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Sports

SPORTS 3/8/22 11:46pm

MBB looks to ride offense, hide defense in C-USA tourney

By Pavithr Goli

The month of March is usually an exciting time for college basketball teams as they fight for conference glory and a chance to compete in the NCAA tournament. For the Rice men’s basketball, this means they will participate in the Conference USA tournament this week. Winning the C-USA tournament would put the Owls in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1970. The Owls enter the tournament as the No. 5 seed in the West and will face the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the No. 4 seed in the East, on Wednesday in the bracket-style tournament. 

SPORTS 3/8/22 11:44pm

After drastic turnaround, women’s basketball heads into C-USA tourney flying high

By Cadan Hanson

Back in late January, any prospects of success in the Conference USA tournament for the Rice women’s basketball team were bleak. The Owls were on a five-game losing streak to start conference play. Fresh off of an agonizing quadruple-overtime loss to the current No. 1 seed in the East division, the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, the Owls had some work to do to get to the position they wanted to be in come March. According to head coach Lindsay Edmonds, that is exactly what they did. Now, the Owls have won six of the last seven games and have secured the fourth seed in the West division going into this week’s C-USA tournament.

SPORTS 3/8/22 11:42pm

Women’s hoops closes regular season with blowout win against UTEP, UTSA on Senior Day

By Reed Myers

The Rice women’s basketball team closed out their regular season with a win over the University of Texas, El Paso by 20 points and capped off their regular season with a 38 point victory on Senior Day over the University of Texas, San Antonio. While the Owls started conference play 0-5, their final home sweep earned them victories in six of their last seven games and a 8-9 conference record. According to head coach Lindsay Edmonds, she is enjoying her team’s recent play as they enter the conference tournament. 

SPORTS 3/2/22 12:03am

Men’s tennis goes 1-2 at ASU 8-team tournament

By Reed Myers

The Rice men’s tennis team went out west over the weekend to take part in Arizona State University’s 8-Team Tournament, where the Owls took one out of their three matches. According to head coach Efe Ustundag, the matches provided a learning opportunity that his team can take with it following the tournament. 

SPORTS 3/1/22 11:43pm

Baseball drops 2 of 3 to Lamar in first home series

By Ben Baker-Katz

Rice baseball lost their first home series of the season last weekend, with Lamar University coming into town and taking the first two games of the series, before the Owls avoided the sweep on Sunday afternoon to claim their first home victory of 2022. Their record now sits at 2-5 on the season.

SPORTS 3/1/22 11:42pm

MBB celebrates Senior Day with OT win over Southern Miss

By Daniel Schrager

For once, the Rice men’s basketball team can count themselves lucky to not be ranked among the top teams in the country. On Saturday, when each of the top-six ranked teams lost on the same day for the first time ever, the Owls pulled ahead of the University of Southern Mississippi in overtime for a 77-72 Senior Day win. After the game, head coach Scott Pera said that he was happy with how the team fought to get the win for the seniors.

SPORTS 3/1/22 11:41pm

Hayon breaks meet record as swimming takes 2nd at C-USAs

By Pavithr Goli

The Rice women’s swimming team took second place at the Conference USA championships last week behind Florida International University. In addition to the No. 2 finish, the Owls had several top performances throughout the competition, as their seven gold medals beat the previous program record of six from 2014. After the meet, head coach Seth Huston said he was proud of his team’s performance and their preparation for the event.

SPORTS 3/1/22 11:40pm

High-flying freshman Josie Taylor is already breaking records

By Reed Myers

Freshman high jumper Josie Taylor might be the new kid on the block for the Rice women’s track and field team, but she’s already breaking Conference USA meet records. Taylor, who is from Cambridge, Waikato, New Zealand, is finding herself right at home in her first year, which may be surprising considering Taylor had never been to the United States before she moved to Houston this past fall.

SPORTS 3/1/22 11:39pm

Women’s tennis beats UTSA in C-USA opener, falls to No. 7 A&M

By Cadan Hanson

Fresh off of a 4-0 sweep of Louisiana State University, the Rice women’s tennis team entered their first conference match of the season on Friday against the University of Texas, San Antonio. The Owls, who recently ranked No. 57 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, split their weekend matches, defeating the Roadrunners 5-0 and falling short against No. 7 Texas A&M University 1-4.

SPORTS 2/22/22 10:53pm

Women’s hoops gets first conference sweep

By Reed Myers

The Rice women’s basketball team picked up their first conference play weekend-sweep by defeating the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Florida International University. Both games saw the Owls in a neck-and-neck contest to the very end, something that has troubled the team so far this season. However, according to head coach Lindsay Edmonds, closing games has been a point of emphasis, and she was proud to see her team pull through in both games. 

SPORTS 2/22/22 10:51pm

36 runs in 27 innings: Longhorns crush Owls in Austin

By Pavithr Goli

Rice baseball was swept by the No.1 ranked University of Texas, Austin to start their season this past weekend.  In Jose Cruz Jr.’s debut as the team’s head coach, the Owls lost to the Longhorns each day of the weekend by large margins: a 7-0 defeat on Friday, a 15-1 loss on Saturday, and a final score of 14-2 on Sunday.

SPORTS 2/22/22 10:50pm

Three Owls take gold at men’s T&F C-USA championships

By Daniel Schrager

Three Owls took home gold medals as the Rice men’s track and field team placed fifth at the Conference USA championships in Birmingham, Alabama over the weekend. On Saturday, junior thrower Nick Hicks won his second straight conference title in the weight throw, while junior vaulter Natan Rivera took gold in the pole vault, edging out teammate Grant Levesque on a tiebreaker. Levesque would get a gold of his own the next day though, winning the heptathlon. According to head coach Jon Warren, while it’s tough to gauge the team’s progress during the short indoor season, he was happy with the results.

SPORTS 2/22/22 10:47pm

Simpson-Sullivan, Taylor set meet records at C-USA championships

By Cadan Hanson

Over the weekend, the Rice women’s track and field team traveled to Birmingham, Alabama for the 2022 Conference USA Indoor Championships. The Owls closed out the two-day competition with a fifth place team finish, scoring a total of 59 points. Overall, head coach Jim Bevan said he was proud of how his team competed on the biggest stage they’ve competed on yet this season.

SPORTS 2/16/22 12:02am

Superb Owls: Rice alums help design SoFi Stadium, home to Super Bowl

By Chloe Singer

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in their newly constructed home stadium. The stadium’s architectural features were on display all night long from a seating bowl pressed up against the field, to the 360-degree, 80-million-pixel video board that allowed fans to relive Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp’s game-winning touchdown, to the sharp curves of the exterior seen in aerial shots. Behind the design of the most expensive stadium ever built were two Rice Alums, Michelle Stevenson, the Senior Project Architect for the seating bowl, and Neil Prunier, the Senior Project Architect for the exterior.

SPORTS 2/16/22 12:01am

Two-way Garibay: Guy preps for sophomore season

By Reed Myers

This past season, Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels made waves across the baseball world by winning the American League MVP award as both a pitcher and a batter. Fifteen-hundred miles to the east, the Rice baseball team boasts a two-way player of its own in sophomore Guy Garibay Jr., who serves as both an outfielder and a pitcher. 

SPORTS 2/15/22 11:59pm

Baseball is finally headed back in the right direction

By Ben Baker-Katz

It is hard to overstate the importance of good coaching in baseball. As Yogi Berra liked to say, “90 percent of the game is half mental,” and while no one quite knows what that means, it comes down to baseball being some combination of preparedness and confidence, not to mention the physical act of going out and performing. A good coach can go a long way toward preparing a team and making it believe in itself, and despite the fact that they have yet to play a game, it feels safe to say that Rice baseball under the command of Jose Cruz Jr. is in a much better position to succeed than it was at any point over the past three seasons. 

SPORTS 2/15/22 11:55pm

Baseball looks to buck recent trend in upcoming season

By Cadan Hanson

Following the 2021 season, which saw the Rice baseball team go 23-29-1 and miss out on the conference tournament for the first time since 1993, Athletic Director Joe Karlgaard decided that the program was in need of a change. He relieved then-head coach Matt Bragga of his duties after three seasons, and brought in Jose Cruz Jr. in his place. 

SPORTS 2/15/22 11:14pm

Powderpuff season set to start after long delay

By Kaitlyn Crowley

After the cancellation of the 2020 women’s flag football season due to COVID-19, students across Rice have been looking forward to the return of powderpuff this year. According to Vaidya Parthasarathy, a Powderpuff coach at Wiess College, the coaches and players are just excited to be back on the field.

SPORTS 2/1/22 11:30pm

Women’s basketball takes down LA Tech for first conference win of the season

By Daniel Schrager

It took six games, but the Rice women’s basketball team was able to get into the win column in Conference USA standings on Thursday when they took down Louisiana Tech University by a score of 72-64. The game was the first conference win in the tenure of first-year head coach Lindsay Edmonds, who guided the Owls to a 5-3 record in non-conference play before the team hit a five-game skid. According to Edmonds, the win meant even more given all that it took for the team to get there.

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