Soccer Defeats Texas-San Antonio 5-1 Sunday

Sunday, August 24

Rice Track/Soccer Stadium

1:00 PM

Rice University

2-0-0

Texas-San Antonio

1-1-0

Team	1	2	Final F
UTSA	0	1	1
Rice	1	4	5

Soccer Defeats Texas-San Antonio 5-1 Sunday

8/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Aug. 24, 2008

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HOUSTON -- Redshirt junior forward Anne Candee scored each of the team's first three goals in the game and junior midfielder Shelley Wong added two more in the second half to lead the Rice soccer team to a 5-1 victory over visiting Texas-San Antonio Sunday afternoon at the Rice Track & Soccer Stadium.

Making her first start in an official game since she suffered a back injury after the 2005 season, Candee quickly made up for lost time. The Dallas native scored her first goal in three years in the game's fourth minute by taking a crossing pass from Erin Scott on left side and blasting a shot from 15 yards out. The ball found the back of the net for a 1-0 Rice lead.

The Blue & Gray held the narrow 1-0 lead for remainder of the first half, but Candee and Wong led a four-goal outburst in the second half. In the 56th minute Candee scored on a direct free kick after a foul just outside the 18-yard line. She came back and added her third goal of the game a little more than five minutes later, alertly taking a shot after a pass from freshman Hope Ward. The hat trick was the first of her collegiate career and tied her with four other Owls for the most goals in a single game.

Back in her freshman year during the 2005 season, Candee set the Rice record with three assists in a single game. She went on to be named the most valuable player of the C-USA Tournament (which Rice won to advance on the to NCAA Tournament), but was sidelined with a back injury. Candee went on to miss a total of two years before coming off the bench to play in Friday night's season-opening win against Sam Houston State. She is now the only player in Rice history who is at the top of both lists for games with the most goals and assists.

Rice had more breathing room with the 3-0 lead and less than 30 minutes left to play, but the Owls weren't finished scoring. In the 75th minute, Wong took a pass from Elizabeth Nesbit inside of 10 yards and blasted a pass through some traffic for her first goal of the year. The standout from Virginia Beach, Va., scored again in the 79th minute with the second assist of the game from Ward. The former Kingwood High School star posted two assists in her Division I debut.

The Owls had stretched the margin to 5-0, but UTSA continued to play hard and scored in the 87th minute. Without a pair of dynamic saves from goalkeeper Catherine Fitzsimmons in the final minutes, the Roadrunners could have cut the margin dangerously close. Rice held just a 21-18 margin in shots, but the team was able to convert the chances to scores.

The Blue & Gray is now 2-0-0 on the year. The Roadrunners fell to 1-1-0. The Owls play each of their next three games on the road starting in Stillwater, Okla. Rice meets Oklahoma State at on Sept. 5 followed by a game at Oklahoma two days later. The team is at TCU on Sept. 12 before returning home to host Princeton on Sept. 14.