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Friday, June 02, 2023 — Houston, TX

Sports

SPORTS 10/25/22 10:11pm

They’re lovin’ it: FB’s McConnection leads them past LA Tech

By Daniel Schrager

Before junior quarterback TJ McMahon hit redshirt sophomore receiver Luke McCaffrey behind two Louisiana Tech University defenders for a 32-yard touchdown with just over two minutes before halftime on Saturday, Rice’s offense hadn’t scored a point in their last hour-and-16-minutes of game-time. But after going down 10-0, the Owls scored 42 points in the next 35 minutes to leave Ruston, LA with a one-point overtime win. According to McMahon, the touchdown kickstarted the offense going into halftime.

SPORTS 10/25/22 10:10pm

Grace Collins ends her soccer career where it started

By Diego Palos Rodriguez

From breaking assist records to scoring game-winning goals and, last week, earning the United Soccer Coaches national player of the week honors, graduate forward Grace Collins has been all over the pitch and the papers this season, helping the Rice soccer team clinch the Conference-USA regular season title. Despite the graduate transfer’s outstanding season, it came close to not happening after the end of last year.

SPORTS 10/25/22 10:07pm

Roberts’ clutch goal gives soccer a storybook win on Senior Night

By Cadan Hanson

Junior defender Jaden Roberts picked the perfect time for her first career goal. With 10 seconds on the clock and the Owls’ Senior Night game tied at zero, graduate forward Grace Collins lined up for a corner kick and sent it into a sea of Owls and Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers. The ball bounced to Roberts, whose shot found the back of the net, sending the Owls into celebration as the clock hit zero. After the game, Roberts recounted the dream goal.

SPORTS 10/18/22 10:44pm

Cross-country tunes up for conference at A&M meet

By Daniel Schrager

Their sport may be called cross-country, but the Owls long-distance runners traveled a fraction of that distance on Saturday when they made the hour-and-a-half drive to College Station for the Arturo Barrios Invitational. Rice’s women’s team took 14th place out of 37 teams, while the men’s team took 20th out of 41 at the Texas A&M University-hosted meet, their last before conference. According to men’s head coach Jon Warren, injuries kept his team from performing as well as he would have liked in their tune-up race.

SPORTS 10/18/22 10:43pm

Soccer wins the weekend to keep perfect conference record alive

By Diego Palos Rodriguez

After winning just two of their eight non-conference games to start the year, the Rice soccer team has won all seven of their games in conference play, allowing just two goals in the process. Over the weekend, the squad defeated the University of Texas at El Paso 2-0 at home and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte 1-0 on the road, with all three goals being scored by graduate transfer forward Grace Collins. While leading the team in both goals and assists this season, Collins attributed the Owls’ conference success to head coach Brian Lee and his emphasis on unnoticed details in each game.

SPORTS 10/18/22 10:41pm

Owls win, Rice loses: Football falls to FAU as offense goes missing

By Pavithr Goli

Rice football was defeated 17-14 by Florida Atlantic University on Saturday night, moving their overall record to 3-3 and marking their first conference loss this season. Coming off their bye week, the loss on Saturday continued Rice’s winless road record this season. After scoring 14 points in the first quarter, Rice’s offense was unable to score for the remainder of the game as FAU responded with 17 unanswered points. Head coach Mike Bloomgren said that while the defense did well to stymie the home side, the offense’s failure to score points was the main culprit in the loss. 

SPORTS 10/16/22 11:45pm

No. 22 volleyball swept by No. 18 Baylor

By Cadan Hanson

When the Owls dropped the first two sets against No. 18 Baylor University on Wednesday, it felt like the same position they had found themselves in numerous times in a season that’s already featured five comeback wins. But instead of the Owls pulling off their third reverse-sweep of the year, the Bears won set three to clinch the sweep (18-25, 22-25, 17-25). Entering the match ranked No. 22 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll and No. 10 in the Rating Percentage Index, the loss ended the Owls’ 11 game win streak. Following the match, head coach Genny Volpe was disappointed by the Owls’ inability to match Baylor’s efficiency.

SPORTS 10/4/22 11:31pm

Powderpuff becomes an intramural, future still undecided

By Morgan Gage

What happened to Miss Independent? She joined the intramural league. Starting this semester, Powderpuff hangs up its independent status and shifts from club to intramural sport. The change comes with a host of changes in rules and in how Powderpuff is organized and run as well as a name change — colleges can now expect to cheer on their women’s flag football team.

SPORTS 10/4/22 11:28pm

Football looks to be turning a corner, but real test is still ahead

By Daniel Schrager

The past few weeks have been as encouraging of a stretch as Rice football has had in a long time. First they beat the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to end what was then the longest active winning streak in college football. They then went toe-to-toe with a University of Houston team that started the season ranked No. 24. Finally, over the weekend, they beat perennial Conference USA contenders University of Alabama at Birmingham for the second straight year.

SPORTS 10/4/22 11:27pm

Late free kick sinks soccer against A&M, snaps win streak

By Pavithr Goli

The Rice soccer team lost 1-0 to Texas A&M University on Sunday night, dropping the team to 6-7 — the most losses the program has seen since head coach Brian Lee’s tenure began in 2019. Entering the game with a four-game winning streak since beginning conference play, the loss away from home rounds out the Owls’ non-conference schedule. Despite the loss, Lee was proud of the way the team fought and is optimistic about the rest of the regular season schedule.

SPORTS 10/4/22 11:25pm

Doubles duo Diae and Maria look to build on No. 16 ranking

By Reed Myers

Hailing from Casablanca, Morocco, and Bristol, United Kingdom, fifth-year Diae El Jardi and senior Maria Budin have joined forces in Houston, Texas, to become the No. 16 doubles team in the country. The duo capped off an impressive season last year with a doubles record of 14-5, earning the No. 22 doubles ranking to finish the year and making it to the NCAA Women’s Doubles Championship. According to El Jardi, their first taste of the NCAA postseason was met with some initial nerves. 

SPORTS 9/27/22 11:43pm

New approach might make volleyball more dangerous

By Daniel Schrager

The idea that losing a key player can make a team better – often called “addition by subtraction” – has been at the center of many a hot take over the years. At first glance, the Rice volleyball team would appear to have a case of addition by subtraction on their hands this season. After losing their all-time kills leader, outside hitter Nicole Lennon, the team has somehow gotten better this season.

SPORTS 9/27/22 11:42pm

Soccer’s new system might be key to a tournament run

By Diego Palos Rodriguez

Although Rice soccer is coming off three straight wins to start conference play, their struggles early in the season are notable enough to cast doubts. While the Owls went up against and lost to some of the best teams in the NCAA, such as No. 8 Florida State University and No. 23 Southern Methodist University, they also struggled against much weaker opponents such as Samford University and Loyola University Maryland. Formation changes and familiarity with the system seem to be having a positive impact on the quality of play at the start of conference play, but will it be enough to guide them past the Conference-USA and toward the NCAA Tournament glory seen less than two years ago?

SPORTS 9/27/22 11:41pm

Anota Adekunle redefines what it means to be a middle blocker

By Cadan Hanson

The middle blocker position is known for what its name implies: blocking the middle. Middle blockers are usually the first line of defense, quickly reading and blocking up the opposing team’s attacks. But Anota Adekunle, a fifth-year senior from Humble, Texas, transcends the typical middle blocker role by adding a strong offensive presence in addition to her defense. When asked about the position she’s played since middle school, Adekunle said that the middle blockers’ role is usually to act as a distraction on offense.

SPORTS 9/27/22 11:39pm

Close but no Bucket: Owls lose back-and-forth battle with UH

By Pavithr Goli

Rice football lost their seventh-straight Bayou Bucket Classic to the University of Houston on Saturday night by a score of 34-27. The back-and-forth affair with the Cougars dropped the Owls to 2-2 on the year. Head coach Mike Bloomgren said that regardless of the result, he is very happy with the effort his staff and players put into the game.

SPORTS 9/21/22 12:23am

50 years later, Rice’s first Black student-athletes reflect on their impact

By Daniel Schrager

Stahlé Vincent came back to Rice over the weekend. But this time, he got a different reception than he did when he first set foot on campus over five decades ago. “[When I first got here] there was not an open-arm reception,” Vincient said. “There were people who never spoke [to me], people avoided me, I had professors who wouldn’t call my name at roll. There was an animus there that you could feel.”

SPORTS 9/21/22 12:20am

After 350 wins, Volpe still isn’t thinking about her legacy

By Landry Wood

During her 19-year tenure, Rice volleyball head coach Genny Volpe has led the Owls to seven NCAA tournaments, two conference championships, 14 winning seasons and, as of Aug. 26’s victory over the University of Houston, 350 wins. With the Owls back in the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s top 25 as of Monday, those numbers seem poised to keep improving. This is a flooring amount of success for a program that had never even been to the tournament until Volpe was hired, but she is far from willing to take sole credit. 

SPORTS 9/21/22 12:17am

Volleyball upsets No. 17 Creighton, jumps into top-25

By Cadan Hanson

On Sunday, a flock of birds rose victorious above Tudor fieldhouse and it wasn’t a band of blue jays. After five intense sets, the Owls team took down No. 17 Creighton University on a second match point, capping off a tournament which started off with a reverse sweep of Big 12 opponent Kansas State University. After missing out on the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Top 25 last week by one spot, the defining weekend was enough to jump the Rice volleyball team to No. 23 on the rankings. 

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