Rice University
UAB
Soccer Plays Sunday At UAB
9/27/2018 4:44:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Owls & Blazers Scheduled For 1 PM In Birmingham
LIVE STATS: https://riceowls.com/sidearmstats/wsoc/summary
WATCH ONLINE: http://conferenceusa.com/watch/?Live=4875&path=rice
(Internet features activate at game time).
THIS WEEK: The Rice soccer team is back on the road on Sunday (Sept. 30) to resume Conference USA league play. The Owls face UAB in Birmingham, Ala., at 1 pm. Watch the match online and get live stats at the above links.
QUICK ON THE 2018 OWLS (3-5-0, 1-1-0 C-USA): The 2018 Rice soccer team returns eight of 11 starters from last season's squad that went 12-4-2 and won the Conference USA regular season championship with a 9-0-1 league record. The Owls return a total of 19 letterwinners from a year ago and welcome in a talented new recruiting class.
SCHEDULE CHANGES: There are two new updates to the 2018 Rice soccer schedule. The (former) Oct. 26 C-USA match at North Texas has been moved to a new date of Oct. 5 with a start time of 7 pm in Denton, Texas. The league match at Charlotte (originally scheduled for Sept. 16 but postponed due to Hurricane Florence) will now take place at Charlotte on Oct. 28. Official start time for the rescheduled match will be announced later by Charlotte.
COACH'S CORNER: Rice soccer is under the direction of head coach Nicky Adams, who is now in her eighth full year at the helm of the program. Adams enters the week with a career record of 83-51-22. A former pro player and All-America honoree while playing at Texas A&M, Adams was inducted into her alma mater's Athletics Hall of Fame in the fall of 2015. She previews the upcoming match in the above video. Adams' coaching staff includes Brenton Saylor in his third year with the program, Kelly Madsen her first year, and volunteer coach Javier Jerez in his first season.
THE RICE-UAB SERIES: Rice leads the all-time series with UAB 7-4-0. Due to some odd quirks in the C-USA scheduling Sunday's match is the first meeting between the teams since the 2015 season, when the current Owl seniors were freshmen. Rice is 2-3-0 vs. the Blazers when playing on the road in Birmingham. The Blue & Gray last won at UAB during the 2014 season.
PREVIOUS OUTING: HOUSTON — The Rice senior Marissa Topolski recorded both a goal and an assist, and true freshman goalkeeper Bella Killgore posted four saves, to help lift the Owls soccer team to a 3-1 Conference USA victory over visiting UTSA Sunday (Sept. 23) evening at Holloway Field… Rice improved to 3-5-0 on the season and 1-1-0 in its opening weekend of C-USA league play. UTSA is now 4-4-1 overall and 0-1-1 in conference. The Owls held up against Roadrunner offense that held an 18-13 advantage in shots and a 3-2 margin in corner kicks… The Blue & Gray opened the scoring in the 15th minute. Junior midfielder Erin Mikeska converted on a penalty kick after a UTSA foul in the area. The goal was Mikeska's first of the year and the first PK attempt for the Owls this season. Rice was quickly back on the offensive with Topolski leading a Rice breakaway from the left wing in the 17th minute. When the Roadrunner defense shifted to contain the Owls' current shots-leader, Topolski served to Ashley Burgess (who had just subbed into the game) charging inside the 18. Burgess quickly settled the pass, shot and scored for her first goal of the season and 2-0 advantage. UTSA would not go away so easily, and pulled to within one in the second half. In the 61st minute Lexi Bolton scored her fifth goal of the season from close range after a sharp pass from Ellis Patterson on the left side… The Roadrunners continued to apply offensive pressure, but Killgore did not allow another score on the way to finishing with four saves. In the 88th minute, senior Darcy Mickalow threaded a pass through traffic to Topolski just outside the keeper's box. Topolski was close, but did not have the best angle outside the left post. She lined a hard attempt that deflected into the right-side netting after nicking the right post.
DID YOU KNOW?: Rice has already played in Birmingham this season, only without a result of any kind. The Owls were scheduled to play Samford earlier in the year, but the match was cancelled soon after it began due to lightning in the area. The match did not reach 70 full minutes and is not an official contest.
