Special Projects

Sports Notebook: Women's tennis smokes Louisville, C-USA tournament next (Online-only)

In a season that has seen a variety of up-and-down performances over the last month and a half, the women's tennis team saved their best victory for last, defeating the University of Louisville (11-10) by a margin of 7-0, winning all matches in the process. Seniors Rebekka Hanle and Jessica Jackson combined to have a hand in two double matches and two singles matches victories, as Hanle and junior Ana Guzman won their match 8-5, while Jackson and sophomore Daniella Trigo won 8-4. The other doubles contest saw junior Alex Rasch and freshman Dominique Harmath cruise to an 8-1 win. With the doubles point in hand, the No. 65 Owls (13-9) lost no time in clinching the match, as Rasch won her match in a quick two sets, losing just four games. Harmath and Jackson followed suit, claiming two-set victories to give Rice a 4-0 advantage over the Cardinals. Freshman Kim Anicete reeled in her team-leading 16th victory of the year, while Guzman and Hanle finished up their matches in three and two sets, respectively. Hanle was fittingly the last Owl to walk off the court, having been the squad's top-seeded player and de facto team leader for this season. Jackson and fellow senior Varsha Shiva-Shankar also left Jake Hess Tennis Stadium for the last time in their careers, having been honored with Hanle before the start of the match. But the story hasn't ended yet for them, as Rice will be seeded fourth for the Conference USA Tennis Championship that started yesterday at the University of Central Florida. Rice will face the winner of the match between fifth-seeded University of Central Florida (11-7) and the 12th-seeded University of Alabama-Birmingham (7-12) at 2 p.m. today.

Best of luck to KTRU as it moves to new-age media

Vote for the 2010-2011 Sammys!

Please vote for the 2010-2011 Sammys here:  https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFJiVGRuYy1XeHdsbFcwekVNS3dweGc6MQ

Transfer Students face many hurdles

Students transferring into Rice get the short end of the stick by anyone's standards. With issues such as academic credit and housing, the transfer experience here is far from perfect or even acceptable.

Baker welcomes new RAs for new academic year

Aysha Pollnitz and Stephen Bradshaw will begin their term at Baker College as Resident Associates in the fall. The Thresher talked to them to get more insight on the new RAs.

Relish: "beautiful people meet" at Chapultepec Lupita

Chapultepec Lupita, named after a Chapultepec Lupita, named after a battle in which many children sacrificed themselves fighting Americans, is a staple of late-night college dining. Conveniently located on Richmond Ave. and open 24 hours a day, the restaurant offers a selection of decent food at moderate prices. It is a hole-in-the-wall sort of place, with no host and a hard-to-find back entrance, but it is definitely worth the drive or drunken 4 a.m. cab ride when nothing but home-style Mexican food will do.

Centennial celebrations time to mark commitment to service at Rice University

Annual Outdoor Show represents KTRU's relevance

Last weekend's annual Outdoor Show was a complete success, and members of the Rice community have only KTRU to thank for a full day of engaging festivities and excellent music that went off without a hitch. Having been in attendance for previous on-campus concert flops, KTRU was able to provide a completely new and different experience by organizing an event that centered on enjoying great music and discovering new local bands – two of the station's principle missions.

EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ a stellar sophomore LP from Glasvegas

On their second LP entitled EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\, Glasvegas prove that they are much more than the "working class Glasewegian heroes" they were so often patronizingly referred to upon their arrival on the music scene two years ago. Presenting their fans with a major departure from the grungy doo-wop rock of their 2008 self-titled debut, their sophomore effort sees Glasvegas boldy venturing into novel sonic territory. With the addition of a new drummer, Swede Jonna Löfgren, who replaced original drummer Caroline McKay after her departure from the band in early 2010, Glasvegas have gained not only fresh artistic talent, but a significantly greater ambition in terms of their musical daring.

Oklahoma proves to be no-win land for men's tennis

The talent level of the opposition keeps increasing, as the Owls have dropped four matches in a row against ranked opponents after they were swept in Oklahoma this weekend by conference rival, the 35th-ranked University of Tulsa (15-6, 6-0 C-USA) and the 26th-ranked University of Oklahoma.

Hoot ready to expand into South next year

Rice students from the South Colleges can rejoice! No longer will the long walk during Houston's humid nights be necessary for Chick-fil-A sandwiches or Papa John's pizza. Starting in Fall 2011, the Hoot will open a new location at South Servery.

Hoot's success and expansion paves way for more entrepreneurial endeavors at Rice

While the entrepreneurial spirit of Rice University may not be amongst the country's greateast — certainly not in comparison to Stanford's, whose students have contributed to little start-ups you may have heard of such as Google, Yahoo and Cisco — we are definitely making strides as a University towards fostering student entrepreneurship (See story, pg. 1).

Baker Institute Student Forum deabte: Viable budget takes bipartisanship

Online-only: RDT's "More than Movement" lives up to name

Beyond the Hedges

Jump start for solar car team

Eighty thousand dollars. That's how much the new Rice Solar Car Team estimates they will spend in their efforts to build an energy-efficient solar car that can sufficiently compete in a race against solar cars from other universities, which have multi-million dollar budgets. They will compete for the first time in Spring 2012 in the Shell Eco-Marathon.

Erratum

Last week's online poll results

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.

Student taught course program at Rice is cutting-edge

Student-Student-taught courses have become quite popular at Rice, and we're not alone in our affinity for them (See story, pg. 1). An interest in student-taught courses is sweeping across the country with Rice at the very forefront of the movement.