Sports

Volleyball downs Sam Houston, heads to Ole Miss

Last Friday, Rice University's volleyball team took on Louisiana State University at the Tiger Classic Invitational that was moved from Baton Rouge to Rice due to complications stemming from Hurricane Isaac hitting the Gulf Coast. "Playing these matches is the most important thing, and the fact that we could host the event is amazing," Head Coach Genny Volpe said. "I cannot thank the people in the athletic department enough, mainly the facilities crew for helping make this happen. With football's home opener, they have been working so hard to prepare for that. So, their cooperation is very much appreciated. I'm so happy the other schools could work it out and make it down to Houston." Rice played LSU at 10 a.m. on Friday and later went on to play Purdue University at 5 p.m. in Fox Gym. Purdue, currently ranked at an impressive No. 7 in the nation, served as a formidable opponent for the Owls. Volpe made it clear prior to the start of the invitational that the focus would first be directed toward LSU. "By playing the four matches we have played so far, we have learned a lot about ourselves," Volpe said. "We have learned that we have moments of top-25 performances, and then lose our focus at times during the match." The Owls lost to LSU 3-0. The game against Purdue was close but the Owls trailed 3-2 by the end. Despite Purdue's national standing, Rice held its own and proved itself a formidable opponent. Strong performances in this game came from seniors Nancy Cole and Laurie McNamara, juniors Mariah Riddlesprigger and Megan Murphy, and sophomores Jillian Humphrey, Daniela Arenas and Lizzy Bache.Cole, who is well on her way to reaching a 1,000-kill milestone, added excitement to the game as she led the team with 15 kills, leaving her 46 kills away from her goal. Murphy contributed 50 assists, which marked the first over-50 assist game for Rice in this season. This achievement by Murphy was no doubt the reason she was named to the All-Tournament team. Humphrey also set a season-high with 14 kills. The final match of the Invitational was against Washington University, and the Owls lost 3-0. "The team definitely feels like we can compete with the best in the country," Volpe said. "After the LSU loss, I challenged the team and some particular players to step up, and they did. Both matches against No. 7 Purdue and No. 12 Washington were eye openers, that we are able to compete at that level. We just need to learn how to sustain a high level of play throughout an entire match." The Owls later rebounded on Tuesday to beat Sam Houston State University 3-0. "I thought the team played relatively average, but still won in three straight sets," Volpe said about the victory. "That just tells me what we are capable of. Nancy Cole continues to shine and lead our offensive charge, and she did that against Sam Houston. Liz Bache is also improving and had a good solid match as well." Rice will travel to compete in Oxford, Miss. at the Magnolia Invitational hosted by The University of Mississippi. Rice will face off against The University of North Dakota on the first day of the invitational at 10 a.m. and Ole Miss later that night at 7 p.m. The final game of the Owls' weekend is tomorrow against Alabama A&M University at 10:30 a.m. For Nancy Cole, it is highly plausible that she will reach her collegiate career milestone this weekend at the Ole Miss Tournament. Currently, she is 21 kills away from that goal. "It is definitely a milestone that should be recognized by all, and I think it also shows how much of an impact she has had since her freshman year." Volpe said, "Not many players reach that number, and she is proving each and every day she is an elite player, amongst the best in the country." According to Volpe, fans should also expect to see considerable improvement in both serving and attention to detail. If these adjustments stick, the team could be primed for a hot streak beginning this weekend.

Men's XC takes their mark

The Rice University men's cross country team is back this year with seasoned fifthyear program veterans and a large contingent of lowerclassmen. The men open their season at home next Friday, Sept. 14, at the Rice Invitational, but their sights are set for the C-USA championships and NCAA South Central Regional championships on Oct. 29 and Nov. 9, respectively. The Owls lost only one man from last year's roster, Michael Trejo (Sid Richardson '12), who led the team to a fourth-place finish at the C-USA championships last year. This year the men will look to veterans fifthyear senior Gabe Cuadra and Jones Business School Masters of Business Administration candidate Matthew Carey (McMurtry '12) to lead the Owls to a successful season. Though Cuadra's cross country season last year was hampered by injuries, his third place finish in the 10,000 meter run at the C-USA outdoor track championships in the spring proved he was back in racing form. Carey had a strong showing at the end of last fall when he placed 32nd at the NCAA regional championships, leading the team to a sixth place overall finish. The apartment-mates and training partners have pounded the streets of Houston this summer, running upwards of 90 to 100 miles per week."If we stay relatively healthy, this can be a special season for us," Cuadra said. "We have a mix between an older group of guys that are really hungry and a younger group of guys that are really starting to see how good they are and how good they can be." Rounding out the trio of senior leadership is civil engineering graduate student James Llamas (Jones '12). The young team returns junior John Cavallo and talented sophomore William Firth, both of whom earned points during the CUSA and NCAA regional championships. "Both John Cavallo and Will Firth had really good summers and are in great shape for the season," Carey said. "They were huge last year and I think they'll contribute even more to our success this year." In the past, the Owls have had decent showings at the conference and regional championship meets, usually placing in the middle of the overall team rankings. This year, however, the Owls have high expectations, which includes making a bid for the NCAA national championship.With six of the top seven runners returning from last year, including juniors Wyatt Doop and Travis Roberts, Carey believes this is one of the strongest teams the program has seen in a while. "It's safe to say our goal is to earn an atlarge slot for nationals after upsetting one or more of the top four teams in the South Central Region: UT, A&M, Arkansas, or Lamar," Cavallo said. Unlike other fall season athletes, such as football and soccer players, cross country harriers have no pre-season practices and thus are accountable for their own summer training. Interval workouts and 15 mile runs at the beginning of the school year become the true tests of summer mileage and so far, every returning runner seems to have pushed themselves, Cavallo said. Though most of the freshmen are taking a redshirt season and are not listed on the official roster, their ethic at the six a.m. practices creates a competitive yet supportive team dynamic. The younger talent keeps the upperclassmen on their toes and the limited number of spots on the traveling team will be hotly contested, Cavallo said. Nonetheless, the men who are assured to run in uniform welcome the friendly internal competition. "It's a team that you look forward to working and training with every day," Cuadra said. "And hopefully that dynamic will help us maximize our potential on race day."

The Fifth Lap

In high school, I never envisioned myself at a small university. 

The Fifth Lap

Soccer validates C-USA rank

Women's Cross Country primed for promising year

Owls fall behind early, unable to come back

Rebuilding no longer: Owls hope for strong year

This year's senior class of undergraduates - the class that matriculated in 2009 - has never watched a winning Rice football team. 

Volleyball is ready to set

Measuring excellence: The greatest Olympian ever

The last two weeks gave birth to the Ho- meric epitaph of greatest Olympian ever. Even in the superlative-ridden world of sports, this title stands out.The recipient of this title was Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who has won more Olympic medals than anyone - 22 total and 18 gold medals, to be precise. Certainly this is an impressive achievement and one for the history books.However, this does not make Phelps the greatest Olympian ever. If we measure great- ness simply by the number of gold medals an athlete has accrued, then we are also al- most certainly ceding the title to a swimmer, whose sport is conducive to winning numer- ous medals in a single Olympiad.Instead of how many pieces of precious metal hang from his or her neck, we should judge the greatest Olympian ever by the mag- nitude of the athletic accomplishment, how he changed his sport, and how he inspired his nation.With these criteria the greatest Olympian ever is not the household name of Phelps but a man whom few Americans have ever heard of, Emil Zatopek.A Czech with the misfortune to grow up in the middle of the 20th Century, Zatopek ran to greatness in the backdrop of political turmoil.His early 20s, often the peak for track ath- letes, were spent training in used training shoes under the watchful eyes of occupying Nazi soldiers in Prague. When the Russians replaced the Germans, Zatopek joined the Red Army so that he could continue to train full-time for the Olympics.Zatopek's training regime was as brutal as the armies swapping control of his home-land. Learning from Pavvo Nurmi, the great Finnish runner of the 1920's, Zatopek helped develop fartleks, or interval running. These workouts involve doing a large volume of repeats or distances at a fast pace with little rest and have today come to form the basis of most modern training regimens.Famous for saying "Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast," Zatopek pushed both the pace and amount of running that athletes had previously handled.The difficulty of these workouts would be enough for most men, but not for Emile Zato- pek. During the war he ran in beat up and used tennis shoes and afterward he ran in combat boots. He ran in the snow. He ran on a bathtub treadmill that helped dry the laun- dry. He ran with his wife on his back.There are countless stories of Zatopek's training and practices, many of them seem- ingly superhuman, but they all contain one underlying commonality: No matter the situ- ation, Zatopek ran fast.In 1948, when Zatopek was 25, the results of his hard work paid off: At the London Olympics he won gold in the 10,000 meter and silver in the 5,000 meter. Having such a successful double is rare in distance running, with the amount of strain and effort that each race takes.In London, Zatopek cemented himself as the preeminent distance runner of his time, but it was four years later in Helsenki that he became a legend. Zatopek started off the 1952 Olympics by repeating gold in the 10,000 me- ter. Not content to merely go back to back in track's longest race, he then won gold in the 5,000 meter.Winning both these distance events shows an utter domination of the sport. When Mo Farrah of Great Britain completed this feat in the 2012 Olympics he became an overnightnational hero. Zatopek had accomplished the greatest dream of long distance track run- ners. And then he decided to run a marathon.When most people choose to embark on a 26.2 mile run they do weeks of preparation and tone down their training as the race ap- proaches so that they are both well trained and well rested for one of the most grueling endurance events in sport.Zatopek's first marathon came at the Olympics after already winning the longest events in track. It would be like Micheal Phelps deciding to jump in the 10km open swim on a whim.Englishman Jim Peters, the heavy favorite in the Marathon at the time, knew of Zato- pek's impressive resume but remained confi- dent he could drop the Czech usurper early on in the race.Peters went out at a fast pace and Zatopek stayed close at hand. The two ran neck and neck, with Peters trying to crush the spirit of the already tired Zatopek.Mid-way through the race, Zatopek asked him if the pace was too fast. Distance running is as much a mental sport as a physical one, and Peters thought that Zatopek was break- ing. He told the first time marathoner that he thought the pace was "a bit slow."Peters must have thought that this was the moment he would win gold, even "the Czech locomotive" could not win the Olympic mara- thon on his first try. Then Zatopek sped up.Jim Peters never finished the 1952 Olympic Marathon, having exhausted himself keeping up with Zatopek. Zatopek won gold, just like he had in the 5,000 and the 10,000. And to top it all off, he set the Olympic record in all three of the events.These performances might never be matched in the world of distance running, but they are not the only reason Zatopek endures as the greatest Olympian ever. Zato-pek battled not only records and world-class competitors but tyranny.Before the 1952 Olympics, the Soviet con- trolled Czech team excluded an athlete be- cause his father was a political prisoner. Zato- pek publicly refused to go to Helsinki without him. Amazingly, the Soviet government caved and allowed the athlete to compete.However, Zatopek's luck ended in 1968 during the Prague Spring, when Soviet troops brutally put down seeds of revolt in the Czech capital. The communists punished Zatopek for speaking against this intervention by stripping him of his honors and making him work in a uranium mine for six years.However, Zatopek's endurance and deter- mination once again outlasted his opponent and he lived to see the Iron Curtain fall and his country free for the first time since Nazi boots landed on the ground in 1938.Zatopek died in 2000 and he posthumous- ly won the Pierre de Coubertin award for the True Spirit of Sportsmanship.Michael Phelps' 22 gold medals have made America proud and demonstrated on a global stage the extent of human potential at a time when such displays are more accessible than ever.He reminded us of the upper echelons of human potential at a time when many need- ed reminding, and he did so with the entire world watching.However, he will be hard pressed to top what Zatopek's unfailing determination and courage did to the nation of Czechoslovakia. And of course, for all of the races that Phelps won, and all the events he competed in, none of them were his first time.The man whose athletic accomplishments, while monumental, pale in comparison to the courage and fidelity he showed his nation, is the athlete who should be universally known as the greatest Olympian ever.

Meet the new freshman athletes competing this fall

The Fifth Lap

The dream is over.

Expectations and Reality

Meet the new freshman athletes competing this fall

Women's track places fifth overall at C-USA; Robinson and Wade both finish in first place

Becky Wade (Martel '12) found herself in a familiar position at the culmination of her Rice career at the C-USA tournament this weekend, earning gold in both the 5,000m and the 10,000m, finishing with a time of 16:27.57 in the former. Wade also holds the record in the latter event, and ends her Rice career with five C-USA gold medals.

Men's track finishes sixth overall at Conference USA Championship

The men's track and field team placed sixth overall at the Conference USA Championship at Tad Gormley Stadium, hosted by Tulane University.

Golf struggles at Conference USA tournament, finishes in last place

While the Rice golf team had put together a disappointing season, the Conference-USA Tournament presented an opportunity to make postseason play. Instead, the Owls finished in last place at their conference tournament, ending a poor season.

Women's tennis makes history, clinches first Sweet 16 birth

It has been a thrilling season for the Rice Women's Tennis Team. The Conference-USA season began at Jake Hess Stadium at Rice on Jan. 20, following a number of invitationals that placed Rice at 71 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

The Fifth Lap

The last four years have been a ride. There were overtime wins, heartbreaking losses, school records and conference championships. There were moments that were hard to watch and moments that were stunningly exciting.

Men's Tennis falls to Memphis in semis of conference tournament

The men's tennis season was not a smooth drive down Main Street for the Owls. Left and right, there were bumps and bruises, as the team enjoyed some success with a seven game winning streak in late March, but also experienced major heartbreak with the loss to the University of Texas at San Antonio at home in February. In the end, the bruises left too many scars on the Owls resume and they failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in several years.