Lights out at Faurot Field

The lights have gone out at Faurot Field in Columbia. Mo. There are still auxilary lights on behind the stadium and in the press box, but the field lights have been out for about six minutes now. The south scoreboard is still on but the big score board in on the north is out too.

Time for Husker volleyball

The 2009 Nebraska volleyball season has finally arrived. As of Friday morning, we still didn't know what John Cook's lineup will look like Friday night when the Huskers take the floor against Michigan. Cook isn't going to release that information until shortly before the match.

Here's a partial guess at least. Expect to see Sydney Anderson at setter and Tara Mueller at one outside hitter position. Kayla Banwarth will play libero (Cook has already announced that). I expect to see Lindsey Licht at rightside and Brooke Delano playing in the middle. Freshman Megan Pendergast may well see some back row action in place of Licht.

The other outside hitter will likely be a freshman, either Hannah Werth or Gina Mancuso. Werth is the more powerful hitter of the two, but Mancuso appears to be the best all-around player at this point and is a bit more consistent than Werth.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how Cook lines them up, and he's also indicated that he may change it around when the Huskers play Minnesota on Saturday.

SOFTBALL: Central City, Aurora look strong

Softball teams from Central City and Aurora both had impressive showings in Saturday's Grand Island Northwest Tournament.

Central City (8-4) beat York 3-2 and downed Northwest 6-0 in the semifinals with pitcher Kate Erickson taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Vikings. The Bison fell 2-1 in eight innings to Gothenburg in the championship game, but had several opportunities to beat the Swedes (12-2). Behind Erickson's solid pitching and a hitting attack that coach Bobby Kelley said started coming into its own over the weekend, Central City is a team worth watching this season.

Aurora (15-5) took third place in the Northwest Tournament. The Huskies opened with a 7-3 win over Adams Central, lost to eventual champion Gothenburg 9-3 and then defeated Northwest 5-3 in the third-place contest. The Huskies feature an impressive batting lineup that is capable of flashing some power. Coach Lisa Kosek said the key for her squad this season has been getting off to good starts in games. If Aurora gets the early lead, it's tough to beat.

Prep Football: Week 3

Here's some of the top match-ups to keep on eye on this Friday as teams in most classes wrap up their non-district schedule:
Grand Island Senior High at Lincoln Southwest -- The Thursday Seacrest Field game features a pair of 2-1 teams whose only losses have come in double overtime. The Islanders begin district play next week against North Platte. The Silver Hawks get Kearney. This will be two teams anxious to gain some momentum going into those battles.
Aurora at Norris -- How will the Huskies respond to last week's 42-7 loss to Class B No. 1 McCook? This is a dangerous road game if they haven't put that game behind them.
Columbus Scotus at Hastings St. Cecilia -- It's the third straight game against a ranked opponent for Class C-1 No. 2 St. Cecilia, a big change from previous years which saw a constant stream of 56-0 wins in non-district play. For the second straight week, the No. 6 team in the class comes to Duncan Field. The Bluehawks' D grounded Fairbury's passing game last week. Now it faces Scotus' potent ground game.
Burwell at Palmer -- In one of the better 8-man games in the area this year, Class D-1 No. 10 Palmer tries to bounce back from last week's narrow home loss to No. 7 Giltner. Burwell has shown it has made a smooth transition to 8-man with a pair of blowout wins.
Osceola at Kenesaw -- Repeat the formula from the Burwell / Palmer matchup. An undefeated team that made the move from 11-man football this year goes on the road to take on a traditional playoff contender.

Big week for Crusader spikers

If you see Grand Island Central Catholic coach Sharon Zavala this week, she will probably be smiling. Her Class C-1 No. 1 Crusaders came through a tough week unscathed. They beat a very good Columbus Scotus team on Thursday, then beat Class B No. 3 Grand Island NW, Class B No. 5 Omaha Mercy and Lexington on Saturday to win their own invitational.

Zavala said before last season that her freshman class was the best she had ever had. Now those freshmen are sophomores and playing like seniors. The talent and depth there is staggering for a Class C-1 team.

Both Steph Brand and Jessica Wojcik played major roles as freshmen on last year's Class C-2 state championship squad. Liz McGowan saw some action in the back row, but she has blossomed at outside hitter and along with Wojcik give the Crusaders a tough one-two punch at that position. Bailey Baxter was the JV setter last year, but has already shown that she is more than ready to step up to the varsity level.

There are more challenges ahead. The Crusaders will face a very good St. Paul team as part of a triangular at Lincoln Lutheran on Thursday. They will then have a week off before facing a strong Kearney Catholic team.




The Crusaders just picked apart a very good Northwest team on Saturday.

Chip shots from the local girls prep golf scene

Ran across a couple of interesting stories last week covering back-to-back days of girls high school golf invitationals at Grand Island's Jackrabbit Run Golf Course.

Last Thursday at the Grand Island Central Catholic Invitational, Doniphan-Trumbull's Danielle Lemek continued her early domination of the Class C golf scene by shooting a 3-over-par 75 to make it 2-for-2 for her in major tournaments this fall.

As if that wasn't impressive enough, consider that Lemek is a freshman. Among classmates, Lemek is known as "The Freshman Phenom."

Lemek's emergence onto the scene isn't a huge surprise to those familiar with the Nebraska women's amateur golf scene. Last June at Indianhead Golf Club in Grand Island, Lemek finished fourth in the NAWAGA women's state stroke-play tournament. The only players to place ahead of Lemek have college golf experience in Grand Island Senior High graduates Megan Bartlett (Wichita State) and J.C. Stevenson (Nebraska) as well as Lincoln Pius X coach Steph Kolbas.

Bartlett said she was very impressed with Lemek. Playing with the youngster in the second round of the women's state stroke play event, Bartlett said Lemek was consistently driving the ball 10 to 20 yards past her.

Last Friday saw the continuation of another interesting story at the Grand Island Senior High Invitational. Islander senior Hannah Huston tied for ninth individually (she finished 11th after a scorecard playoff), which might not sound all that impressive, but then consider that Huston played volleyball for the first three years of her high school career.

Huston said she does come from a golfing family and used to play the game casually a few times per year -- as long as the weather was good. However, at the start of last summer, the Islanders' No. 1 player decided she was going to concentrate on golf and her hard work has shown up so far on the local links.

Prep Football: Week 2

Nobody should complain about being unable to find a good high school football game near Grand Island this Friday.
Within 25 miles you have:
Defending Class A champion Omaha Central at Grand Island Senior High. The Eagles are trying to avoid an 0-3 start.
Defending two-time Class B champion at Northwest. This is a battle of 1-1 teams who have been moving the football.
McCook at Aurora. The Class B No. 1 Bison make their eastern road trip for a game that features NCAA Div. I level talent on both lines.
Fairbury at Hastings St. Cecilia. A Class C-1 top 10 battle between the Jeffs, who moved down from Class B this year, and the No. 2 Bluehawks.
Toss in match-ups like Cross County-Blue Hill, GICC-Boone Central and Palmer-Giltner and you have one of the most interesting football Fridays of the season in the area.