Soccer Plays At UAB On Friday; Memphis On Sunday
10/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 8, 2008
Rice Soccer On The Web This Week
THIS WEEK: The Rice soccer team, 7-4-0 on the season and tied for second place in the Conference USA standings with nine points from its 3-1-0 league record, takes to the road for a pair of weekend games (Oct. 10 & 12). The Owls face C-USA foe UAB (3-9-0, 1-3-0) on Friday at 7 pm in Birmingham, Ala. Rice then meets Memphis (6-4-1, 2-2-0) at noon on Sunday (Oct. 12) in a match that will be taped for a later television broadcast by CBS College Sports.
CBS COLLEGE SPORTS BROADCAST SET FOR TUESDAY: CBS College Sports, formerly CSTV but the same broadcasting leader in televising collegiate sports, will air Sunday's Memphis game on a tape-delayed basis on Tuesday (Oct.14) at 6 pm Central Time. Broadcasters Ann Schatz (play-by-play) and Tammy Blackburn (commentary) will call the action. Rice's most-recent CBSC broadcast was a home game against Texas A&M just three weeks ago (Sept. 21). The Owls were on the network in 2006 at UTEP and in 2005 when Rice's win in the C-USA Championship Final was televised live across the country.
LIVE IN-GAME STATS: Live in-game statistics for all Rice matches are posted on the web. At the start of the game, go to the respective live stats link at the top of this page and follow the text description of the action.
QUICK ON THE OWLS: Rice enters the current road series with a season-best three-game win-streak... There are 17 experienced players on the roster, including six returning starters from last season's team that finished 12-7-2 and reached the semifinals of the Conference USA Tournament. The Owls' incoming class of freshmen was rated among the best in C-USA... In a preseason poll of the league's 12 head coaches, Rice was picked fourth overall while sophomore midfielder Kate Edwards was named to the coaches' 2008 C-USA Preseason Team... Rice has the honor of hosting the annual C-USA Tournament at the end of the regular season (Nov. 5-9)... Rice has four losses, but a closer look at that number is in order. Two of the losses were to teams ranked among the Top 15 in the nation (Texas A&M and Oklahoma State) and a third was on the road to a TCU team that just entered the national rankings this week.
HEAD COACH CHRIS HUSTON: Now in her eighth 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 79-59-10. The two-time Western Athletic Conference coach of the year owns a career college coaching record of 101-75-12. 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 33-17-3. She is aided by assistant coaches Nicky Adams (Texas A&M, 2001; sixth year), Justin Zoslow (Vanderbilt, 1986; fifth year) and volunteer assistant coach Craig Waibel, a defender on the back-to-back MLS champion Houston Dynamo who is now in his third season with the Owls.
CENTURY MARK: When Rice defeated SMU 2-1 on Oct. 3, Chris Huston won the 100th game of her coaching career. Upon reaching the milestone victory, the Rice players presented their coach with a bouquet of flowers and a signed soccer ball on the field after the game. Huston's career coaching record includes her seven and a half years at Rice and two full Division I seasons across town at the University of Houston.
REGIONAL RESPECT: With three wins in a row Rice is regionally-ranked in one poll and getting votes in another. The Owls are 15th in the latest Central Regional ranking according to the Internet publication SoccerBuzz.com. The Blue & Gray is receiving votes in the latest poll from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Here are quick links to the two polls:
SoccerBuzz.com rankings page
NSCAA rankings page
SKY-HIGH R.P.I.: The NCAA released the first Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 2008 for women's soccer on Tuesday, Oct. 7. As expected, Rice has a sky-high rating among the top 40 teams in the country. RPI is used to determine the at-large field for the 64-team NCAA Tournament so the higher the better. Here's a breakdown of how the C-USA teams looked after the first reporting date.
2008 NCAA RPI (as of Oct. 7)
26. UCF
37. Rice Owls
38. Colorado College
46. East Carolina
81. Memphis
92. SMU
144. UTEP
160. Tulsa
164. Marshall
194. UAB
196. Houston
215. Southern Miss
GET PACKED After wrapping-up a six-game homestand that was the longest in school history last Sunday, the Owls have a tremendous challenge ahead. Rice must play each of its next four, and six of its next seven, games away from home... So far the Blue & Gray is 1-2 in three road games, taking a 1-0 decision at Big 12 power Oklahoma... The Owls ended up with a six-game homestand through an act of nature. Rice originally had a road game scheduled at Lamar on Sept. 23 (which would have split the homestand in two halves), but that event was cancelled due to the effects of Hurricane Ike. Without the Lamar game, Rice strung together a stretch of home matches from Sept. 19 to Oct. 5.
WONG & ERKEL EARN C-USA PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS: Sophomore goalkeeper Meghan Erkel and junior midfielder Shelley Wong both earned Conference USA player of the week honors for soccer the league office announced from its headquarters in Irving, Tex., on Monday (Oct. 6). Erkel was named the C-USA defender of the week. Wong shared the league's offensive honor with Colorado College forward Tiffany Brown... Last week Erkel and Wong helped Rice defeat C-USA opponents SMU and Tulsa to move the Owls into a tie for second place in the league standings. Erkel made 10 saves in more than 199 minutes of work that included a double-overtime win Sunday against Tulsa. The goalkeeper from Granite Bay, Calif., registered an .833 save percentage and maintained a 0.90 goals-against average in the two victories. It is the second time this season for Erkel to be named the defensive player of the week. She also earned the honor on Sept. 22... Wong notched her second-consecutive C-USA co-player of the week award after scoring a pair of goals against Tulsa, including the game-winner with 57 seconds left in the second overtime period. The native of Virginia Beach, Va., took a total seven shots last week and maintained a .286 shooting percentage. Her shots-on-goal percentage was .571 and she averaged 89.0 minutes of playing time for the two games. She was also named the C-USA co-offensive player of the week on Sept. 29.
STREAKING STARTERS: The sophomore tandem of Kate Edwards and goalkeeper Meghan Erkel have been in the starting lineup for every game of their collegiate careers. The duo have identical streaks of 32-straight starts for Rice, the longest on the team. With regards to this particular streak, note that neither Edwards nor Erkel are at Baker College!
CROWDED SIDELINE: The Owls have been fighting through more than their share of injuries this season, particularly on defense where the backline alone has lost a total of four different starters. In 2008 injuries have forced Rice to rotate a total of 10 different players for starts on the backline. The Owls have had to use seven different defensive lineups for its 11 games... Last weekend marked the first time this year Rice was healthy enough to start the same four players (Alexa Coralli, Stephanie Crain, Chealsey Russell and Kellen Schugart) on its defensive backline for three games in a row. The result was the Owls won all three games. The defensive foursome have played all 289 minutes of the last three wins without being subbed-out... Junior defender Katelyn Ostendorf, an All-Conference USA honoree on the field and in the classroom, has been sidelined with an injury she suffered in the off-season. Sophomore defender & forward Korey Taylor has been unable to practice due to an injury in the preseason. Senior defender Chandra Ewing was sidelined five games into the season. Junior Anne Candee had to be assisted from the field in the McNeese State game (Sept. 19) with an injury and it was the same for Ashley Lucas two days later vs. Texas A&M (Sept. 21).
SEE SHELL, SEE SHELL SCORE: Junior midfielder Shelley Wong scored both goals Sunday against Tulsa, giving her a team-leading total of seven goals this season. Wong is no stranger to multi-goal games this season. The standout from Virginia Beach, Va., owns three (3) two-goal games this year. Wong is only the fourth Owl in school history to have three or more two-goal games her career. It's the most multi-goal games for an Owl in a single season since Caitlin Robbins tallied four with two-or-more in 2005.
BIG SHOTS: Not only was Rice's 35 shots and 15 shots on-goal against Tulsa new season-highs, both are respectively the sixth-highest single-game totals in school history. Kate Edwards took nine shots against the Golden Hurricane, the most by a Rice player in a single game in two years.
GREAT SCOTT: Junior Erin Scott registered a game-winning goal, an assist and 10 shots over the weekend. The forward from Richardson, Tex., moved into a tie for fourth place on the school's career list for goals with 14. Scott now has 13 assists for her career needs two more to tie for third all-time at Rice. Other career offensive milestones fast-approaching on Scott's radar are for shots (needs five more to tie for second) and points (needs one more to tie for fourth).
ACTIVE DOUBLE-DOUBLES: This season Erin Scott became the fifth, and Shelley Wong became the sixth, Rice players in school history to notch double-digit career totals in both goals and assists. Scott is now up to 14 goals and 13 assists. Wong reached 10 in both categories on Sunday. Four other Owls have accomplished the feat since the soccer program started in 2001. This season marks only the second time in school history for two of the career double-double Owls to be on the same team. The duo are only juniors and have another full season left to play.
SHOW-ME-STATERS: In her first career start vs. Marshall on Sept. 28, Chealsey Russell registered an assist on a goal by fellow freshman and fellow Missouri native Amy Beger. Russell is from Springfield, Mo., while Beger is from St. Louis. Prior to Rice the Show-Me-State duo were longtime teammates for the prestigious St. Louis Soccer Club. After the Marshall victory, Russell said the assist on Beger's goal was almost second-nature. "We've already done that play like a million times," Russell said. "I knew how and where she wanted to go to get open and take the shot."
SMASHING ROOKIE CLASS: The Owls have relied heavily on their freshman class, and the rookies have delivered. Four of the current freshmen have combined for 24 starts... The Owls' rookie tandem of Amy Beger and Hope Ward both started and did well in an extremely intense environment against 17th-ranked Oklahoma State (Sept. 5) before a rowdy crowd of almost 1,400 OSU fans. In Ward's Division I debut against UTSA, the rookie from nearby Kingwood notched two assists in the team's five-goal performance... In the 4-2 win over McNeese State, Beger scored two goals and assisted on another. Not only was the break-through performance the first goals and assists of her career, her five-point day is tied for the sixth-highest single game point total in school history. It stands alone as the most points in a game by a Rice true freshman. Former Owl Caitlin Robbins accomplished the same feat as a redshirt freshman in 2005. Beger is tied for third on the team with 10 points (3 goals, 4 assists)... Freshman forward Annie Kadota was the star of the season-opener, notching the game-winning goal and an assist in her debut at the Division I level. Kadota, one of the Owls' talented newcomers, opened the scoring with a goal and then assisted on another just a over a minute later. The Rice rookie from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., became only the fifth Owl in school history to score a goal in her first career game and she did it just 31 minutes into her collegiate career.
THE OPPOSITION: UAB is 3-9-0 on the season and 1-3-0 in C-USA action. International standout Danya Barsalona leads the Blazers in shots, goals and game-winning goals. Kate Blankenship is back in goal after posting nine shutouts as a freshman last season... Memphis is 6-4-1 overall and 2-2-0 in conference. The Tigers shared the league's regular season title last season and won the C-USA Championship to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Memphis hosts the University of Houston in a C-USA match on Friday night.
THE UAB SERIES: Rice leads the soccer series with UAB 3-1-0. 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. Rice claimed a 2-1 regular season victory over the Blazers last season and a 1-0 win in the most-recent meeting last November in the C-USA Tournament in El Paso.
THE MEMPHIS SERIES: Memphis leads the all-time series with Rice 1-0-1, but every game between the two teams has gone into double-overtime. The teams tied 1-1 in Houston last season. Memphis logged a 4-3 win over the Owls in 2006. 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 July 2005.
ELSEWHERE AROUND C-USA: As expected, the competitive balance in Conference USA has made for an incredibly tight league race. Ten of the 12 teams are tied with matching 1-1-0 records. The C-USA composite schedule for the games this week is as follows:
Friday (Oct. 10)
Tulsa at East Carolina, 3 pm
Southern Miss at Colorado College, 5 pm
SMU at Marshall, 6 pm
Houston at Memphis, 7 pm
Rice at UAB, 7 pm
UCF at UTEP, 8 pm
Sunday (Oct. 12)
Rice at Memphis (taped for CBS C), Noon
SMU at East Carolina, Noon
Tulsa at Marshall, Noon
UCF at Colorado College, 1 pm
Southern Miss at UTEP, 1 pm
Houston at UAB, 2 pm
JUST FOR KICKS: This year fans will have a chance to get some extra insight to the Rice soccer team via the Internet. The players will be featured one-by-one in a question & answer segment titled "Just For Kicks." Fans can check out the feature at the following link: Just For Kicks
WAIBEL LENDS A HELPING FOOT: Over the summer Rice volunteer soccer coach and Houston Dynamo star Craig Waibel made a total of 10 football field goals to help send 30 youths from local hospitals to the Dynamo's SuperLiga semifinal match against Pachuca... Waibel and Houston Texans kicker Chris Brown arranged to have three kids from local hospitals receive free tickets to the Dynamo game for every field goal Waibel could make after the Texans' practice on July 27. With Brown as his holder and coach, Waibel put on a place kicking display. The Owls' volunteer soccer coach made 10-of-14 attempts, including one eye-opening kick from 63 yards. For his effort, 30 local kids got to see the Dynamo in action... Waibel, who helped lead the Dynamo to back-to-back MLS Cup championships each of the last two seasons, has been a volunteer soccer coach at Rice since 2006.
LET'S PLAY THE FAMILY FEUD: The Sept. 5-7 weekend was a big one for junior defender Alexa Coralli. On Sept. 5 the Dallas native returned to the field for the first time in two years after undergoing a redshirt season in 2007. Coralli made her first start two days later against Oklahoma where she defended against her younger sister, Sage Coralli, a starting forward for the Sooners... Alexa Coralli has since made eight-straight starts on defense for the Owls.
WHO'S NEXT: C-USA action continues for Rice next week. The Owls are back on the road for games at UCF and Southern Miss on Oct. 17 & Oct. 19, respectively.
