Rice University Athletics
Owls Host UAB & Memphis In C-USA Weekend Action
10/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 10, 2007
THIS WEEK: The Rice soccer team, 7-3-1 on the season and 1-0-0 in Conference USA, wraps-up its current homestand with a pair of league games this weekend. The Owls host C-USA foes UAB (4-5-1, 0-1-0) and Memphis (8-2-0, 2-0-0) Friday and Sunday, respectively, at the Rice Soccer Stadium. Start time against UAB is slated for 7 pm. The Memphis game begins at 1 pm.
TWO GREAT DEALS: On Friday the Rice athletics department will give away a free Owls' soccer tee-shirt to the first 100 Rice students through the gates. Sunday's game has been designated as Scout Day. There will be free admission to all current members of the Boys & Girls Scouts.
LIVE IN-GAME STATS: Live in-game statistics for Rice matches will be posted on the world-wide web. At the start of the game go to the respective live stats links at the top of this page.
QUICK ON THE OWLS: Rice is 7-3-1 to start the season and undefeated in C-USA action. The Owls have defeated state-rivals Houston, TCU, Stephen F. Austin, Texas State and Lamar. The team's only losses have all been on the road, to fourth-ranked Texas A&M and to SEC powers Mississippi and Mississippi State... The Blue & Gray averages 20.1 shots per game and the team has maintained a .434 shots-on-goal percentage... Senior co-captain Beth Martin was selected to the Conference USA all-preseason team on a vote of the league's head coaches. Rice has five starters back from its 2006 team that finished with a winning 11-6-1 record, but the team is still fighting through a number of individual injuries to key personnel.
HEAD COACH CHRIS HUSTON: Now in her seventh season at the helm of the Rice soccer program she started from scratch, Chris Huston has guided the Owls to an established spot alongside the more experienced teams in the state of Texas and the NCAA. Her won-loss record at Rice is 67-51-9. The two-time Western Athletic Conference coach of the year owns a career college coaching record of 89-67-11. The former standout at the University of North Carolina served as the head coach at the University of Houston for two years after starting that program in 1998. Huston owns a career C-USA regular season record of 26-13-2. She is aided by assistant coaches Nicky Adams (Texas A&M, 2001; fifth year), Justin Zoslow (Vanderbilt, 1986; fourth year) and volunteer assistant coach Craig Waibel, a defender on the MLS champion Houston Dynamo.
THE SERIES: The Rice-UAB soccer series is tied 1-1-0. The teams met for the first time in 2005 in the opening round of the C-USA Tournament hosted by Rice. The Owls won that match 1-0 to advance to the semifinals. UAB got its revenge over the Blue & Gray with a 3-1 victory in Birmingham, Ala., in 2006. Junior midfielder Christine Petric scored the Owls' lone goal against the Blazers last season... Memphis leads the all-time series with Rice 1-0-0, but the Tigers needed two overtimes at home to claim a 4-3 win over the Owls last season. Not only was that game the first-ever soccer meeting between the two schools, Memphis was the final C-USA opponent the Owls had yet to play after joining the league back in 2005. (The other C-USA opponents that Rice has played just one time are Colorado College in 2006 and Marshall in 2005.)
DID YOU KNOW? Rice is third in Conference USA in average home attendance. The Owls have averaged 398 fans for the team's six home games. Rice is undefeated at home this season (6-0-0).
LAST TIME OUT: Owls Shut Out Houston 2-0 Freshman midfielder Kate Edwards scored a pair of goals while the defense posted another solid outing as the Rice soccer team coasted to a 2-0 shutout win over crosstown rival Houston in the Conference USA opener for both teams Oct. 5 at the Rice Soccer Stadium.
With the Owls' scoring leader providing the offensive punch and the defenders limiting Houston's attack to an austere four shots, the Blue & Gray took the positive first step all C-USA teams wanted to take as league play got underway. Rice out-shot UH 24-4 for the night and the team posted its fourth shutout of the season, the second in as many games, but stats aside there was also a little bit extra for this opener.
By defeating Houston the Owls won the rivalry game against its crosstown opponent for a second-straight season. In the annual battle for the city's collegiate soccer championship, Rice is 4-0-1 against UH dating back to 2003.
"It's a crosstown rivalry and I think both teams definitely get up for this game," Rice head coach Chris Huston said. "I think we played well and any win in conference is a good win. We created a lot of opportunities for ourselves and I'm thankful we got on the end of at least two of them. Kate and Shelley Wong were outstanding in the midfield and those two were the difference between a win and a loss."
Before Edwards got the ball rolling on the scoring, she opportunistically found the ball rolling at her feet a few yards in front of the goal and no one else around. In the 21st minute Rice defender Kellen Schugart blasted a free kick toward the Houston goal from the right wing after a foul. The kick was high, but looked like it might slip in an opening over the UH keeper at the mouth of the goal.
The ball didn't find the back of the net, but it did find the crossbar and deflected downward at a sharp angle to Edwards waiting on the left side. The freshman from Westlake Village, Calif., needed just a quick tap for a 1-0 lead the team would not relinquish.
"It was a scrappy goal," Edwards said. "I actually thought it was going over, then it hit the crossbar. It could have gone anywhere from there, but it came back right to me and I thought, 'oh... here we go,' and I just poked it in with my toe."
For as hard as Edwards has worked this season, including 86 physical minutes against UH where she finally had to be assisted off the field due to some cramping from the heat, the rookie maybe deserves to have one fall right at her feet every now and again. She had to go right back to work, however, for her second goal of the night in the second half. In the 64th minute senior Clory Martin laced a right corner kick into traffic around the keeper's box. Edwards made a read on the ball, broke through some containment and converted on a header from eight yards out.
"I was a little off the first couple of corner kicks I played and we didn't have much to show for it," Martin said. "If you give Kate something to work with, then she's going to make something happen. She's an exciting player and the team has a lot of confidence in her."
The freshman's second score of the night not only doubled the margin and added a little insurance to the scoreboard, it gave her eight goals on the year to tie for the second-highest single-season mark in school history. With a nose for the back of the net, there's only been four games this season where Edwards hasn't scored a goal.
Rice freshman goalkeeper Meghan Erkel made a pair of saves, the only two she's needed to make in the last two games.
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH: Eight different Rice players have scored goals so far. Through 11 games, four different Owls have attempted 30 shots or more. In Rice's balanced offensive attack, the team's shots in the first and second half are almost identical (108 in the first and 104 in the second).
THIS & THAT: She may be a young freshman, but Kate Edwards ranks among the C-USA leaders with eight goals. Edwards moved into a tie for second place on Rice's list for goals in a single season (8). The standout from Westlake Village, Calif., is six goals away from tying the Rice single season record. Her penalty kick won the TCU game (Sept. 7) in the 102nd minute to mark the first time in school history Rice had won an overtime game on a PK. Edwards is one of just five players in Rice soccer history to score a goal in three-straight games, and she's done it twice. The only other Owls to score goals in three-straight games are Erin Scott in 2006, Caitlin Robbins twice in 2005, Sarah Yoder in 2002 and Kelly Pottysman in 2002... Junior Caitlin Robbins, who had been sidelined with an injury, returned to action against Houston. She took one shot and played 58 minutes... True freshman Meghan Erkel has made 29 saves and maintained a 1.20 goals-against average. Erkel has started every game and played 899 of the team's 1,034 minutes (86.9 percent). She registered complete game shut outs against TCU and Houston... Give some of the scoreless credit to the Owls' back line. The Rice defensive crew that features starters Beth Martin, Katelyn Ostendorf, Kellen Schugart and Lindsay Jaggers has allowed just 9.9 shots per game, one of the lowest averages in the conference.
ELSEWHERE AROUND C-USA: The C-USA matches continue to get bigger and bigger this week. The league's composite schedule for this weekend is as follows:
Friday, Oct. 12
Memphis at Houston 7 pm
UAB at Rice 7 pm
Southern Miss at SMU 7 pm
UCF at Tulsa 7 pm
Sat., Oct. 13
UTEP at Colorado College 1 pm
Sun., Oct. 14
East Carolina at Marshall noon
UAB at Houston 1 pm
Memphis at Rice 1 pm
UCF at SMU 1 pm
Southern Miss at Tulsa 1 pm
