Porsche, the luxury sports car brand, has made appearances in Rice football and women’s basketball social media posts, home football games and even on the court in Tudor Fieldhouse. These promotions are due to a recent partnership between Rice Athletics and Porsche River Oaks, located on Southwest Freeway and Greenbriar.
On the second day of the 2025 spring semester, Jan. 14, Rice men’s basketball will play their first home game of the semester against the University of Texas at San Antonio. As with most athletics events, there will be prizes given out to entice student attendance, but this time around it is a little different.
Heading into their final game of the season last year, Rice soccer — who was already out of contention for a conference tournament title — was simply looking to win their first home game. This year, the tides have turned: They’ve only lost one home game and currently rank third place in the conference, clinching a spot in the postseason.
On Oct. 3, graduate forward Leah Chancey broke the Temple University defensive line and found herself face-to-face with the goalkeeper. On her first touch, she shot the ball past the keeper, marking her eighth straight game with a goal, breaking the program record and maintaining the longest active goal-scoring streak in the NCAA.
As Name, Image and Likeness policies become the norm in collegiate athletics, its evolving influence continues to shape Rice athletics’ landscape. Rice was the only remaining university in the American Athletic Conference without an athletics-wide NIL collective last semester, but on Aug. 2, 2024, Director of Athletics Tommy McClelland announced the creation of the South Main Collective as the official NIL collective of Rice Athletics.
It’s not uncommon to find yourself walking to Reckling Park to watch the baseball team or to the recreational fields to play soccer. However, Division I and intramural sports are only a sliver of what the greater Rice community takes part in. From cricket to mixed martial arts to milk miles (yes, milk miles), students engage in a variety of sports that are a testament to their past pastimes, new endeavors and the need to destress.
Last weekend, the women’s track and field team hosted the 41st Victor Lopez Classic track meet at Rice’s own Wendel D. Ley Track. Following the high school division of the competition, the men’s and women’s collegiate track teams started their events on Friday, March 22, and competed through March 23. The Rice men’s team posted 14 podium finishes with four event titles while the women’s squad finished the meet with 12 top-three performances and another four event titles.
Reckling Park and the Owls hosted some of the country’s best players this past week, starting with a 16-4 loss against the defending national champions, Louisiana State University, on March 5, followed by a three-game series against Stanford University, ultimately getting swept.
Women’s basketball fell to the University of North Texas 63-54 on Saturday, bringing their losing streak to four, their longest of the season, and dropping them to a six-way tie for fourth place in the American Athletic Conference standings only a few days away from the conference tournament.
