Soccer plays tough match against ranked BYU

By Ross Michie-Derrick     9/23/10 7:00pm

Trejo understands the team's mentality going into this important benchmark race. "Jon and the team recognize the OSU meet as our first real test," Trejo said. "The course is eight kilometers and it is run over a more real cross country terrain than we're used to in Houston. I think our team has gotten a feel for where we stand fitness-wise and I'm confident going into this meet that we can compete with some of these teams."

While the scoreboard may not have been in favor of the soccer team at the end of their match against Brigham Young University (7-1-1), it is clear that the Owls (3-5) could take away an emotional victory with their strong effort in the wake of the firing of former Head Coach Chris Huston.

For the first time since the soccer team's inception in 2001, Rice was playing without Huston, who had been dismissed from her duties last week.

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In addition to that loss, one of the Owls' veteran stalwarts, senior midfielder Kate Edwards, remained on the sidelines for the second straight match, still recovering from a shin injury suffered earlier against the University of Texas-San Antonio.

With all of this chaos, it would have been understandable if the Owls had not been their sharpest against the nation's eighth-ranked women's soccer team, but the resilient Owls came out with their trademark tenacity, outshooting the Cougars five to three in the game's first 30 minutes before giving up the game's only goal in the 44th minute of the first half on a well-timed strike by Cougars midfielder Lynda Hercules.

Though the Owls would never manage to answer that goal with one of their own, they continued to fight until the end, matching the Cougars' vaunted physicality.

"For one of the first times this year, BYU faced a team that gave them a dose of their own medicine," Interim Coach Nicky Adams said. "I think they freaked out a little bit. We were able to find our players in the midfield and were able to attack right off the bat. Their goalkeeper came up with two saves that could potentially have changed the game."

As for the goal at the end of the half, Adams gave all of the credit to the Cougars.

"There's a reason they're number eight [in the country]," she said. "When things aren't going the way you want them to and you still find a way to put it in the back of the net, that's the sign of a good team."

Although the offense failed to score in the two matches since Edwards' injury, Adams is confident that they will come around with the help of a new formation Rice debuted against BYU.

"Every week it's been our main goal, finding a way to break down the other team so we can score," Adams said. "At practice we've been dissecting how to beat opponents in the final third."

Regardless of what schematic changes Adams institutes, she knows the success of the Owls' season largely rides on Edwards' health.

"It's not going to be just one player who has to fill her void, it's an entire midfield, and the girls who played against BYU were phenomenal," Adams said.

Adams does not yet know when her star midfielder will return, but she believes that Edwards can have an impact.

"Kate Edwards is not only a phenomenal player, she's an unbelievable leader," Adams said. "She's been put in a position where her leadership will have to step up."

With Edwards out for the foreseeable future and Huston no longer with the team, Edwards is not the only one whose leadership will have to step up. Adams will need to make the team her own, especially if she wants to remove the "interim" from her title.

"As a coach you always have your own philosophy," she said. "I'll be taking a lot of what Chris does and spinning it into my own."

She will try to incorporate her own style and lead Rice to victory today in its conference opener against the University of Tulsa (6-3). Last year, Tulsa beat the Owls in overtime, but this year the Owls are a very different team, starting with the head coach.

While the new coach stopped short of promising victory, she did offer a vote of confidence for her team.

"If our girls play together and do the easy, simple things, we will do very well.

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