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(10/29/10 12:00am)
The soccer team may be healthier now than at any other point since conference play began, but that has not translated onto the field, where the team is limping toward its final game of the regular season. The Owls went into last weekend looking to win two tough games in hopes of setting up an intra-city showdown with the University of Houston (11-4-3, 6-2-2 C-USA) for the Conference USA lead. Instead, they lost both games, dropping their record to 8-8-2 overall and 5-3-2 in conference play.
(10/22/10 12:00am)
Though the last couple of weeks have neither damaged Head Coach Nicky Adams' confidence nor strained her of her usual enthusiasm, they have revealed some soft spots in the Owls' armor, which had appeared impenetrable in the opening games of conference play. The Owls met their first challenge, the first road conference game of the season, by handling the University of Southern Mississippi (3-11-2, 0-7-1 C-USA) 2-0 on the strength of goals by junior forward Annie Kadota and blue-chip freshman forward Jessica Howard, who was playing in her first game since returning from injury. The win moved the Owls to 5-0 in conference and, coupled with the University of Houston's loss later in the day, secured the Owls' position atop Conference USA.
(10/08/10 12:00am)
If Holloway Track/Ley Field were equipped with a scoreboard showing the scores of other Conference USA matches, the soccer team would have been glued to the glowing numbers of one specific game. As Friday's slate of C-USA matches dwindled down, the Owls and the University of Texas- El Paso (9-4, 2-2 C-USA) were tied at zero. Across town, the University of Houston (9-2-1, 4-0 C-USA) was also deadlocked at zero with conference opponent Colorado College (4-4-4, 0-3-1 C-USA). With Rice, UTEP and Houston all knotted at 2-0 in conference play, whichever squad could tally a clutch goal in the waning moments was going to pull ahead of the others in the conference standings. For the second straight game, it was the Owls who scored the late-night goal, when freshman defender Hayley Williams headed in a deflected corner kick in the 81st minute. With time ticking away, junior forward Annie Kadota trapped the ball inside Miner territory before wisely kicking the ball off of a UTEP defender, sending it rolling over the end line to create yet another corner kick for the Owls, their fifth of the night. After junior forward Hope Ward curved the ball over the goal box, freshman defender/midfielder Britton Cartwright headed it to Williams, who followed her teammate's lead by heading it into the back of the net. The Owls' stalwart defense held off a late barrage of shots from the vaunted Miners' offense but managed to keep a clean sheet.
(10/08/10 12:00am)
Any player would openly admit that the goals of the team take precedence over her pursuit of individual records. However, that same player may secretly wish of having her name at the top of the list in a statistical category. Luckily for senior setter Meredith Schamun, neither desire came in conflict with the other as the Owls had a perfect weekend, beating both the University of Texas- El Paso 3-1 (10-7, 2-2 C-USA) and the University of Central Florida 3-1 (7-9, 0-4 C-USA), with Schamun breaking the Rice school record for career assists by making her 4,541st assist during the second set of the UTEP match. Rice's victories increased their record to 4-1 in conference and put them in third in C-USA behind Southern Methodist University (12- 3, 4-0 C-USA) and the University of Tulsa (13-2, 4-0 C-USA). On Friday, Rice hosted UTEP in what was a crucial game as the Miners were undefeated in the conference at the time. Rice won the match with set scores of 25-20, 22-25, 25-18 and 25-19 to hand UTEP their first conference loss of the season. Junior outside hitter Ashleigh McCord had 20 kills and senior middle back Nancy Cole had 16. Senior libero Tracey Lam had 28 digs while Schamun added 57 assists.
(10/01/10 12:00am)
When people make the common claim that optimism is contagious, they are often thinking of a certain kind of optimism, one that is prevalent among teams hovering around .500 or facing a slew of easy games in the near future. For teams that are 3-5 coming into conference play, coming off one of the worst seasons in club history, missing their star player with no timetable for her return and undergoing an unprecedented midseason change at the coaching position, optimism tends to be buried where it was born, never having learned to walk far enough to spread its beliefs.
(09/24/10 12:00am)
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."
(09/17/10 12:00am)
In a sport where player creativity often manifests itself through injuries, it can often be hard to tell which contact is real and which is for the referee's benefit. During the Owls' home victory last Friday against the University of Texas San- Antonio, the crowd had little trouble separating the two; the crunch every time an Owl hit the ground gave it away. Perhaps the loudest crunch of all came in the games' first few minutes, when senior midfielder Kate Edwards received a vicious kick to the shin that forced her to exit the game.
