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Huskers Streak to Record-Setting Season
The baby of the Nebraska athletic department has grown up fast. In only its third year, the Husker women's soccer program established itself as one of the nation's best teams in 1996.
Although Nebraska had only one senior on its roster, the Huskers finished the season with a 23-1-0 record and a No. 6 ranking in the NSCAA/Umbro Top 25.
The Huskers just missed earning a trip to the NCAA semifinals, losing 1-0 to perennial power Portland in the NCAA quarterfinals. For Nebraska coach John Walker and the Huskers, 1996 was truly a dream season.
"If someone had told me last summer that we would go through the season undefeated and play Portland for a trip to the Final Four, I would have thought it would be very unlikely," Walker said. "Those predictions or expectations would have been unrealistic, and yet, that's exactly what we did. We made the impossible a reality."
Although Nebraska's dream season ended on the field in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 1, the honors continued to pour in for the Huskers. Kari Uppinghouse became the first Husker soccer player to earn first-team All-America honors. The junior midfielder from Littleton, Colo., set Husker single-season records with 48 points and 19 goals. She also shared Big 12 Conference Player-of-the-Year honors with Texas A&M's Bryn Blalack.
Lindsay Eddleman earned second-team All-America recognition. The freshman striker from Lakewood, Colo., finished second on the team with 42 points and 17 goals.
Rebecca Hornbacher brought home third-team All-America honors as one of the nation's top goalkeepers. The junior from Ralston, Neb., finished the season ranked second in the nation with 14 shutouts. Hornbacher also ranked fifth nationally with a 0.51 goals-against average, allowing only 11 goals in 24 starts.
Walker, who has led the Huskers to a 47-13 record in three seasons, added to the Huskers' hardware haul by claiming NSCAA/Umbro National, Central Region and Big 12 Conference Coach-of-the-Year honors.
Walker said all of the awards the Huskers captured in 1996 helped put Nebraska on the map in the world of NCAA women's soccer.
"Last season we won the first conference championship. We won the first conference tournament. We were nationally ranked for the first time.
We beat top 10 teams for the first time, and we went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time, Walker said. "Anytime you win individual and team honors and do a number of things for the first time, it makes people aware that you have a pretty good program." But none of the individual honors won by the Huskers would have been possible without Nebraska's remarkable season.
As a team, Nebraska outscored opponents by a cumulative score of 92-15. The Huskers ranked fifth nationally in team scoring average with 3.88 goals per game, while the defense finished second nationally with 14 shutouts. Nebraska allowed only 15 goals in 24 games during the season.
The Huskers limited opponents to 0.625 goals per game and a sparkling 0.59 goals against average. In one midseason stretch, the Huskers held their opponents scoreless for 569 minutes-- more than six full games.
The Husker fan support was also phenomenal. Nebraska totaled 12,277 fans in 13 home games to rank sixth nationally in home attendance with an average crowd of 944.
The Huskers drew crowds of more than 1,000 seven times, including a record crowd of 1,544 in their first round NCAA Tournament game against Minnesota, and 1,038 in their second-round game with Duke, when the weather conditions were less than ideal.
Before cooler winds swept across Nebraska, the Huskers breezed through their regular-season schedule with a perfect 19-0-0 record, including two huge wins over top 10 teams.
Nebraska, which was ranked No. 25 at the start of the season, captured its first-ever win over a ranked opponent with a 3-1 victory over No. 6 Duke in Durham, N.C., Sept. 8.
The Huskers earned a spot in the top 10 for the first time in school history after escaping with a 3-2 overtime win over Vanderbilt on Sept. 22. Nebraska's narrow win set up a top 10 showdown between the Huskers and No. 6 Texas A&M on Sept. 29.
The Aggies had earned a trip to the "Sweet 16" in the 1995 NCAA Tournament and were the overwhelming favorite to win the first Big 12 Conference women's soccer title.
But Kari Uppinghouse's goal on an assist from Kristen Gay at the 27:47 mark shocked the Aggies and electrified the 1,129 fans that packed the stands at the Abbott Sports Complex. Nebraska's defense did the rest. The Huskers shut down Texas A&M forward Bryn Blalack, one of the nation's leading scorers, and the rest of the Aggie attack to claim a 1-0 win.
Walker said Nebraska's victories over Duke and Texas A&M were the building blocks for the Huskers' season. "After knocking off two top six teams in a three weeks, I knew we had a good team," Walker said. "After that, we just kept winning, and as the season evolved, there was no question that our goal was to get to the Final Four."
Nebraska's win over the Aggies fueled the Huskers' run to a 9-0-0 regular-season conference record to claim the first regular-season Big 12 Conference women's soccer crown, Nebraska's first Big 12 title in any sport. Along with capturing team awards, Nebraska dominated league individual honors. Coach Walker earned Big 12 Coach-of-the-Year honors, while Uppinghouse earned Big 12 Co-Player-of-the-Year honors. Eddleman joined Uppinghouse among the first-team all-conference selections, along with freshman striker Isabelle Morneau, freshman midfielder Jenny Benson and junior defender Stephanie Vacek. Hornbacher and Gay earned second-team all-Big 12 honors. Walker said the success of the Husker freshmen was the most unexpected part of the 1996 season. "I think the contribution of the freshmen was the biggest surprise," Walker said. "It was remarkable that they were able to come in and make an impact so quickly. I don't think anyone could have predicted that Jenny Benson, Lindsay Eddleman, Isabelle Morneau and Sharolta Nonen were going to have the kind of success they had."
The No. 5 Huskers remained unbeaten throughout the regular season and headed into the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 1 seed. Nebraska received a bye into the semifinals of the six-team tournament at the Anheuser-Busch Conference and Sports Centre in St. Louis. The Huskers managed a 2-1 win over Missouri in what Walker would call one of the Huskers' worst performances of the season.
Nebraska Earns Trip to NCAA Quarterfinals
Walker and the Huskers used their poor performance against the Tigers as motivation against an inspired Aggie squad in the final.
Hungry to avenge the regular-season loss to the Huskers, the No. 7 Aggies attacked with reckless abandon in the first half. Nebraska thwarted every attempted strike by the powerful Aggie offense and began to gain control of the action in the second half. But Texas A&M's defense held and regulation ended with the two teams tied at zero.
The Big 12 Conference powers continued to battle in adverse conditions until the 117:47 mark when Eddleman broke through the Aggie defense and sent a blast past goalkeeper Melanie Wilson for the game-winning goal and Nebraska's first conference tournament title. Despite scoring the winning goal in the championship game, Eddleman failed to earn a spot on the Big 12 Conference All-Tournament Team. Eddleman's name was absent, but the Huskers were well represented. Uppinghouse, Benson, Morneau and Hornbacher earned all-tournament honors to add to the Huskers' growing list of accomplishments.
After posting a perfect 21-0-0 record, Nebraska earned the No. 6 seed and home-field advantage in the the NCAA Tournament. The Huskers battled Minnesota in the first round on Nov. 17. Uppinghouse and Big Ten Player-of-the-Year Jennifer McElmury went head to head in one of the season's best matchups. Uppinghouse added fuel to the fire of the confrontation with a dazzling goal just 2:23 into the game, the second-quickest goal in Husker history.
McElmury answered with a goal at 13:54 to tie the score. The Huskers regained the lead on Benson's blast at 19:11, but Minnesota's Corinne Bolder answered at 25:35 to tie the score at two.
It looked as if the game would turn into a shootout, but after Bolder's goal, the defenses took over, silencing the offenses for more than 120 minutes. Uppinghouse ended the silence with Nebraska's loudest goal of the season at 148:43 to give the Huskers a 3-2 win in four overtimes. Nebraska's win over the Golden Gophers was the longest game of the 1996 NCAA Tournament. It was also the first tournament win in school history.
Nebraska followed its dramatic win over Minnesota with a 3-0 win over Duke in Lincoln, to move into the Elite Eight. The Huskers' win over the Blue Devils set up a showdown between the nation's only unbeaten teams, as 23-0-0 Nebraska traveled to Oregon to take on 18-0-2 Portland. The No. 3 Pilots returned almost every player from a team that lost 1-0 in overtime to Notre Dame in the 1995 NCAA championship game, but the Huskers were not intimidated by the Pilots or the 3,690 fans at Merlo Field. Nebraska controlled the first 30 minutes, but Portland gained the edge and finally broke through the Husker defense. Kim Stiles' goal at the 57:18 mark gave the Pilots a 1-0 win and a trip to the Final Four in Santa Clara, Calif.
Nebraska's Final Four dreams came to an end on the field in Portland, but new dreams of a 1997 Final Four bid were born. The Huskers began chasing their new dream almost immediately, facing the best 1997 spring schedule in the nation. After playing to scoreless ties against NCAA Tournament qualifiers Duke and Virginia in Durham, N.C., on March 2, Nebraska defeated 1996 No. 3 Santa Clara, 2-1, in Santa Clara, Calif., on April 12.
The Huskers then defeated 1996 NCAA runner-up and 1995 NCAA champion Notre Dame, 2-1, in South Bend, Ind., on April 12. Nebraska followed with a narrow 1-0 loss to defending champion North Carolina at Raleigh, N.C., and a tight 2-1 loss to the U.S. Under-20 National Team in front of a Nebraska record crowd of 2,268 on April 26.
Nebraska's magical 1996 season and impressive spring of 1997 have established the Husker soccer program as a national contender. "The spring was excellent because we know that we can compete with Santa Clara, Notre Dame, North Carolina," Walker said. "The only question that remains is whether we can beat them during the season."
With a returning nucleus of talented players, only time will tell how much more growing the Huskers have to do before reaching the pinnacle of NCAA women's soccer.