Friday's Sports Update: Oklahoma State defeats soccer 1-0

By Yan Digilov     9/10/09 7:00pm

The Owls (1-4-1) knew what they were up against with Oklahoma State University (5-2-0) coming into town Friday night. Though the home squad was able to put up quite the battle, the 19th ranked team in the nation narrowly escaped with a 1-0 victory.OSU came out swinging with several scoring chances in the first ten minutes of the game, putting Rice in a defensive role. In the 27th minute, the Owls evaded perhaps the closest near miss of the half when freshman Megan Aultman got beat on the left side of the goalie box. OSU put a strong low cross in for a waiting striker and the ball went sailing into the upper post.

But as the Owls got settled, their counter-attacks grew stronger and their time of possession dramatically increased. In the 23rd minute, junior forward Korey Taylor made a piercing run past the OSU backline, at which point their keeper was forced to charge out of the net and grab the ball out from under Taylor. The strong moved started a wave of momentum that lasted the Owls until the end of the half.

Rice controlled the ball for the next 20 minutes with strong shot attempts from senior midfielder Shelley Wong and senior striker Erin Scott. The strong end to the half had the visitors on their heels narrowly escaping with an even 0-0 score.

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For the first time in the season, the Owls maintained a close shot differential, giving up only eight to six of their own. But the one statistic that they were lacking came back to haunt them. OSU finished the half with three corner kicks and several set pieces that were all close to going in, while the Owls had none.

As the half was just getting underway, the set piece differential finally emerged as the tipping point. Two minutes into the half, OSU defender Colleen Dougherty served a free kick into the box and the ball found the back of the net off a header from cowgirl, Annika Niemeier.

The goal stunned the home team and flung the momentum in the opposite direction. A continual barrage of OSU attacks followed the goal.

But the game changed dramatically in the 17th minute when OSU forward Kyndall Treadwell was ejected from the game with a red card for a hard foul. With a man advantage, Rice Head Coach Chris Huston took out Aultman in order to add another offensive player.

Once again, the momentum swung, the Owls took control of the game. But despite several close calls, the clock proved to be the home team's worst nemesis and time ran out before they could notch the equalizing mark.

"We didn't win this game, but this was easily our best effort of the season against a very good team that is nationally-ranked and the defending champion of a very good soccer conference," Huston said. "We had this same score (0-1) in two games a couple of weeks ago, but I can say our effort and work-rate here tonight was a lot higher and for a lot longer time than our other games."

Rice travels to play the University of Texas - San Antonio on Sunday.

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