Huskers Open 2016-17 Season at Ole Miss

The ninth-ranked Nebraska rifle team opens the 2016-17 season this weekend when it travels to Oxford, Miss., for a conference match-up against No. 10 Ole Miss on Oct. 15. The match is set to begin at 8 a.m. Nebraska holds a 25-5 overall record against Ole Miss and looks to continue the trend this weekend.

“I have been anticipating this weekend since we got back on campus,” Head Coach Ashley MacAllister said. “This team is special. They work harder than any other team I have had. We have been really drilling the important things in practice and I am excited to see it all come together this weekend at Ole Miss.”

Breaking Down the Huskers:

NU returns seniors and All-Americans Rachel Martin and Jaycee Carter. Carter and Martin were named co-captains this season and will play important leadership roles, both on and off the range.

“My seniors this weekend are exceptionally important,” MacAllister said. “I will be relying on them during our travels to make sure that things are taken care of, but most importantly they set the tone for the way the younger ones will present themselves on the range. I have no doubt that my seniors will do their job. They do it every day on the range and have led this team to be the best they possibly can up until this point. I couldn’t ask for better leadership this year.”

All-American Dacotah Faught, who transferred from UT Martin prior to the start of this season, is the only other upperclassman on the team. Carter, Martin and Faught are joined by sophomores Katie Brown, Jordan Miller, Nina Radulovic, Hannah Virga and Rachel Yager, who all saw some action last year as freshmen but will play much bigger roles in 2016-17. Radulovic has the most experience of the sophomores. The Serbian competed in every match for the Huskers as a freshman in both smallbore and air rifle. Virga saw the second-most action as a freshman behind Radulovic, appearing 12 times in smallbore and 13 times in air rifle. The Chandler, Ariz., native broke the school record for highest air rifle score (597) ever shot by a freshman. Kayla Gadeken (Seward, Neb.), Maddie Korthas (Belgrade, Mont.), Samantha Peterson (Ham Lake, Minn.) and Sarah Sutton (Oak Harbor, Ohio) are part of the incoming freshman class.

“This weekend will be a unique test for everyone on the team,” MacAllister said. “We have trained different scenarios to prepare everyone, but with the added pressure of a new place and traveling, we have to work even harder to keep our mind on what we do every day in the range. I have every confidence that the young girls on this team will handle the added stress with ease. If we do stumble over what lay ahead, then we will pick ourselves back up and work to prepare for that if it should ever happen again. Our motto this year is Love the Grind and we take that phrase to heart. Everything we do day in and day out is to help us to get to where we want to be in the end. If we mess up or make mistakes, we will learn from them so they don’t trip us up in the future. If we can do this all year long, we will be ready for NCAAs at the end of the season. I am not worried about mistakes this weekend, I encourage them. With those mistakes we will make ourselves and our team better.”

Scouting Ole Miss:

• On Oct. 4, the Rebels tied the school record in air rifle (2,354) at the Memphis Tiger Invitational.
• Ole Miss consists of three newcomers, four sophomores, two juniors and the solo senior and All-American, Alison Weisz.
• The Rebels are under new leadership this year. Eight-time NCAA Championship coach Marsha Beasley starts her first year at Ole Miss in 2016-17.
• Beasley came from West Virginia where she was a volunteer coach for the Mason Dixon Junior Rifle Club and the Junior Marksmanship Program
• Ole Miss has one senior and All-American on the team - Alison Weisz. Weisz captured the bronze medal in air rifle at the NCAA Championships in 2016. She also took third in air rifle at the 2016 GARC Championships with a school-record tying and career-high 595.
• Another notable returner for the Rebels is Jessica Haig. Haig finished second on the team in both smallbore and air rifle in 2015-16. In air rifle, Haig finished with a career high of 594 and a season average of 586.70. In smallbore, she averaged 570.50.
• Freshman Jillian Tyler is a newcomer to keep an eye on. In high school, she earned more than 70 shooting medals and placed second at the Mississippi State precision Junior Olympic qualifier in 2015. She also led her team to four state air rifle championships and finished first in kneeling and prone in the 2016 state championship match.

Follow the Huskers:

Fans can follow the team on twitter (@NebraskaRifle) and facebook (Facebook.com/NebraskaRifle), as well as watch live stats here: http:results.megalink.no/#/university-of-mississippi.