Wednesday, November 6
Denton, TX
4:30 PM
Rice University
vs
Middle Tennessee
Owls Face Middle Tennessee Wednesday
11/5/2019 7:54:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Start Time In Denton Set For 4:30 PM
RICE SOCCER vs. Middle Tennessee | November 6 at 4:30 PM
WATCH ESPN+
LIVE STATS
(On-line features activate at game time)
THIS WEEK: The Rice soccer team is back out on the road on Nov. 6-10 to compete the annual Conference USA Championship. Rice is the No. 3 seed of the week-long event in Denton, Texas, and meets No. 6 seed Middle Tennessee on Wednesday at 4:30 pm. The league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament is on the line this week at the Mean Green Soccer Complex. Sunday's Championship Final is set for an online broadcast on ESPN+.
QUICK ON THE OWLS: Rice is 9-5-3 overall but a closer look at the team's rugged schedule is in order. The Owls' five losses have been to Alabama, Oregon State, South Florida, SMU and Florida Atlantic – who last week had a combined record of 54-21-7 (.701). If you prefer the cold, hard, math of the NCAA Ratings Power Index, then consider the average R.P.I. for those five opponents is 39.2.
ROAD TO THE NO. 3 SEED: The Owls had a gritty performance to begin C-USA action with a 1-0 victory over a Charlotte. Rice earned four points in a pair of C-USA road games (Sept. 26-29) by rallying from a 2-0 deficit to tie Middle Tennessee 2-2, then turning right around and winning at UTSA 1-0. The Blue & Gray picked up another C-USA road point with a draw at LA Tech (Oct. 13). Rice used late heroics to defeat UAB, Marshall and Western Kentucky at home. The Owls scored six goals to split a pair of C-USA road games at FIU and FAU before closing out the regular season with a 0-0 draw vs. league power North Texas.
COACH'S CORNER: Rice soccer is under the direction of head coach Brian Lee, who is in his first season at the helm of the program. A 2018 finalist for National Coach of the Year and with 25 years of experience as a Division I head coach, Lee enters this week's game with a career record of 296-193-58. Lee's Rice coaching staff includes Megan Kinneman, Travis Curson and Allysha Chapman, all in their first year with the Owl program. Coach Lee's weekly video preview is available at the above link.
RICE'S CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY: Rice has made the C-USA Championship for the tenth-straight year but the squad is also looking for its first victory in the tournament since 2014. That's the same year the team last won the C-USA postseason crown, and also the last time the Owls scored a goal in the event. Since joining Conference USA in 2005, the Owls' all-time record in the league's postseason tournament is an even 8-8-2. There have been eight times where the Blue & Gray failed to get out of the first round, and two occasions where the squad won its opening game but was halted after that (2007 and 2011). On the two occasions that Rice's tournament match has gone to penalty kicks (the back-to-back seasons of 2010 and 2011), the Owls were prevented from advancing both times. There have only been two seasons (2006 and 2009) when the team did not qualify for the postseason tournament.
THE RICE-MIDDLE TENNESSEE SERIES: After six career meetings with Middle Tennessee the series is deadlocked 2-2-2. In late September the teams finished in a 2-2 double-overtime tie in Murfreesboro, Tenn. A year ago the Blue Raiders defeated Rice at Holloway Field in overtime, 3-2. The teams met for the first time in 2015 and ended up playing twice that year. In the 2015 season the squads tied 0-0 in Houston before the Middle Tennessee claimed a 1-0 win in the opening round of the conference tournament a few weeks later. The Owls also posted a 2-1 road win in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 2016 and a 4-2 victory in Houston in 2017.
HAIL SENIORS!: A total of five Owl seniors Maya Hoyer, Haley Kostyshyn, Lianne Mananquil, Erin Mikeska and Louise Stephens are making their final competitive appearance in the C-USA Championship. The quintet is having their best collective year yet by accounting for 16 goals and 10 assists, as well as 34 saves for Hoyer in-goal. The five players, plus senior manager Julia Greenberg, were honored for their exemplary service just prior to the Nov. 1 match vs. North Texas.
WATCH ESPN+
LIVE STATS
(On-line features activate at game time)
THIS WEEK: The Rice soccer team is back out on the road on Nov. 6-10 to compete the annual Conference USA Championship. Rice is the No. 3 seed of the week-long event in Denton, Texas, and meets No. 6 seed Middle Tennessee on Wednesday at 4:30 pm. The league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament is on the line this week at the Mean Green Soccer Complex. Sunday's Championship Final is set for an online broadcast on ESPN+.
QUICK ON THE OWLS: Rice is 9-5-3 overall but a closer look at the team's rugged schedule is in order. The Owls' five losses have been to Alabama, Oregon State, South Florida, SMU and Florida Atlantic – who last week had a combined record of 54-21-7 (.701). If you prefer the cold, hard, math of the NCAA Ratings Power Index, then consider the average R.P.I. for those five opponents is 39.2.
ROAD TO THE NO. 3 SEED: The Owls had a gritty performance to begin C-USA action with a 1-0 victory over a Charlotte. Rice earned four points in a pair of C-USA road games (Sept. 26-29) by rallying from a 2-0 deficit to tie Middle Tennessee 2-2, then turning right around and winning at UTSA 1-0. The Blue & Gray picked up another C-USA road point with a draw at LA Tech (Oct. 13). Rice used late heroics to defeat UAB, Marshall and Western Kentucky at home. The Owls scored six goals to split a pair of C-USA road games at FIU and FAU before closing out the regular season with a 0-0 draw vs. league power North Texas.
COACH'S CORNER: Rice soccer is under the direction of head coach Brian Lee, who is in his first season at the helm of the program. A 2018 finalist for National Coach of the Year and with 25 years of experience as a Division I head coach, Lee enters this week's game with a career record of 296-193-58. Lee's Rice coaching staff includes Megan Kinneman, Travis Curson and Allysha Chapman, all in their first year with the Owl program. Coach Lee's weekly video preview is available at the above link.
RICE'S CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY: Rice has made the C-USA Championship for the tenth-straight year but the squad is also looking for its first victory in the tournament since 2014. That's the same year the team last won the C-USA postseason crown, and also the last time the Owls scored a goal in the event. Since joining Conference USA in 2005, the Owls' all-time record in the league's postseason tournament is an even 8-8-2. There have been eight times where the Blue & Gray failed to get out of the first round, and two occasions where the squad won its opening game but was halted after that (2007 and 2011). On the two occasions that Rice's tournament match has gone to penalty kicks (the back-to-back seasons of 2010 and 2011), the Owls were prevented from advancing both times. There have only been two seasons (2006 and 2009) when the team did not qualify for the postseason tournament.
THE RICE-MIDDLE TENNESSEE SERIES: After six career meetings with Middle Tennessee the series is deadlocked 2-2-2. In late September the teams finished in a 2-2 double-overtime tie in Murfreesboro, Tenn. A year ago the Blue Raiders defeated Rice at Holloway Field in overtime, 3-2. The teams met for the first time in 2015 and ended up playing twice that year. In the 2015 season the squads tied 0-0 in Houston before the Middle Tennessee claimed a 1-0 win in the opening round of the conference tournament a few weeks later. The Owls also posted a 2-1 road win in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 2016 and a 4-2 victory in Houston in 2017.
HAIL SENIORS!: A total of five Owl seniors Maya Hoyer, Haley Kostyshyn, Lianne Mananquil, Erin Mikeska and Louise Stephens are making their final competitive appearance in the C-USA Championship. The quintet is having their best collective year yet by accounting for 16 goals and 10 assists, as well as 34 saves for Hoyer in-goal. The five players, plus senior manager Julia Greenberg, were honored for their exemplary service just prior to the Nov. 1 match vs. North Texas.
Players Mentioned
GK
/ Women's Soccer
F
/ Women's Soccer
MF
/ Women's Soccer
MF
/ Women's Soccer
MF
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