Soccer Team Shuts Out Southern Miss 3-0

Sunday, October 1

Rice Track/Soccer Stadium

1:00 PM

Rice University

4-6-1, 0-2-0

Southern Miss

9-1-1, 1-1-0

Southern Miss

Rice Owls

10/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Oct. 1, 2006

Box Score

HOUSTON -- True freshman Stephanie Crain scored twice after a first half goal by senior Laura Barber, and senior keeper Amy McClintock notched her eighth complete game shutout of the season, to help lead the Rice soccer team to 3-0 Conference USA win over visiting Southern Miss Sunday afternoon at the Rice Soccer Stadium. The Owls bounced back with a convincing victory after suffering its first loss of the season to league rival Central Florida on Friday night. Rice improved to 9-1-1 overall to continue its best start in school history.

Rice applied the offensive pressure early in the first half, including a header by Barber off a corner kick from freshman Kellen Schugart in the 12th minute. The Southern Miss keeper made a play to corral the attack and earn a save, but the Owls had the timing down pat on the play. In the 35th minute the duo tried the play again with Schugart serving a long ball from the left corner to Barber charging in on the right wing. This time Barber's header sailed through a seam in the defense to find the back of the USM net on the right side for a 1-0 Rice advantage.

"Barber's tall, and she can beat people in the back on these corner kicks so I look for her tall red head in the crowd," Schugart explained. "We work on it in practice. She gets up there and fights for it. We were close on one earlier and in some other games too, but we finally got it today.

The Owls came back and quickly added a second goal. In the 37th minute junior Traci Fraser made a cross from the left side after a pair of Golden Eagle defenders converged on the Rice threat. Fraser's pass went straight to Crain, who punched her first shot of the day from 15 yards out in front of the USM goal. The attempt beat a diving goalkeeper and stretched the margin to 2-0 with her first collegiate score.

Rice held a comfortable lead but Crain wasn't finished yet. In the 50th minute the standout from Round Rock opportunistically intercepted a Southern Miss deflection and worked to get an open look at the goal. Before the Golden Eagles' defenders could regroup, Crain blasted a shot from outside the 18-yard line that beat the USM keeper on the right side. She had scored her first two college goals on her only two shots of the day.

For the game the Blue & Gray held a 15-5 advantage in shots and 9-3 lead in corner kicks. The Owls were sharp on the defensive side, notching the team's eighth shutout of the season through the first 11 games. McClintock made a pair of saves to record her eighth win of the year in goal. With the win Rice evened its Conference USA record to 1-1-0. Southern Miss fell to 4-6-1 on the season and 0-2-0 against the league.

"The girls absolutely had to win this game today," said Rice head coach Chris Huston. "They did what they had to do win and I'm proud of that. We've had some players get sidelined and we really needed some freshmen to step-up and make a contribution. Stephanie did a great job whereever we had in there, up top or in the midfield, and her play gave us a lift. Her goals took a lot of pressure off us and that was big."

Rice next meets new Conference USA soccer opponent Colorado College on Friday (Oct. 6) in Colorado Springs at 5 pm. The team travels to UTEP for a Sunday game on Oct. 8 The UTEP match will be taped for a television broadcast by CSTV and will air taped-delayed on the network Oct. 10.