Sports – Page 404 – North Platte Post Archive

Chiefs Return from Bye Week, Turn to San Diego

Posted on October 13, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs hope to have Pro Bowl safety Eric Berry back for Sunday’s game in San Diego after a bye week allowed him to rest his sprained right ankle.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid said that Berry would participate in Monday’s workout. He’s been out since Sept. 14, when he hurt his ankle in a loss at Denver.

Ron Parker has filled in admirably for Berry in his absence.

Defensive back Chris Owens was expected to miss the practice with a knee injury, and wide receiver Donnie Avery remains sidelined after surgery for a sports hernia.

The Chiefs are 2-3 and coming off a 22-17 loss in San Francisco before their bye.

Nebraska-Rutgers Kickoff Time, TV

Posted on October 13, 2014

The Big Ten Conference announced on Monday that Nebraska’s Oct. 25 matchup with Rutgers will kick off at 11 a.m. CDT. The matchup at Memorial Stadium will be televised on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. The network determination will be made following this weekend’s games.

The Nebraska-Rutgers game is just the second all-time between the schools and the first ever meeting in Lincoln. The only previous game between the two programs was a 28-0 Nebraska win in 1920, in a contest played at the New York Polo Grounds.

Rutgers heads into this weekend’s game at Ohio State with a 5-1 record, including a 1-1 mark in Big Ten Conference play.

The daytime start against Rutgers will be the Huskers’ first day game since a Sept. 6 contest against McNeese State. Nebraska will complete a stretch of five consecutive prime-time games this Saturday when Nebraska travels to Northwestern for a 6:30 p.m. game televised by BTN.

Game times and television information for Nebraska’s November games with Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa will be announced six to 12 days in advance.

This Week in Nebraska Athletics

Posted on October 13, 2014

Mon.-Tues. Oct. 13-14 Men’s Golf at Bill Ross Intercollegiate Overland Park, Kan. 8:30 a.m.

Wednesday Oct. 15 Volleyball Northwestern (NET/BTN Plus) Devaney Center 7 p.m.

Thurs.-Mon. Oct. 16-20 Women’s Tennis at ITA Central Region Tournament Stillwater, Okla. TBA

Friday Oct. 17 Cross Country at Bradley Classic Peoria, Ill. 3 p.m.

Friday Oct. 17 Soccer Purdue (BTN Plus) Nebraska Soccer Field 4 p.m.

Saturday Oct. 18 Rifle vs. NC State Citadel, S.C. 8 a.m.

Saturday Oct. 18 Swimming & Diving at Iowa State Ames, Iowa 10 a.m.

Saturday Oct. 18 Volleyball Illinois (ESPN3 Live/ESPN2 Delay, Oct. 19) Devaney Center 3 p.m.

Saturday Oct. 18 Football at Northwestern (BTN) Evanston, Ill. 6:30 p.m.

Sunday Oct. 19 Rifle Army Citadel, S.C. 8 a.m.

Sunday Oct. 19 Soccer Indiana (BTN Plus) Nebraska Soccer Field Noon

Sunday Oct. 19 Baseball Red/White Series Game 1 Hawks Field 6:05 p.m.

Mon.-Tues. Oct. 20-21 Men’s Golf at Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate Las Cruces, N.M. 9 a.m.

Monday Oct. 20 Baseball Red/White Series Game 2 Hawks Field 6:05 p.m.

Team USA, Former Huskers Capture Gold

Posted on October 12, 2014

MILAN, Italy – Team USA – with former Huskers Kayla Banwarth, Jordan Larson-Burbach and Kelsey Robinson – made history on Sunday, beating China 3-1 (27-25, 25-20, 16-25, 26-24) and winning the first world championship gold medal for the U.S. Women’s program at the FIVB World Championship at the Mediolanum Forum in Milan.

The U.S. Women had never before won gold at any of the three major international volleyball events: World Championship, World Cup or Olympic Games.

Larson-Burbach started the match and finished with four kills and two service aces. Banwarth started at libero and led the USA defensively throughout the final rounds of the tournament.

U.S. Head Coach Karch Kiraly became the fourth person to win a World Championship gold medal as both a player and a coach. He won as a player at the 1986 World Championship in Paris.

“We came here to make history and we made it,” Kiraly said. “It was a tough battle. I would like to congratulate Lang Ping and her team. They played a marvelous tournament. After we got a 2-0 lead we knew China would never give up. It was a battle to the end and they have some great young players, as do we. I hope that we will be playing against each other in the future. It is just good for the sport to have teams with such history performing at a high level.”

On the road to Sunday’s title match, this young U.S. squad with five players in their first or second season with the National Team, defeated Russia, the two-time defending World champion, twice, and Brazil, the two-time defending Olympic champion in the semifinals.

Manning Throws for 3 TDs, Broncos Beat Jets 31-17

Posted on October 12, 2014

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Peyton Manning threw three touchdown passes, leaving him two shy of Brett Favre’s career mark, and the Denver Broncos beat the New York Jets 31-17 on Sunday.

Julius Thomas caught two of Manning’s scoring passes, and Ronnie Hillman ran for 100 yards on 24 carries for the Broncos (4-1). Demaryius Thomas finished with 10 catches for 124 yards and a TD.

Manning has 506 career touchdown passes, and could tie or break Favre’s record next Sunday at home against San Francisco.

The Jets (1-5) had a chance to tie with less than a minute left. But with the ball at the 1, Geno Smith was intercepted by Aqib Talib, who returned it 22 yards for a sealing touchdown that sent New York to its fifth straight loss.

Eric Decker caught a touchdown pass for the Jets in his first game against his former team.

Huskers Fall On the Road to Michigan

Posted on October 12, 2014

Ann Arbor, Mich. – The No. 8 Nebraska volleyball team fell 3-0 at Michigan on Sunday, 19-25, 30-32, 21-25. The Huskers dropped to 10-5 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten, while Michigan improved to 8-8 with a 3-3 Big Ten record.

Alicia Ostrander had a team-high 12 kills. Mary Pollmiller had 35 assists, and Annika Albrecht had a team-best 12 digs.

Michigan’s Abby Cole had 19 kills, and Adeja Lambert had 13 and Caroline Knop 12. Lexi Dannemiller had 46 set assists, and Tiffany Morales had 17 digs. Michigan outhit the Huskers .331 to 222 and outdug them 57-46. Nebraska had an 8-to-3 edge in blocks.

Michigan controlled set one from the onset, jumping out to a 3-0 lead and extending it to 12-4 with a 6-0 run. The Huskers scored three straight to get within 19-14 with Meghan Haggerty and Kadie Rolfzen (twice) providing kills, but Michigan held on and won 25-19. Michigan hit .308 to just .167 for the Huskers.

The second set started similarly as Michigan jumped out to a 3-0 lead and went up 5-1. Melanie Keil and Kadie Rolfzen recorded consecutive kills to pull within 5-3. The Huskers kept digging and finally took their first lead of the match at 9-8 on a block by Haggerty and Ostrander. But it was short-lived, as Michigan scored three in a row to reclaim an 11-9 lead after kills by Cole and Lambert. Trailing 14-12, the Huskers strung together a 5-0 run for a 17-14 lead, with a kill by Keil, a solo stuff from Kadie Rolfzen and a service ace by Annika Albrecht leading the way. But Michigan inched back and tied it at 20-20 on a kill by Cole. Michigan had the first two set points, but Kadie Rolfzen and Haggerty answered each time, and then Michigan committed a net violation to give Nebraska its first set point at 26-25. The Huskers had four chances to win the set, the last three coming off Ostrander kills. But Michigan staved off the Huskers each time and the momentum shifted when Dannemiller’s serve fell to the Husker floor untouched, and Lambert finished off the 32-20 win with her 11th kill.

Nebraska took a 5-3 lead in the third set after a kill from Haggerty, but the Huskers surrendered a 4-0 run to the Wolverines and then trailed 7-5. Three kills by Kelsey Fien gave Nebraska a 10-9 lead. An Ostrander kill made it 11-10 Huskers, but Michigan came back with a 4-0 run to go up 14-11 with the final three points coming on hitting errors by the Big Red. Cole’s 18th kill added to the Michigan lead, 19-14, and the Wolverines wrapped up the sweep with a 25-21 win.

The Huskers are back at home on Wednesday to face No. 24 Northwestern at 7 p.m. on NET.

Mississippi State Rises to No. 1 in AP Top 25

Posted on October 12, 2014

Mississippi State is the new No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll, replacing Florida State and making the fastest rise to the top spot in the history of the poll.

The Bulldogs received 45 first-place votes from the media panel Sunday. Mississippi State beat Auburn 38-23 on Saturday, its third straight victory against a top-10 team. The Bulldogs are the first team in the poll’s 78-year history to go from unranked to No. 1 in five weeks. The previous mark was six weeks by Ohio State in 1954.

The Bulldogs were No. 3 last week, tied with Ole Miss, for their best ranking. Ole Miss stayed at No. 3 this week, two points behind No. 2 Florida State, which beat Syracuse on Saturday.

The defending champion Seminoles had been No. 1 since the preseason. Florida State received 12 first-place votes and Ole Miss three.

Baylor and Notre Dame round out the top five. The Fighting Irish play at Florida State on Saturday. Auburn fell four spots to No. 6.

The Top 25 teams in The Associated Press college football poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Oct. 11, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and previous ranking:

	Record	Pts	Pv
1. Mississippi St. (45)	6-0	1,480	3
2. Florida St. (12)	6-0	1,415	1
3. Mississippi (3)	6-0	1,413	3
4. Baylor	6-0	1,317	5
5. Notre Dame	6-0	1,228	6
6. Auburn	5-1	1,144	2
7. Alabama	5-1	1,068	7
8. Michigan St.	5-1	1,015	8
9. Oregon	5-1	1,014	12
10. Georgia	5-1	981	13
11. Oklahoma	5-1	935	11
12. TCU	4-1	917	9
13. Ohio St.	4-1	648	15
14. Kansas St.	4-1	626	17
15. Oklahoma St.	5-1	620	16
16. Arizona	5-1	590	10
17. Arizona St.	4-1	459	20
18. East Carolina	5-1	449	19
19. Nebraska	5-1	402	21
20. Utah	4-1	305	24
21. Texas A&M	5-2	264	14
22. Southern Cal	4-2	258	NR
23. Stanford	4-2	223	25
24. Clemson	4-2	188	NR
25. Marshall	6-0	148	NR

Others receiving votes: UCLA 110, LSU 67, Duke 45, Kentucky 36, Minnesota 36, West Virginia 27, Washington 22, Georgia Tech 11, Arkansas 10, Louisville 7, Rutgers 7, Iowa 6, Colorado St. 3, N. Dakota St. 3, South Carolina 1, Virginia 1, Wisconsin 1.

Concussion Research Will be the Focus of UNL Talk

Posted on October 12, 2014

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Understanding how concussions affect the brain is a hot topic in sports and medicine, so an expert from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will explain some of the latest research later this month.

Dennis Molfese is director of UNL’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior. He will give a talk on Oct. 23 about how concussions can sometimes have lifelong effects.

Molfese will also describe what’s being done to understand concussions better in the 12:15 p.m. talk at Memorial Stadium’s West Stadium Club.

Molfese is part of a national committee studying sports-related head injuries. He was also part of a National Academy of Sciences committee that looked at concussions in youth sports.

Kuemper Bottles Up Avs as Wild Win, 3-0

Posted on October 12, 2014

DENVER (AP) — Darcy Kuemper stopped 30 shots for his second straight shutout of high-scoring Colorado and Jason Zucker scored his first goal since January, helping the Minnesota Wild beat the Avalanche 3-0 on Saturday night.

Charlie Coyle also scored and Zach Parise added an empty-netter for the Wild, who spoiled the Avalanche home opener two days after routing Colorado 5-0 in Minnesota.

The Avalanche were one of the top scoring teams in the league last season, but haven’t been able to get anything past Kuemper in six periods.

In back-to-back games against their Central Division rival, the Wild have outshot the Avs 82-46.

Zucker scored in the second period, his first goal since Jan. 16. He had surgery to fix a tendon in his quadriceps in March and missed the rest of the season.

Semyon Varlamov made 31 saves for the Avalanche.

NPCC Lady Knights Go 2-2 at Jimmy John Invite

Posted on October 12, 2014

Columbus – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights (17-13) volleyball team traveled to Columbus on Friday and Saturday to compete in the Jimmy John Invite. The Lady Knights played four games in two days and earned a split in the win-loss column. In the opening game, the Lady Knights took No. 5 Cowley County Community College (19-10) to the brink before falling in five sets 25-17, 23-25, 21-25, 25-23, 6-15. The Lady Knights bounced right back with a three set victory over Bismarck State College (16-11) in the night cap 25-17, 25-20, 25-17. North Platte returned to action Saturday morning as they notched their second straight victory with a win over Williston State College (19-12) with another straight set victory 25-23, 25-15, 25-14. In the final game of the Invite, the Lady Knights fell to No. 7 Kansas City Kansas Community College (22-7) in four sets 20-25, 24-26, 26-24, 14-25.

Against Cowley, the Lady Knights were led by Samantha Byrn who finished with 12 kills. Samantha Kennedy and Samantha Morgan each finished with eight kills in the match to go along with four blocks for each. Joli Hopping recorded 36 assists on 153 attempts while Erica Goodwin finished with 42 digs. Kennedy (23), Kylie Wroot (22), Aryn Meisinger (12) and Hopping (10) were all in double-figure digs.

In the second game of the day against Bismarck, Samantha Kennedy led the Lady Knights attack with 14 kills. Joli Hopping recorded 33 assists on 76 attempts and Aryn Meisinger led North Platte with 17 digs. Kennedy (15), Erica Goodwin (11) and Hopping (10) also finished in double-digit digs.

On Saturday against Williston, Samantha Kennedy again led the Lady Knights and was the only player in double-digits finishing with 11 kills. Joli Hopping had 35 assists on 79 attempts. Kennedy and Aryn Meisinger led the way with 15 digs in the match.

In the final game of the Invite against Kansas City Kansas Samantha Kennedy recorded 16 kills while Valerie Most had 14. Joli Hopping notched 43 assists on 135 attempts. Erika Goodwin and Kylie Wroot each had 25 digs for the Lady Knights.

The Lady Knights remain on the road for three more games before returning home on Thursday, October 23 to face Eastern Wyoming College in their regular season finale and Sophomore Night.