Rice University’s Student Newspaper — Since 1916

Friday, March 29, 2024 — Houston, TX

Sports



SPORTS 2/15/23 12:13am

MBB falls to conference-leading FAU in high scoring affair

The Rice men’s basketball team fell 90-81 to Florida Atlantic University on Thursday. It was a matchup of the Owls, but ultimately Sammy and Rice were no match for Owlsley and FAU, who remained undefeated at home and moved to 23-2 on the season. The loss was Rice’s fourth consecutive in conference play, dropping the Owls to 6-7 record in Conference USA and 15-9 on the season. 



SPORTS 2/15/23 12:11am

Smigelski hopes to build on breakout freshman season

When your name is mentioned in the same breath as former Rice Owl and MLB all-star Anthony Rendon, you’re in good company. For sophomore infielder Aaron Smigelski, that honor was bestowed early in his career, as he became the first Owl since Rendon to hit two home runs in a game three different times over the course of his freshman campaign.


SPORTS 2/15/23 12:10am

Baseball regroups ahead of Cruz’s second season

When Rice baseball named Jose Cruz Jr. as their new head coach in June of 2021 — on the heels of the program’s first four consecutive losing seasons since the 1980s — the decision was lauded as a step in the right direction. The 2022 season, Cruz’s first at the helm, was anything but, with the Owls’ posting a 17-39 record and failing to appear in the Conference USA tournament for a third consecutive year. 


SPORTS 1/31/23 11:41pm

WBB splits weekend road trip at Charlotte, UAB

Last week, the Rice women’s basketball team flew east for a two-game road trip. Their first stop was a visit to the reigning Conference USA champions, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where they lost 66-61. For the second leg of their trip, the Owls took on the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where they bounced back from​​ Thursday’s loss with a 67-57 victory over the Blazers. After the trip, head coach Lindsay Edmonds was pleased with how the team was able to bounce back on Saturday after Thursday’s loss.



SPORTS 1/31/23 10:37pm

Freshman Maya Moise talks passion for lifting

Maya Moise’s path to becoming one of the top weightlifters in the state of Texas began four years ago, with a piece of missing cartilage. Moise started playing basketball at six years old and continued until early high school before her basketball career was cut short by an injured knee. The missing cartilage prompted a yearlong period of rest that culminated in Moise discovering a love for weightlifting.




SPORTS 1/24/23 10:11pm

Even after cold-streak, WBB’s rebuild is still ahead of schedule

Rice’s women’s basketball team got off to a ridiculous start this year. The Owls won their first nine games, their best-ever start to a season in program history. They weren’t just beating up on an easy non-conference schedule either. The Owls beat a pair of power-five teams in Texas A&M University and Texas Christian University, in addition to a win over the American Athletic Conference’s University of Houston (although admittedly all three  of those higher-profile teams are having down years).


SPORTS 1/24/23 10:09pm

T&F indoor season gets off to fast start at UH meet

For the first time this year, both of Rice’s track and field teams were in action on the same weekend, competing at the University of Houston’s Robert Platt Invitational. The meet was the first of the indoor season for Rice’s men’s team and the second for the women’s team, which sent a few competitors to UH the previous weekend. Five Owls took gold over the weekend, and seven others medaled.


SPORTS 1/24/23 10:09pm

Ashlee Austin discusses her journey from bench to brilliance

If you watched any Rice women’s basketball games in the past two years, you’ve seen No. 22 with pink highlights hitting shots and making plays. But if you saw Ashlee Austin as a freshman, you would be shocked to see the transformation that the forward from Johns Creek, Georgia has gone through: from the last seat on the bench to the face of Rice women’s basketball.


SPORTS 1/24/23 10:08pm

Quiet confidence: Travis Evee wants the last shot

In Rice’s Jan. 14 home victory over conference rival University of Texas at El Paso, junior guard Travis Evee took the last shot and did not miss. With seven seconds on the clock and the Miners leading by one, Evee got the inbound pass from sophomore guard/forward Cameron Sheffield, drove the length of the court, jumped off his right foot just inside the three-point line and floated the ball in. The buzzer rang, and the game ended. Evee ran to hug his coach and celebrate.


SPORTS 1/18/23 12:08am

Evee beats the buzzer as MBB bests UTEP in chaotic final minute

If momentum really is as powerful a force in sports as countless armchair coaches and talking heads would claim, someone forgot to tell Rice junior guard Travis Evee. Up by five with 30 seconds to go, the Owls men’s basketball team allowed a quick basket, turned the ball over, allowed another layup, turned the ball over once more and committed a foul with six seconds remaining to give the University of Texas at El Paso a chance to take the lead with two free throws. The Miners’ Tae Hardy hit both free throws, and Rice, now trailing by one, appeared on the verge of a collapse of somewhere between normal and epic proportions. But Evee told “uncle Mo” to sit down, driving the length of the court to sink a left-handed floater as time expired to give the Owls a whiplash-inducing 83-82 win.



SPORTS 1/18/23 12:03am

Crosthwait’s career-high leads women’s basketball past UTSA

The Rice women’s basketball team came back from an 11-point deficit in the second quarter to defeat the University of Texas at San Antonio on Monday night by a score of 78-76. Their second straight win against Conference USA opponents, the Owls are now 3-4 in conference play and have a 12-4 record overall. The Owls were led offensively by senior guard Katelyn Crosthwait, who scored a career-high 23 points against the Roadrunners while also tying the school record for threes scored in a game with seven.


SPORTS 1/18/23 12:02am

Swimming sweeps SMU meet in preview of new-look AAC

Over the weekend, the Rice swim team traveled to Dallas for their first meet of 2023 against three American Athletic Conference foes. Across the two days of competition, the Owls swept the meet, defeating Tulane University 247-68, the University of North Texas 254-93 and Southern Methodist University 171.5-161.5. Following the sweep, head coach Seth Huston was really pleased with how hard the team fought.


SPORTS 1/10/23 9:59pm

JT Daniels’ transfer highlights Bloomgren’s best asset: his ambition

A year and a half ago, in an interview, Rice’s head football coach Mike Bloomgren told me about his proudest memory from his days as Stanford University offensive coordinator. On the back of a New Year’s Day 45-16 thrashing of the University of Iowa in the Rose Bowl, the Cardinal ended the season ranked No. 3 in the country. Bloomgren thought that ranking was significant since Stanford had also cracked the top-four in that year’s U.S. News and World Report college rankings, meaning that his players had gotten the rare chance to play for a world-class football team while receiving a world-class education.