s Gymnastics: The No. 9 Nebraska women’s gymnastics team posted the ninth-highest away meet score in school history and captured three event titles in its 197.000-196.300 upset of the No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks. The Huskers improved to 10-1 on the season and have now defeated two top-10 opponents on the road.

And today it was announced, after the road upset over the then-No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks, the Nebraska women’s gymnastics team jumped three spots to No. 6 in the latest GymInfo national women’s gymnastics rankings. The Huskers are the only Big Ten squad in the top 10 and sport a regional qualifying score of 196.585.

Junior Janelle Giblin won the vault title for the fifth time this season and second time in a row with a 9.95, while Giblin, Lora Evenstand and Emily Wong all tied for the bars title. Wong also won the beam title with a 9.90. and then finished  second in the all-around with a career high 39.50, while DeZiel finished in third with a 39.225.

“This is probably the most proud I’ve been of this team all season,” Head Coach Dan Kendig said after the meet. “We came into, I’m not going to say a hostile environment, but they had a great crowd. They’re (Arkansas) a great team and we were in a battle today. It was back-and-forth.”

With a slim 147.725-147.275 lead heading into the Huskers’ final event on beam, NU posted three career high scores to hold off the Razorbacks. True freshman Jennifer Lauer led the event off with a career best 9.875. After a fall from Brittany Skinner in the second routine, NU reeled off four routines in row which totaled higher than 9.80 to lead them to victory. Giblin and Jamie Schleppenbach both tied their career highs with 9.85s, while Wong posted a 9.90 and DeZiel scored a 9.80.

The Huskers will return to action on Sunday, March 4, when they return to the Devaney Center a home meet against the No.1 Florida Gators. Hey, if you want to beat the best, you play with the best.

After reclaiming the lead on the vault, NU was able hold onto the lead after a pair of clutch performances in its last two routines from Jessie DeZiel and Evenstad on floor. Evenstad posted a team-high 9.90 in the last routine, after DeZiel scored a 9.875. Wong put up a 9.85, while Schleppenbach and Skinner posted scores of 9.775 and 9.80, respectively, to begin the Husker event.

You know that gymnastics, men or women, is on the Big Ten network. It is a fascinating sport and I do love to watch all the match up, no matter who the team. It is poise, it is beauty, it is accomplishment and it is heartbreaking. I love it. So tune in.

University of Nebraska Facilities: the previous article of winning the women’s Big Ten Indoor Championship also made the comment that the Devaney Center is one of the best in the world.

Here is the proof.

Now in its 33rd season, the Bob Devaney Sports Center has cemented its reputation as one of the finest facilities in the world. Named after longtime NU Athletic Director and football coach, the Devaney Center boasts an impressive array of training, competitive, and spectator amenities, highlighted by a hydraulic-banked track.

One of four hydraulic-banked tracks in the nation and one of eight in the world, NU’s 200-meter track has the largest radius (67 feet) of any indoor-banked track in the world. The banks and all the running surfaces rest on a sleeper system, which is made of both steel (banks) and wood (straightaways) frames.

The Devaney Sports Center has played host to a number of the country’s premiere track and field events, having hosted the final Big Eight Indoor Championships in 1996 and the first-ever Big 12 meet in 1997. Nebraska has played host to the Big 12 Indoor Championships eight times in 12 years, including six straight championships from 2001 to 2006 and most recently in 2008. The list continues with Nebraska hosting the first Big Ten Combined Men and Women’s Championship.

For those of you more construction interested:

Manufactured in Gallo d’ Alba, Italy, the track traveled over 6,000 miles to Lincoln.

Engineers can trouble shoot and calibrate the track from Italy using its high-tech control system.

 Seventy-thousand square feet of rubber flooring was used by Mondo to cover the floor of the facility.

 Active in the rubber flooring industry for 50 years, Mondo has been the official track supplier of the last seven Olympic Games.

 With the help of a double-layer rubber construction, more than 110 world records have been established on Mondo surfaces.

 The Huskers celebrated the track’s installation by winning both the men’s and women’s Big 12 Indoor Championships in 2001.

Randy York = N Sider

Randy has been a long time writer for Nebraska Sports. He is featured on the web site Huskers.com. Probably the most interesting thing to me is his concentration, not on game results, but on the behind the scenes of individuals, coaches, achievement of all and the back ground of players.

If your not tuned into his many articles, I might suggest your missing out on a lot of the Husker life style of its athletes. When your on a Husker page, just tool down to the bottom and you will see a list of his articles and also go to the archieve. It is great reading.

The only one I can compare him to is our own Gary Anderson who occasionally blesses us with one of his articles. Hey Gary, that is an invite good buddy.

We are getting near the close of some sports, Men and Women’s Basketball, Wrestling, Gymnastics and conference championships and the opening of other sports now underway, Softball and Baseball, Golf and Outdoor track, and tennis continues. Husker Huddle will keep you informed on all activities.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

It’s was the first combined Men and Women Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships and it was at the University of Nebraska.

So what do the hosts do on the first day of the meet? They walk off with four individual titles. And what do they do the second day? They add one more title but more important they capture a conference championship for the women’s team while the men finished in third place.

The Huskers were hosting the first combined men’s and women’s indoor championships and the first Big Ten Championship at NU, and were competing for the conference title against some of the nation’s toughest competition. Ohio State was the defending Big Ten indoor champion on the women’s side, while Minnesota took the men’s title in 2011. The Husker women captured Nebraska’s 103rd conference title in 2011, while the men last earned an indoor conference crown in 2007.

While the men led for a majority of the meet, they could not overcome late-meet surges from Indiana and Minnesota. The Hoosiers took the men’s title with a total of 104 points, while defending-champion Minnesota was second with 100 points. The Husker men finished third with 99 points.

On Friday, the first day of events, the Huskers saw Ashley Miller take home the women’s 3,000 meters crown, then Breanna Bussel notched the women’s pole vault title, while Luke Pinkelman earned the shot put title and Chris Phipps come away with the long jump crown.

Ashley Miller rewrote the Husker record books on Friday en route to winning the 2012 Big Ten 3,000 meters. Miller posted a personal-best time of 9:17.28 to edge out the first-place finish. With the time, Miller now sits in first among top 3,000 meter performances at Nebraska.

Following a stellar outing on Friday, Ashley finished second in the women’s mile Saturday afternoon, just missing claiming her second Big Ten title of the weekend. Miller recorded a time of 4:40.53 en route to her runner-up finish

Miller came back in the 5,000 meters to etch her name yet again into the Husker record books as she posted a personal-best time of 16:22.70 for second-place. Her time ranks second all-time in the Husker records. With the performance, Miller helped the Husker women advance their lead in the team race while also contributing to what became an impressive weekend for the senior from Tipton, Iowa.

“It’s pretty exciting, I never expected to win,” Breanna Bussel said. “Coming into today I actually thought it was a possibility, which was the first time that has ever happened. It was just really exciting that it actually happened. I think last week when I jumped on Friday I actually finally got things together. I hit a personal best last week and hit 13-6, so I knew 13-10 was possible and that was what I was shooting for. I just came in knowing I could do it and it was pretty easy.”

Breanna’s previous high was 12-10 so this was a memorable event for the Senior Psychology major.

Luke Pinkelman added Big Ten Champion to his list of accomplishments, taking top honors in the shot put. With a throw of 63-9, Pinkelman became a back-to-back conference champion as he was the Big 12 champion in 2011. With the win, Pinkelman remains undefeated on the season.

Chris Phillips earned the Big Ten title in the long jump, taking down his competition with a leap of 25-4 ½. The six-time All-American took home his first indoor conference title. Patrick Raedler finished second behind Phipps, posting a jump of 25-1 1/4 while Seth Wiedel came in fourth with a mark of 24-7. This gave the Huskers a 1, 2 and 4 finish in this event. 

In the men’s triple jump, Chris Phipps used a jump of 51-0 1/4 to finish in third-place. Patrick Raedler took fourth with a leap of 51-0 (15.54).

Ricco Hall led the Husker sprinters on the day, starting out competition by narrowly missing out on his first Big Ten title in the 400 meters. Hall notched a personal-best time of 46.53 to take first in his section, however Minnesota’s Harun Abda answered with a time of 46.51 in his section to notch the event title.

Mara Griva was the Nebraska’s lone Big Ten champion on the second day, securing the title in the women’s triple jump. Griva notched a season-best jump of 42-9 1/2 to take top honors and earn her second indoor conference triple jump title.

The win also adds to the historic 31-year resume of Head Coach Gary Pepin, who now holds 68 conference titles dating back to his first Big Eight win at the 1981 indoor meet. Coach Pepin is rated as one of the leading coaches in the nation and has developed many outstanding competitors.

With three events remaining in the heptathlon, Bjorn Barrefors entered the day in fourth place. Barrefors used a personal best performance in the pole vault to guide him to a second-place finish in the heptathlon with a total of 5,792.

Now these were not the only Nebraska stars. Coach Pepin has a team of stars as a number of other athletes finished with high rankings, season best times and overall tremendous sportsmanship.

It was indeed an honor for the Huskers to host this first time combined championship. In selecting Lincoln as the site, a number of Big Ten coaches testified that the Devaney Center was one of the most outstanding site in the country.

Go Big Red

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

Did The Women’s  Team Peak To Soon In Conference Play?

Earlier they won the first four conference basketball games then dropped two but came back and won the next four to go 8-2. But recently they have dropped four out of the last five games to go 9-6 and are now in 6^th place.

Yes they have run into some hot scoring teams while they themselves have had trouble getting the ball through the hoop. In their loss to Michigan State the Huskers only hit 29% for the first half compared to MSU’s 62.1% and found themselves trailing 43-21.  Of MSU’s first half points 21 came from three pointers. Although they did outscore the Spartans in the second half, 31-30, it wasn’t enough as they lost 73-53.

Sophomore Jordan Hooper led the Huskers with 15 points and Kaitlyn Burke hit for 13 and Rebecca Woodberry came from the bench to add another 7. Nebraska’s other big scorers, Lindsay Moore and Emily Cady could just get 9 between them and 7 of those came on free throws.

The last conference game will be Sunday against the OSU Buckeyes at 2 PM our time and will be on BTN. In their first meeting OSU won on their court 82-68. The conference tournament will run March 1-4 followed by the NCAA regional’s.

Over on the men’s side things weren’t much better. In fact it was very much a duplicate game only it was against the Perdue Boilermakers. While the Huskers hit 44% Perdue shot 63.3% to take a commanding lead of 47-30 at half time. In the second half, just like the ladies, Nebraska outscored the home team 36-35 but that isn’t going to cover a 17 point lead as they went down 83-65.

Perdue hit 13 –  3 pointers in this game. Some thing I have noticed in their games, the Huskers are on defense staning well behind the circle, I guess to  gum up the incourt. But look at what happens on fast ball handling. Out it goes and the player has an open shot for a three and people are hitting them with regularity.

All total Perdue had 5 players in the double digit level with Robbie Hummel hitting 18 of his 29 points in the first half. Bo Spencer‘s 19 points, was the only Husker scorer to reach double digit scoring.

Track and Field: This weekend will be another Big Ten First for the Huskers. They will be hosting the Big Ten Indoor Championships. This is an old venture but in a new conference as Nebraska has hosted 9 Big 12 Indoors Championship in the past 15 years.

Of the 22 teams in attendance, eight of them enter the meet ranked in the nation top 25. Ohio State is represented in the top 15 for both men and women, checking in at No. 13 for the men and No. 10 for the women. On the men’s side, Minnesota is ranked eighth, Indiana is No. 11, Nebraska checks in at No. 15 and Penn State is ranked 18th. On the women’s side, Wisconsin is ranked No. 17 and Michigan State holds the No. 24 spot.

Nebraska’s Hall-of-Fame head coach, Gary Pepin has been told to expect something close to sellout crowds both days because Big Ten fans follow their track and field teams better than fans from the Big Eight or the Big 12 Conferences, two leagues that made Pepin a veritable legend.

What Pepin doesn’t realize is this: Now that Nebraska is a member of the oldest conference in the land, the Huskers are in a league of their own … one that has 300 intercollegiate teams and more than 9,500 student-athletes. That is not a misprint. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said last summer his league has 50 percent more overall student-athletes than any other of the 12 biggest conferences in college athletics.

So it’s a case of simple math. Larger squad sizes mean more student-athletes from more schools, and that means more moms and dads, sisters and brothers, grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles than Pepin usually sees at an indoor track and field meet.

Tennis: The women’s team continued their winning ways racking up their 6^thstraight win downing the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks 5-2. For the fifth time this season the Lady Huskers swept the doubles 3-0 to win one point.

In the singles 57^th ranked Mary Weatherhold and sophomore Maike Zeppernick added two more points as they won their matches 6-1 and6-2 and 6-3 and 6-4. Patricia Veresova clinched the match for Nebraska when she won a tough 6-4, 7-5 match playing in the No. 2 spot for the Huskers. Veresova now holds a 6-1 mark in singles play this spring and an overall 15-4 singles record.

No. 118 ranked Stefanie Weinstein lost her first match this season in a tough 5-7, 4-6 match to give Miami their first point. In the last singles, Izabella Zgierska also lost a tough won, 6-2, 4-6 and 6-7 to complete the afternoon.

Lindsey Moore, a junior and three year starter for Connie Yori and the Huskers was named one of eight finalists for the 13^th Annual Nancy Lieberman Award presented to the nation’s top collegiate point guard.

She currently is ranked seventh in conference in scoring (16.1), second in assists (5.4 apg) and sixth in steals (2.3 spg). She also ranks 10th in the Big Ten with her 80.1 free throw percentage, and 14th in three-pointers made with 1.5 threes per game.

Moore, who has started 91 consecutive games for the Huskers since earning Parade High School All-America honors at Kentwood High School in Washington, ranks 23rd in Nebraska history with 1,059 points. She also ranks fourth in Husker history with 477 assists, and eighth in the NU record book with 112 career three-pointers. She is also Nebraska’s first-ever Nancy Lieberman Award finalist.

Men’s Golf: In a competition before this weekend’s Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate, the Nebraska men’s golf team took second place at the four-team shoot-out, hosted by Wyoming, at The Classic Club on Thursday at Palm Beach, CA.

The Huskers shot 299, with Manuel Lavin leading the way after his 72. The sophomore took second place overall. Junior Neil Dufford tied for third, firing a 73. Scott Willman carded a 76 on Thursday, while Jordan Reinertson and Ryan Grassel posted 78 and 80, respectively.

St. Mary’s came in with the best score, compiling 291 strokes in the shoot-out. Colorado finished third with 311, while Wyoming shot 396.

Women’s Gymnastics: The Nebraska women’s gymnastics team was well represented in the latest GymInfo national rankings, which were released on Monday, Feb. 20. The Huskers are one of only three schools, along with Utah and Oklahoma, that are ranked inside the top five in three individual events, while checking in at No. 9 overall as a team.

Nebraska’s strongest event halfway through the season has been vault, where they are ranked at No. 3 in the country and average 49.371. NU received a boost in its vault average after erupting with a 49.575 in its last meet against Minnesota, which tied for the sixth-highest score in school history. The Huskers also sport the No. 4 floor and barsteams in the country. NU has scored higher than a 49.00 in all but one of its meets this season on floor to help them average a 49.158, while posting a 49.208 average on bars.

Individually, the Huskers sport three all-around competitors ranked inside the top 25, including true freshman Jessie DeZiel, who is at No. 5 with a 39.483 average. Senior Lora Evenstad sits at No. 14 with a 39.44 average and sophomore Emily Wong is at No. 18 with an average of 39.30. DeZiel, one of the top freshmen in the country, is ranked at No. 7 on vault (9.904) and beam (9.863), while sitting just outside the top 10 on floor (9.875) at No. 11.

Junior Janelle Giblin holds the top spot in the bars rankings with an average of 9.892. The San Ramon, Calif., native has won five bars titles this season and scored a 9.90 in every meet this besides one. Giblin is also ranked No. 2 on the vault, with an average of 9.933. She won her third vault title of the season against Minnesota, scoring a 9.95.

On floor, Evenstad is the No. 2 ranked performer with an average of 9.905. The senior has won three floor titles this season and scored above a 9.90 in every meet, including a season-high 9.925 against Oklahoma, Minnesota and Centenary. Evenstad also ranks No. 9 on the bars.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

Illinois Hits Rock Bottom.

That was the headline in a Illinois paper as they reported on the Illinois loss to Nebraska, 80-57. At least that is their opinion of Husker basketball.

Well Husker fans may disagree with that headline. True this hasn’t been a very good first season basketball performance for the Husker men. At least a true Husker fan’s take on that might be, “Well, finally they played the way I have always thought they could play.”

At the beginning it looked like it was a start the same way it has been in many games. With just over 8 minutes left in the first half the Huskers were down 24-16, but then the Big Red kicked into high gear with Bo Spencer nailing two 3 pointers. This set off a 14-0 run before the Illini scored two and the Huskers continued on till half time with a 17-2 run and leading 33-26 at half time.

The second half continued with the red hot Huskers out scoring the guests 19-2 to build a 24 point lead. All total the Huskers outscored Illinois 43-7 during this surge.

Spencer hit 9-11 including 5-7 on three pointers to lead the Huskers with 27 points. Caleb Walker added 13 and Brandon Richardson chipped in 12 as the Huskers shot 55.6% from the floor.

This was a crushing loss for the Illinois as they were really set on finishing a sweep of their last games to enhance their chances of going to the big NCAA tournament. Now things look a little glum as evidenced by the expressions of players as they saw their chances slip away.

After the game, Illinois Coach Bruce Weber had this to say, “They (Nebraska) made every shot. I’ve played in games before where it happens. I’ve had great teams in top leagues get beat like that. I knew Nebraska would come loose and free. (Bo) Spencer, when he gets going, he’s tough to deal with. I told the kids after that I’m still very proud of them. They didn’t quit. They really, really care. There are lots of tears in our locker room.

“The weight of the world – once they made the run, I think the weight of the world kind of caved in on our guys and there was no stopping. Our kids kept fighting and battling and didn’t quit. It’s just one of those days. Now we have five games left, and I’m going to come back and have some spirit like they have all year. If you were at practice yesterday, they practiced like it was the first day of the year. I promise you no one has quit in that locker room.”

Women’s Gymnastics: If you watch a lot of college sports, like I do, you have probably noticed the number of true freshman in starting lineups or having a great deal of playing time in their events.

Nebraska has them too: Meet Jessie DeZiel from Rogers, Minnesota.

The Huskers latest match up was in Jessie’s home state and without a doubt she probably had many family and friends there in Minneapolis to watch her perform. Now that had to be added pressure on this young woman.

She performed. She did everything right. She won her fifth all-around title of the year and I speculate that when the B1G announces the gGymnasts of the week, Jessie might add another medal to her collection. She has won freshman of the week five times already.

The Huskers had to be in top form as the Gophers had geared themselves up to a high performance level While Jessie won three event titles, she wasn’t the only Husker on the floor. Janelle Giblin tied her for the vault title at 9.95. Janelle also tied senior Lora Evenstad for the bars title. They were the last two Huskers to perform and hit back to back 9.90s

Emily Wong and Jamie Schleppenbach each scored career highs in their events Another true freshman, Jennifer Lauer scored a career high in the vault putting up a 9.80.

“That’s a pretty special day,” Head Coach Dan Kendig said after the meet. “You come up here, and think about all the distractions she (Jessie) had, and perform the way she did was amazing. Her and Emily (Wong) both, they were both great tonight.”

 As a team, the Huskers posted a 49.00 or above on all four events for the fourth time this season, including a 49.575 on the vault, which is tied for the sixth highest score in school history.

“We really rocked the house on vault tonight. It was really great, high-quality vault,” Kendig said. “The way we bounced back tonight on beam and floor really showed us a lot about our team.”

Late news from the B1G.

 As suspected Jessie DiZiel won her 6^th consecutive Freshman Gymnast of the Week award. Then on top of that the B1G also awarded her with Co-Gymnast of the Week along with Collen Green, a Junior from Ohio State.

Men’s Gymnastics: Also in Minneapolis, the men had a great night, but it just wasn’t enough for the #8 Huskers to upset the #6 Golden Gophers who finished at 345.600 to 339.400. The Huskers’ team score marked a new season high, and the team put together a season-best mark on floor exercise while tying their season-best on parallel bars.

Another freshman, Grant Perdue, took the lead for the Huskers winning both the floor exercise and the vault. His 14.80 on the vault was a career high while his 14.80 on the vault tied his season best. Sophomore Eric Schryver’s score of 14.60 on horse was good for the event title on horse, his second title in the event in 2012.

OK, with all those event titles, what happened to make the win going to the Gophers? The weak points for the Huskers were on the floor and vault where the Huskers lost a total of 7.5 points to the Gophers. That spelled the difference.

Softball: The Lady Huskers finished 3-3 in their first tournament in Tempe last week and this week they were in Las Cruces for the Troy Cox Classic. This time the competition wasn’t a sharp and they flue back home with 5 wins to go 8-3 after outscoring their opponents 56-10s with only one game going the full seven innings due to the 10 run rule.

Against Colorado State the team scored six runs in the sixth inning to win 10-2. The Edwards twins played a pivotal role in the win. Both twins went 3-for-4 in the victory, with Taylor homering, producing four RBIs and scoring three times and Tatum adding two RBIs of her own. Tatum Edwards (3-1) also earned the win in the circle, allowing a pair of unearned runs on just three hits in 4.0 innings.

Next up was the New Mexico State Aggies. Sophomore Tatum Edwards tied a school record with seven RBIs and hit two of Nebraska’s four home runs, as the 22nd-ranked Huskers handed New Mexico State its first loss of the season, 15-2 on Friday night. Tatum finished 3-for-4 with a pair of homers, three runs scored and seven RBIs. The seven RBIs matched the school record for the most RBIs in a seven-inning game. Her twin sister Taylor finished 2-for-5 with a home run of her own, while junior Brooke Thomason was 2-for-4 with a home run.

Senior right-hander Ashley Hagemann, who was outstanding against a New Mexico State offense that was averaging nearly 11 runs per game heading into the contest. In a complete-game effort, Hagemann (2-2) allowed two runs (one earned) and struck out 14, while walking only two.

A nine-run third inning highlighted a win over Weber State in five innings. Senior right-hander Ashley Hagemann, (2-2) allowed two runs (one earned) and struck out 14, while walking only two. Ashley recorded 10 strikeouts in only 5.0 innings, moving into fifth place on the all-time career strikeout chart at Nebraska.

Offensively, junior Gabby Banda went 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. Nebraska was out-hit 6-5, but Nebraska drew nine walks and was aided by three Weber State errors. Banda produced the Huskers’ lone multi-hit game, while sophomore Tatum Edwards and Tucson freshman Mattie Fowler each produced two RBIs.

Sophomore right-hander Tatum Edwards fired a one-hit shutout, and the Husker offense scored in every inning of a 9-0, five-inning victory over Stephen F. Austin in the first of two games on Saturday in Las Cruces, N.M.

In Edwards (4-1) one-hitter she did not allow a walk while striking out five. The shutout was the third of Edwards’ career and the first by a Husker pitcher this season.

Offensively, Nebraska pounded out 12 hits and scored a run in all five innings, including a four-run third inning. The Huskers’ No. 2, 3 and 4 hitters – junior Gabby Banda, sophomore Taylor Edwards and senior Ashley Guile had two hits and two RBIs apiece. Junior Brooke Thomason also went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk.

On the strength of a seven-run third inning, the 22nd-ranked Nebraska softball team powered past New Mexico State 10-2 in five innings to win the Troy Cox Classic.

The Huskers finished 5-0 at the tournament, while improving to 8-3 on the season. A pair of three-run homers fueled Nebraska’s fourth run-rule victory of the tournament. Junior Brooke Thomason’s three-run blast gave Nebraska a 6-2 lead in the third inning, before freshman Mattie Fowler’s first career home wrapped up the run-rule victory with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Fowlers finished 3-for-3 with two doubles, the home run and four RBIs.

Senior Madison Drake also recorded a multi-hit game with a 2-for-3 performance. Classmate Ashley Guile finished 1-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, as her third-inning single gave the Huskers a 3-2 lead, after they trailed early. Guile’s performance extended her hitting streak to nine-game and the Olathe, Kan., native has now driven in a run in 10 straight games.

Baseball: The Nebraska baseball team dropped its opening game of the 2012 season on Friday night to the Gonzaga Bulldogs by a score of 7-4. The Huskers took a 4-3 lead into the seventh inning following a two-run sixth inning that was led off by a home run from junior Kash Kalkowski. NU was unable to hold on though, as a three-run eighth inning from the Zags doomed Huskers.

Chad Christensen led NU with a 3-for-3 performance, including a fourth-inning home run with one out that tied the game a 2-2. The junior from Cedar Falls, Iowa, also led the team with two runs. Kalkowski added a first inning single to give him two hits on the night, while Cory Burleson and junior college transfer Rich Sanguinetti also produced RBI’s for the Huskers.

In the second game of this series Big Red saw the first victory of the 2012 season fall through their hands on Saturday night at the Peoria Sports Complex, as the Gonzaga Bulldogs rallied for a 10-8 victory to take game two of the three-game series. The Huskers took a 8-5 lead into the top of the night with Tyler Niederklein on the mound, but the Bulldog bats came alive with five runs to steal the win after committing seven errors in the game.

Nebraska’s offense did its part with eight runs on 12 hits, including two hits each from Michael Pritchard, Kash Kalkowski, Pat Kelly and Bryan Peters. Kalkowski and Peters each knocked in two runs, while junior Kurt Farmer blasted his first home run of the season in the fourth inning to give NU three home runs on the weekend.

The ninth inning was again unkind to the Nebraska baseball team, as the Gonzaga Bulldogs erased a 4-2 deficit with three runs in the top of the ninth to steal victory for the second straight game. After storming back with a five-run ninth inning on Saturday night, sophomore Marco Gonzales blasted a bases-clearing double to right center field that gave Gonzaga its first lead of the game at 5-4 and erased a solid outing from true freshman pitcher Kyle Kubat.

The Huskers didn’t go away without a fight in the bottom of the ninth, as freshman Blake Headley led off with his first hit of the season and Kale Kiser drew a one-out walk to give the Huskers runners at first and second, but reliever Derek Peterson retired Rich Sanguinetti and Austin Darby to end the Husker rally.

Kubat, a native of Waterloo, Neb., held the Zags scoreless on seven hits and notched one strikeout over five innings of work in the no decision. The Creighton Prep product showed veteran-like composure in the fourth, when Gonzaga started the inning with back-to-back singles and eventually had the bases loaded with two outs. Kubat continued to throw strikes on got out of the jam with a 5-3 groundout.

Swimming and Diving: In its first ever B1G Swimming and diving Championship, well we have a lot of growth in store to be competing in this league.

The fourth session saw NU’s Shannon Guy qualify ninth in the 100-yard butterfly in 54.27, a career-best. Guy will compete in the event’s finals during this evening’s fifth session. Guy’s finish is Nebraska’s best preliminary finish thus far at the championships. The time also vaults Guy into the Nebraska record book, as her time is the second-fastest in NU history, just behind Mariah Hutchinson’s time of 54.16 set in 2009.

The Nebraska team finished session six of the Big Ten Championships on Saturday morning. During the session, Ariel Weech and Shannon Guy qualified for Saturday evening’s finals in each of their respective events (100-yard freestyle, 200-yard butterfly)

All in all the Huskers finished 11^th in this first B1G meet. While not finishing in a higher level it is great to see that lots of Nebraska participants recorded “Best Ever” times in their career. For instance the 1,650-yard freestyle saw Bailey Pons finish 19th overall with a time of 16:34.75, a career-best and good for fifth all-time at NU.

Competition is very tough. Minnesota finished in first with Indiana second and Ohio State third.

Women’s Basketball: Was this a game of the losers? Nebraska came into this game loosing their last three games while Wisconsin had lost 4 straight. The “Connie Clan” had suffered through a three loss string not being able to get the ball through the hopes averaging just over 53 points a game where they had been scoring a lot higher than that. In all games its been at 71.8 and in conference games it was 67.3.

This game was very important as the top four teams draw a bye for the Conference championships and Nebraska is sitting on the bubble as to if they will draw a bye for the first round. A win would help their cause.

The Husker started off fast with a pair of threes by Kaitlyn Burke and Jordan Hooper. Two quick twos by the visitors and then a close game until it was 19-18 Huskers. Then before you knew it, it was half time with the Huskers leading 42-24. Emily Cady and Jordan Hooper lead the charge with a combined 21 points for the half in what was a19 to 4 run and a lead of 42-24.

The second half started. The Huskers built up a lead of 58-34 and then things settled into a pro Minnesota game plan. Slowly the Gophers chipped away at this lead until it was down to 64-56, but there was only 1:09 minutes to play. The Huskers held on for a final 68-59 win to put them at 9-5 in conference and 20-6 for the season.

Outstanding freshman player Emily Cody was injured in the second half, possibly a knee injury. She set out the remainder of the game on the bench with an ice pack. Hopefully she will be able to return for the next games with no difficulty.

Jordon Hooper lead the win with 19 points and 18 rebounds. Before her injury Emily Cady racked up 13 points with Lindsey Moore and Kaitlyn Burke adding 11 each. As usual, Moore added six assists, most to her roommate Hooper.

Tennis: Men’s tennis suffered a disappointing lost to the Drake Bulldogs. With the loss, No. 38 Nebraska drops to 4-3 on the year while the No. 73 Bulldogs improve to 8-1.

The Huskers began the match by losing the doubles point. The point came down to a tie breaker on court No. 2 when Drake’s duo of defeated NU’s team of Andre Stenger and Robert Schulze, 9-8 (7-4). Winning their doubles match was the Huskers’ No. 5 team of Christopher Aumueller and Benedikt Lindheim who downed Drake’s team 8-6.

In the singles, the Husker took off quick with wins by Aumueller and Lindheim. “It was very close. Drake’s an under-ranked, well coached team,” Nebraska Assistant Coach Joreg Barthel said after the match. “We had our chances, but I felt that they deserved to win it. We dominated at the top spots in singles, but with a quick match on court No. 3, it’s tough being down 2-0 and having to catch up.”

At the No. 3 spot, Drake’s McKie downed NU’s Stenger, 6-0, 6-0. Then Bulldogs’ Salibasic downed Nebraska’s Schulze, 6-3, 6-4, on court No. 4. “I’m disappointed as a coach,” Nebraska’s head coach Kerry McDermott said after the match. “I feel that if you win in the top two spots in singles it should just go down the line and we fell short of that tonight. We knew it was going to be a 4-3 match, and what happened tonight shouldn’t have happened. The guys just didn’t step up.”

After a disappointing loss on Friday night, the No. 38 Nebraska Cornhuskers bounced back on Sunday afternoon with a big win over the No. 66 Idaho Vandals, 6-1. The win improves the Huskers record to 5-3 on the year.

Nebraska started off the match by winning the doubles point and never looking back.

The Huskers’ No. 5 ranked doubles team of Christopher Aumueller and Benedikt Lindheim were victorious, 8-4, when they defeated Idaho’s duo on court No. 1. The second Nebraska doubles team to win their match was the squad of Stefan Gollner/Eric Sock, who defeated the Vandals’ squad 8-5. In singles play, the Huskers won five of the six matches.

Women’s Tennis: The No. 28 Nebraska women’s tennis team outlasted Washington State to post a 4-3 victory at the Nebraska Tennis Center.

Nebraska’s Madeleine Geibert secured the match for the Huskers with her hard-fought 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win at the No. 3 position. Geibert’s three-set win allowed NU to improve to 6-1 on the season with its fifth consecutive victory. Washington State slipped to 7-2 on the year.

Nebraska opened the match on the doubles court, where the No. 22 duo of Geibert/Stefanie Weinstein (NU) picked up the first win over the Cougars’ 8-5. Patricia Veresova and Mary Weatherholt (NU) captured the doubles point for NU with an 8-5 win. completed a sweep of the doubles courts with an 8-6 victory at No. 3.

The Huskers and Cougars moved into singles play with Nebraska leading 1-0. No. 118 Weinstein (NU) picked up the first singles win at the No. 4 position with a 6-4, 6-1 win Elizaveta Luzin (WSU) registered Washington State’s first win of the day with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Weinreich.

The Huskers firmed their grip on the lead with Holmberg’s 6-4, 6-3 win , but Washington State picked up its second win with Vasilieva’s but Maddeleine Geibert def. Anjela Kankaras (WSU) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3

Rifle: Now who would venture to Alaska for a sporting adventure this time of the year.

The Nebraska Women’s Rifle Squad. That’s who.

The Nebraska rifle team shot 4,596 at the NCAA Qualifiers on Saturday, finishing third. The Huskers finished behind Alaska-Fairbanks, who shot 4,672, and Jacksonville State, who scored 4,645. The Nanooks scored 2,325 in smallbore and 2,347 in air rifle. The Gamecocks shot 2,304 in smallbore and 2,341 in air rifle.

In air rifle, the Huskers were led by Janine Dutton’s 589, which tied for the lead overall. Sheena Mahloch and Kelsey Hansen each shot 580, while Sunny Russell and ReAnn Wilson scored 576 and 569, respectively. As a team, Nebraska shot 2,325 in air rifle.

Wrestling: Senior heavyweight Tucker Lane won his 100^th career match as the No. 8 Nebraska wrestling team finished its regular-season dual schedule with a 26-16 victory over the Northern Iowa Panthers on Sunday at the NU Coliseum. The Huskers finished the season with a 15-4 overall record and a 5-4 mark in Big Ten Conference duals. UNI saw its record drop to 8-7.

No. 9 Lane became only the 20^thwrestler in school history to hit the century mark in wins after defeating Blayne Beale (UNI) by decision, 6-1. Lane now owns a 22-5 overall record and finishes the year with a 15-4 dual mark.

Redshirt freshman Skylar Galloway (149) got the Huskers on the board in the first match by taking down Ryan Jauch (UNI), 6-3. After falling behind 1-0 and having the riding time advantage against him, Galloway erupted in the third period with three takedowns to pull away. The win was Galloway’s first on the varsity level and 24th overall this season.

Nebraska blew the lead open with a pair of back-to-back bonus-point victories from No. 7 Robert Kokesh (165) and No. 17 Tyler Koehn (174). Kokesh won his second match of the season by technical fall, defeating Riley Banach (UNI), 20-3, while Koehn pinned Onni Prestidge (UNI) in 2:36 to give the Huskers a 14-3 advantage.

Junior Josh Ihnen notched a win over a top-10 opponent at 184 pounds to extend the Huskers lead. No. 8 Ihnen defeated No. 6 Ryan Loder (UNI), 4-2, for his 21^st victory over the season. After a scoreless first period, Ihnen scored a reversal with 1:02 remaining in the second to pull ahead 2-0. In the third, Loder earned an escape to cut the lead in half, but Ihnen recorded a takedown with 34 seconds left to seal the victory.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert

Right now we have 15 Husker teams in action. The only ones not playing are football and volleyball.

Women’s Golf: There was snow on the ground in Lincoln so Golf Coach Robin Kraphl and the team took of for sunny Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Women’s Classic. The reports are the weather was a lot better.

Especially for Senior golfer Madie Shiels who led the team with rounds of 72-76-72 (220) to finish in eighth place in the individual scores. The rest of the young ladies had trouble with double boogies as the team finished in 14^th place.

Playing for the Huskers were Sophomore Steffi Neison (235), Senior Kaylay Knopik (239), Freshman from Arizona Shelby Martinek (242), and Sophomore Katelyn Wright (249) Also playing was Senior Katie Keiser (259) who played as an individual.

The Huskers will take next weekend off from competition before returning to the course for the Westbrook Spring Invitational in Peoria, Ariz., Feb. 26-27.

Mark your “to do list” to head to Saddlebrooke March 30-31. The Lady Golfers will be playing in the two day tournament at the Mountain View Club. They would just love to see lots of Big Red fans attending and cheering them on.

Wrestling: Down in Stillwater, OK the # 8 Huskers fell behind 18-0 to # 6 Ohio State who they had beaten earlier this season marking the third straight loss the Husker men have had.

Finally true freshman James Green (157) with a 5-3 decision over the 20^th ranked OSU man. This marked the fifth victory over a ranked opponent. Green who is 27-4 on the year is now in a tie for 10^th on the all-time single season victories list for a freshman in school history.

Next up Redshirt frosh and 6^th ranked Rober Kokesh (165) added another win 7-2 upsetting a 7^th ranked wrestler. Tyler Koehn pulled another upset as the 20^th ranked 184 pounder pulled an upset over his 7^th ranked opponent. Tied 1-1 Kokesh pulled a take down with just 25 seconds in the last period for his third victory over a ranked opponent.

No 8 Josh Ihnen (184) closed the gap even more as he won 5-0 but then the string of 4 straight wins ended when Redshirt freshman Spencer Johnson lost 4-2 and Ohio State finished with a close 21-18 win.

Big Ten Athlete of the Week: Accolades keep rolling in for Nebraska athletes.  Senior Luke Pinkelman, shot put, scored his third Big Ten Field Athlete by placing first with an NCAA-qualifying mark of 64-0 ½ push at the Tyson Invitational Meet and remains undefeated for the season.

Senior first baseman Ashley Guile became the first Nebraska softball player to win a Big Ten weekly award when she was named the conference’s player of the week.

Guile was honored following an outstanding performance at the Kajikawa Classic last weekend in Mesa, AZ. In six games at the tournament, Guile went 11-for-20 at the plate to produce a .550 batting average with three doubles, one home run, eight RBIs and eight runs scored. She recorded multi-hit games against No. 8 Arizona, Idaho State and Cal State Northridge and also drew three walks to post a .609 on-base percentage.

Women’s Basketball: The first half was tight with the Husker’s and Minnesota each taking turns for the lead. The Huskers were leading 24 -20 but then the Gophers chipped away and nailed a 3 pointer in the waning seconds to take the lead 27-24 at break time.

The Gophers made a fast start the second half blitzing 13 straight points before Husker’s Kaitlyn Burke could hit a two pointer to make the score 40-26 with. Emily Cady and Jordon Hooper leading the huskers in a comeback that tied the game up at 58 all before the Gophers took last minute control to pull of a 64-58 win.

Hooper lead the team with four 3 pointers and a total of 20 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steels. Lindsey Moore added 12 points and Hailie Sample pitched in 8 to finish the big scoring for Nebraska.

Women’s Bowling: Former Husker Shannon Pluhowski was named the World Women’s Bowler of the Year and was also elected to the World Bowling Writers Hall-of-Fame. Pluhowski is one of just three women to earn both honors in the same year (Honeychurch 1998, Guerrero 2009). Pluhowski joins just four other American’s in the Hall-of-Fame, including another former Nebraska bowler, Diandra Asbaty. 

Earlier this year, Pluhowski became the first bowler to claim four gold medals at the World Women’s Championships. A three-time National Collegiate Bowler of the Year, Pluhowski is one of Nebraska’s most accomplished bowlers. Through her 295 career games with Nebraska, Pluhowski totaled 63,518 pins for a collegiate average of 212.660. It is the highest career-average of any Nebraska bowler.

With so many games, matches and meets going on, I will be going back to two Huddle’s a week. Otherwise they get pretty long. The next one will be out Monday and I will also give you a run down on the Sun City luncheon for Volleyball Coach John Cook. My wife, Arlyss, and I will be going to the gathering on Saturday.

Roger

The Red Clad Coot in the Desert