Owls Play Three Games In Six-Day Span
9/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 17, 2007
THIS WEEK: The Rice soccer team (3-2-1) plays three games in a six-day span this week. The tough stretch begins with the Owls hosting crosstown foe Houston Baptist on Tuesday (Sept. 18), followed by state rival Texas State on Friday (Sept. 21). The start time for both home matches is slated for 7 pm... Rice then plays on the road against No. 3 ranked Texas A&M on Sunday (Sept. 23). Start time with the Aggies is set for 6 pm in College Station.
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 3-2-1 to start the season. The Owls tied McNeese State 2-2 on the road in Lake Charles, La., in their season-opener (Aug.31) and shut out Dartmouth 3-0 two days later at a neutral site in College Station. The team beat TCU 1-0 in double-overtime and thumped Stephen F. Austin 4-1 on Sept. 7 & 9, respectively. The Owls suffered their first set backs last week with a pair of identical 2-1 final scores on the road at Mississippi and Mississippi State... 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 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 63-50-9. The two-time Western Athletic Conference coach of the year owns a career college coaching record of 85-66-11. 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 25-13-2. 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.
PREVIOUSLY: STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Rice soccer team got an early goal from freshman Kate Edwards, but Mississippi State rallied for a late goal to tie the score and another in double-overtime to claim a 2-1 win over the visiting Owls Sunday afternoon in Starkville, Miss. With the team's second-straight loss Rice fell to 3-2-1 on the year. Mississippi State improved to 3-3-0 overall.
In just the third minute of the contest, Edwards broke through traffic and fielded a quick pass from sophomore forward Erin Scott on the left wing. Edwards needed only one touch to settle the ball and blast away on a shot eight yards away in front of the goal. The ball found the back of the net for Edwards' team-leading fourth goal of the season. The newcomer from Westlake Village, Calif., has scored in four of the team's last five games.
"State was trying to rotate the ball, but I kind of intercepted it," Edwards said. "I tried to dribble up and didn't have control of it either. Erin got it and cleared it. The defense went to her and she passed it back. I tried to shoot it with my left foot, saw the defender was coming and cut it back to my right foot. Their player dove and it was just me and the keeper, and I placed it in an open spot.
"I never would have guessed to be leading the team in scoring," Edwards added. "My freshman year in high school I was also the leading scorer which was amazing to me."
The Owls continued to apply the offensive pressure in the first half with an 11-to-6 advantage in shots with five that forced the MSU goalkeeper to make saves. Edwards hit a shot that could have sealed the win in the 60th minute, but the ball bounced off the Mississippi State crossbar. The Blue & Gray held a 7-1 advantage in corner kicks late in the second half.
With just a one goal deficit, MSU had just enough breathing room to tie the game in the 84th minute. The 1-1 tie gave the Bulldogs new life. The teams battled to a scoreless 10 minutes in the first overtime, but in the 104th minute MSU scored the game-winner on a breakaway.
"We had some individual efforts, but we weren't playing together for the full game," said Rice senior defender Beth Martin. "I think we learned that mistakes may happen in a game, but not to dwell on them. We have to be proactive about maintaining an acceptable work rate and playing together for a full game, overtime included. It will be good to get back home," she said. "We have a big week with three games, two are at home to start it off. We've had a good fan base come out and hopefully show them how we're capable of playing."
THE SERIES: Rice and Houston Baptist have met once before. The teams clashed on Sept. 8 last season when the Huskies were in their first year as a soccer program. HBU returns more players who started last year's Rice-HBU game (7), than the Owls (4). In the 2006 Rice-HBU meeting, Houston native Traci Fraser came off the bench to score a pair of goals in a 4-0 win for the Blue & Gray... Rice and Texas State have met every year since the Owls began soccer in 2001. Rice leads the series 3-2-1 with wins in each of the last three meetings. The series is an even 1-1-1 in games played at Rice... Rice and Texas A&M have one official meeting. The Aggies claimed a 4-1 victory over a young Owl team in 2002.
THIS & THAT: True freshman Kate Edwards has scored goals in four of the team's last five games. She won the TCU game (Sept. 7) with a penalty kick 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. 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... Six different Rice players have scored goals in six games played. The team continues to get a lot of offensive pressure on the goal. Five different players have attempted 15 shots or more... True freshman Meghan Erkel has made 21 saves and maintained a 1.14 goals-against average. Erkel has started every game and played 551 of the team's 584 minutes (94.3 percent). She registered a complete game shut out against TCU.
DID YOU KNOW? Friday's Rice game against Texas State is FREE ADMISSION for all those who are involved in the Big Brothers & Big Sister's program. Contact the Rice Marketing Office for more details.
ELSEWHERE AROUND C-USA: There's a lot of great matchups in C-USA soccer this week. The league's composite schedule is as follows:
Tues., Sept. 18
UT-Martin at Memphis 7 pm
Houston Baptist at Rice 7 pm
Wednesday, Sept. 19
Miami at UCF 6 pm
Fri., Sept. 21
Campbell at East Carolina 3 pm
Marshall at Georgia Southern 3 pm
UAB at Kennesaw State 6 pm
Colorado College at Oklahoma State 7 pm
Houston at Texas 7:00 pm
Mississippi at Memphis 7 pm
Texas State at Rice 7 pm
TCU at SMU 7 pm
Southern Miss at Alabama 7 pm
Tulsa at Texas A&M 7:30 pm
Idaho at UTEP 8 pm
Sat., Sept. 22
Florida State at UCF 6 pm
