Sports

Soccer 24th in nation after flawless weekend

13-8-4. That's the record of the soccer team since Head Coach Nicky Adams took the helm back in September 2010, a 25-match record that presents a stark contrast to the 6-10-3 record the Owls endured during the 2009 season. Two of those 13 wins came this past weekend as Rice took to the road to face Southern Methodist University (7-5-0, 3-1-0 Conference USA) on Saturday and the University of Tulsa (7-4- 2, 1-2-1 C-USA) on Sunday. With the Owls and Mustangs having nearly identical records, the fans at Westcott Field in Dallas were expecting a close matchup featuring two of the conference's top defenses, which is exactly what they got. SMU came into the tussle very confident after knocking off the 19th-ranked University of Central Florida, while the Owls were hoping to bounce back from a tough 1-0 loss to the ninth-ranked University of Memphis. After 45 minutes, the score remained deadlocked at zero, with SMU having a slight advantage in terms of total shots and corner kicks. Freshman goalkeeper Amy Czyz stonewalled the Mustangs' attempts to put points on the scoreboard, but the Owls' attacking forwards were unable to capitalize on a few first-half breakups, pushing the ball forward too often when the numbers were not to their advantage. Adams spoke about the Owls' initial nerves that kept them from setting up better opportunities for goals.

Cross country runs strong in Austin and Indiana

With the Conference USA Championship Meet less than a month away, both the men's and women's teams have hit the part of their schedule that puts them up against top regional and national competition. The men will face the top teams in the nation on Oct. 16, when they will head to the Pre-National Meet in Terre Haute, Ind. On the other hand, the women faced their top competition last Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational, where they took 14th place out of 28 teams. Also in attendance were third-ranked Florida State University, which took first place at the meet; 11th-ranked University of Arkansas; seventh-ranked University of New Mexico; and 20th-ranked Pennsylvania State University – just to name a few. If that wasn't enough, the weather made the course even more difficult for Rice. Used to the heat and humidity of Houston, along with a lack of rain thus far, the Owls had to adjust to the howling 20- to 30-mile-per-hour winds and damp conditions due to rain earlier in the week. Still, the Owls persevered and were able to turn in respectable times.

Owls outplayed in second half; doubled up by USM

Maybe it was because it is a long drive to Mississippi. Maybe the Owls were intimidated by having Brett Favre analyze their game. Maybe the team had a Robert Griffin III hangover. But no matter the cause, the Rice Owls simply were not ready to play when they took the field against the University of Southern Mississippi last Saturday in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Volleyball dominates SMU, swept by Tulsa

 Heading up north into the heartland of Texas and into the farmlands of Oklahoma, the Owls knew they would be facing a tough test against the top two teams in Conference USA last season, Southern Methodist University (5-11, 1-3) and the University of Tulsa (13- 4, 4-0). Their trip brought mixed results as the Owls earned a 1-1 split on the weekend, beating SMU and falling short to Tulsa.

Women off to the races with dominating performance

It was a tale of two races at the 36th Justin F. Cooper Memorial Rice Invitiational, one in which expectations of a first-place finish were met and another in which unexpected results were produced.

Volleyball picks up two wins at SFA, loses to UH

Finishing, finishing, finishing. That has been the main problem for the volleyball team this year as they dropped another five-set match on the weekend, this time to the University of North Dakota last Friday at the Chilly Fillmore's Stephen F. Austin Invitational.

Pur-don't! Rice blocks last-second field goal to win

Cross Country 2011

While football, basketball and baseball may garner attention-grabbing headlines week in and week out, it's difficult to find two other teams at Rice that have been more consistent in winning than the women's and men's cross country teams. With experienced squads returning for both teams, there are expectations of the Owls sweeping the Conference USA Championship on Oct. 31 at Wildcat Country Club in Houston.

Owls counting days until showdown in Austin

Ince, Robinson dazzle in C-USA Outdoor Championship

This spring has not been an easy one for the women's track and field team. Plagued by injury after injury, much more of the team has spent time in recovery mode, instead of training mode, than Head Coach Jim Bevan would have liked. Despite all this adversity, the always-competitive Owls have once again found a way to return to peak form just in time for the conference meet.

Adam captures third-straight C-USA decathlon title

With the Conference USA Outdoor Championship being held at Rice Track/Holloway Field this past weekend, the men's track team aimed to use this home field advantage to help propel them to a top-three finish at the C-USA Outdoor Championship for the first time since 2008. But the perfect weather and familiar surroundings couldn't give the Owls the 30 extra points needed to surpass the University of Tulsa, as Rice finished fourth for the third straight year. As always, the Owls had strong showings in the decathlon and distance events, but had a few surprises including the shot put and 4x400 meter relay results.

Golf 10th at C-USA tournament, Scott to leave

While they did not know it at the time, the golf team finished a disappointing season with a poor performance at the Conference USA Tournament in Drew Scott's final event as head coach.

Sports Notebook

The 66th-ranked Owls had little hope of making the NCAA Tournament via an at-large invite, so the Conference USA Championship would be their only avenue for furthering their season. Given a fourth seed, the women's tennis team enjoyed a first round bye before taking on the University of Central Florida (12-8), the host school. The fifth seeded Knights could not keep up with Rice's well-tuned doubles pairs as sophomore Daniella Trigo and senior Jessica Jackson started off the competition with an 8-3 victory. Senior Rebekka Hanle and junior Ana Guzman finished their match next by a score of 8-4 to give Rice the doubles point. Jackson and Guzman increased the Owls' lead to 3-0 before freshman Dominique Harmath finished of UCF's Alexis Rodriguez in two quick sets to clinch the victory for Rice. All in all, it was a perfect match for the Owls, who failed to drop a set during the entire quarterfinal matchup.

Ratterree comes through in ninth to save series

After dropping both games of a doubleheader in Birmingham, Ala. to the University of Alabama-Birmingham (27-25, 9-15 C-USA) on April 23, the baseball team fell two games behind Southern Miss in the Conference USA standings with just three weekends of play to go. Needing their second late-season push in as many years to get themselves in position for their 16th consecutive C-USA share of the title, the Owls headed across town to Cougar Field for a three-game set against the University of Houston (24-27, 11-10 C-USA) after a midweek win over Stephen F. Austin State University (31-20) by a score of 9-1.

Whursdays: gone but not forgotten

Almost four years ago now, my friend Jocelyn Wright, fellow O-Week group member and soon-to-be assistant news editor, and I wandered upstairs to the Thresher office during the activity fair. Both of us had aspirations of journalism greatness, she via hard-hitting news stories and I covering the greats of the Rice baseball diamond. We ran into Evan Mintz (Hanszen '08) and Stephen Whitfield (Sid Rich '08), then-executive editor and editor-in-chief, who were not-so-frantically beginning work on that year's O-Week edition. They ushered us into the office, equally eager to see fresh faces and skeptical of our capabilities.

Men's track gets good results

 Despite being one of the top groups on the men's track team last year, this year has been somewhat trying for the pole vaulters, save for Saturday's efforts by freshman Ben Timmer and senior Garrett Stafford, who had their best vaults of the year at the University of Texas-El Paso Invitational. Timmer, who had not cleared the bar in one outdoor meet this season, came through with a fifth-place finish after vaulting 4.66 meters (15' 3.5"), and Stafford turned in a solid performance as well with a 4.51 meter (14' 9.5") vault that gave him sixth place. Head Coach Jon Warren (Jones '88) spoke about the meet from the vaulters' standpoint.

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Track gets good results in Texas, heads to El Paso

 Before the interview even started, Head Coach Jon Warren (Jones '88) stated, "Let's talk about [the] UTEP [Invitational]." Clearly Warren's directive nature was not coming from a disappointment at the way the men's track team had performed at the 84th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin and Trinity University's Tiger Relays in San Antonio, but rather because there were just 14 Owls spread among the two meets. Still, junior Lee Johnson's performances in the 110 and 400 meter hurdles at the Tiger Relays were something to talk about. Johnson took first place in the 110 meter hurdles with a season-best time of 14.95 seconds, currently the eighth-best time by any Conference USA runner. Additionally, Johnson's time of 55.89 seconds was good for second place in the 400 meter hurdles. Warren was pleased at the way several different athletes have stepped up each weekend.

Women's track splits up this week

Regardless of how hard a team trains and how prepared each athlete is for her event, one element of an outdoor track meet is always left to chance: the weather.

Simms fans 11 at Reckling against fifth-ranked Aggies

After stranding a school-record 18 runners on base in a midweek loss to Louisiana-Lafayette (19-13), the Owls (24-13, 6-3 C-USA) faced another tough task in the pitching rotation for the Pirates. Entering the weekend series, East Carolina University (22-11, 4-5 C-USA) boasted the best team Earned Run Average in the conference and a top-three staff overall ERA in the country. To combat the ECU arms on Friday night was Austin Kubitza, the freshman whose success has begun to garner attention on the national level.