Sports

Gunnarsdottir takes her shot at shot put glory

Hailing from a small town outside of Reykjavik, Iceland, Erna Gunnarsdottir was a young girl when she was first exposed to shot put. Now, over a decade later, Gunnarsdottir competes on Rice’s track and field team, recently earning seventh place for shot put in the NCAA Championships.

Women’s basketball bounced from NIT by Oregon in second round

The Rice women’s basketball team couldn’t replicate their 2021 Women’s National Invitational Tournament title run this time around, falling in the second round to the University of Oregon. The Owls kicked off their tournament with a 71-67 win over Brigham Young University on Friday and looked to be on their way towards a second straight road victory on Monday before a relentless third-quarter push by the Ducks gave the hosts a comfortable 78-53 win. Despite the loss, head coach Lindsay Edmonds said she was proud of her team for holding their own in the second most important postseason tournament in the sport.

Baseball breaks out brooms in Birmingham

Rice baseball swept the University of Alabama at Birmingham last weekend, the first time they’ve opened Conference USA play with a sweep since 2015. It was a chilly weekend in Birmingham — game time temperatures were around 35 degrees on Sunday — but according to head coach Jose Cruz Jr., the Owls were able to grind out a few wins despite the cold.

‘Like a dead fish’: Hayon fights through illness at NCAAs

For the second year in a row, Arielle Hayon competed at the NCAA Swimming Championship Meet, this time placing No. 39 in the 100 yard butterfly and No. 50 in the 200. But unlike last year, the sophomore from Agoura Hills, California competed in both races battling a sinus infection.

MBB routed by UAB in second round of C-USA tourney

In the second round of the Conference USA tournament, the Rice men’s basketball team fell short against the University of Alabama at Birmingham by a final score of 87-60. According to head coach Scott Pera, the Blazers were able to force the Owls into mistakes throughout the game.

WBB stunned by UTSA in C-USA quarterfinals after late collapse

After earning the No. 3 seed and a first round bye, the Rice women’s basketball team’s Conference USA tournament run ended abruptly on Friday when they lost to the No. 6 seed University of Texas at San Antonio 62-54 in the quarterfinals. 

‘This is March Madness, right?’: MBB narrowly defeats UTSA in C-USA opener

If college basketball games lasted 40 minutes and half a second, the Rice men’s basketball team’s season would be over right now. After leading nearly the entire game against the No. 11 seed University of Texas at San Antonio in their opening game of the Conference USA tournament, the No. 6 seed Owls allowed UTSA to close the margin to one before guard Japhet Medor drove the length of the court with time expiring, getting his layup to roll in. The initial ruling was that Medor had gotten his shot off just before the clock hit zero, but the call was reversed after a two-and-a-half minute review, giving Rice a 72-71 win.

Women’s tennis narrowly avoids sweep against No. 10 UT

The Rice women’s tennis team fell 6-1 on Saturday afternoon to the two-time defending national champion No. 10 University of Texas at Austin. The sky was clear and the sun was scorching at the George R. Brown Tennis Center where the Owls faced off against their second top-25 opponent in the last month. Despite being swept by now-No. 7 Texas A&M University, the Owls were on a three-match winning streak heading into Saturday’s bout with the Longhorns. According to head coach Elizabeth Schmidt, the Owls hoped to build off their recent form and get a win at home. 

After Title IX: Looking back at early women’s sports at Rice

In 1977, one of the most smuggled goods at Rice was sandwiches. The perpetrators were the women’s volleyball team, forced to sneak food out of the serveries to accommodate for their practice time at the gym, which overlapped with dinner times. Neither Rice nor the athletics department had made any mealtime provisions for female athletes at the time, according to Helen Travis Savitzky (’80), who was on the volleyball and swim teams during her time at Rice.

Red-hot WBB enters conference tourney as No. 3 seed

Last weekend, Edmonds’s Owls swept their final regular season games, defeating Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University, conquering the Sunshine State.  According to Edmonds, the Owls are playing their best basketball at the best possible time.

MBB hopes to reverse recent fortunes in C-USA tournament

The Rice men’s basketball team enters this week’s Conference USA tournament in Frisco as the No. 6 seed, as they hope to qualify for the Big Dance for the first time since 1970. The Owls will face off against the University of Texas at San Antonio, the No.11 seed, on Wednesday at 8:30 pm. On a four-game losing streak, the Owls look to turn around their fate at a critical juncture of their season. Despite their recent struggle, head coach Scott Pera is confident that his team will show up in their biggest game of the year. 

Baseball upsets Tech, bats go silent against A&M and TCU

The Rice baseball team got a statement win on a big stage, beating No. 24 Texas Tech University 3-2 on Friday to open the Shriners’ College Classic at Minute Maid Park. But the rest of the weekend didn’t go as planned, and the Owls dropped games to No. 15 Texas A&M University and No. 10 Texas Christian University in lopsided fashion, bringing their record to 4-7.

Baseball knocks off No. 24 Texas Tech to open weekend at Minute Maid

Paul Janish is now undefeated, but the same can’t be said for No. 24 Texas Tech University. Rice’s associate head coach stepped in for head coach Jose Cruz Jr., who missed Friday’s game with a personal matter, and guided the Owls to a 3-2 win over the previously 10-0 Red Raiders to open the Owls’ weekend-long residence at Minute Maid Park.

MBB needs to fix defense in time for tournament

The Rice men’s basketball team started the season firing on all cylinders, winning 11 of their first 14 games and finishing the month of January with a 15-6 record. However, the team struggled in February, losing six of the eight games they played during the month. Sitting sixth in Conference USA, with just two games left in the regular season, the Owls must figure out how to fix their flaws if they hope to make waves at the conference tournament next week. 

Fied the beast: MBB’s Fiedler does it all, on and off the court

It doesn’t take a basketball analyst to figure out which NBA player junior forward Max Fiedler models his game after, and it just so happens to be the player that the 6’11 forward from Indialantic, Florida has admired his whole life.

Fast start propels WBB past Charlotte on Senior Day

Starting an all-senior lineup, the Rice women’s basketball team never trailed on their way to a 64-52 win over the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Saturday. The Senior Day win improved Rice to 20-7 on the year and marked their eighth consecutive home win. 

Baseball sinks at Sunken Diamond, swept by No. 2 Stanford

The baseball team was swept by Stanford University, the No. 2 team in the country, last weekend. Despite the sweep, however, the Owls kept the first and third games of the series close, showing glimpses of what they hope to be a turnaround under second year head coach Jose Cruz Jr. According to Cruz, the opportunity to play against a top-ranked team this early in the season gave the Owls a spotlight to show what they have been building.

Baseball heads to No. 2 Stanford twenty years after CWS final

Twenty years ago, Stanford University was the second-best team in college baseball. The Cardinal finished that season as runners-up in the College World Series, falling short to a team from a small Texas school – Rice. Two decades later, Stanford is once again the No. 2 team in college baseball – this time according to the weekly D1Baseball poll and not postseason results – but the Owls haven’t sniffed the rankings in over half a decade.

Bellamy’s career night leads WBB past second-place WKU

With the conference season winding down, the Owls cemented their spot in the top half of Conference USA by taking down second-placed Western Kentucky University on the road.

2-22-2023 Sports Cartoon: "Owl-American"