Soccer Competes In NCAA Tournament Wednesday

RICE SOCCER vs. Furman | April 28 at 2 PM (Central Time) | Watch | Live Stats
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THIS WEEK: The Conference USA champion Rice soccer team, 12-2-1 overall and ranked No. 22 in the nation in the latest United Coaches national poll, is making its fifth appearance in the NCAA Championship Tournament. Rice meets unbeaten Southern Conference Champion Furman (8-0-2) in first round action on Wednesday, April 28, at 2 pm. The match will be played at the WakeMed Soccer Park (Field #2) in Cary, North Carolina. This Spring's NCAA Tournament is a consolidated 48-team field with all bracket games to be played in the state of North Carolina. The winner of the Rice-Furman match would face No. 5 seed West Virginia on May 1 at 2 pm.

BACK IN 'THE DANCE': The Owls are making their fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament, but this the first outside the state of Texas. Rice most recently played in the 2017 NCAA in Waco after earning an at large bid as the C-USA regular season champion. In both 2014 and 2005 the Blue & Gray traveled to Austin, facing the University of Texas and Cal, respectively. In the program's NCAA Tournament debut in 2004 Rice played Illinois in College Station after making the field as an at-large team with a school record 14 wins.

FAMILIAR FACE: The Rice-Furman match has added significance for Owl head coach Brian Lee. In addition to the match being his first time to take Rice to the NCAA Tournament, the Owls' second-year head coach is a 1993 graduate of Furman who started the women's soccer program at his alma mater in 1994. He led the Paladins to four NCAA Tournament appearances in 11 years at the helm of the program.

C-USA CHAMPIONS: Rice won the week-long C-USA tournament on April 17 playing on its home field. The Owls defeated Old Dominion 3-0 in the first round (April 13), advanced past Southern Miss in a penalty kick shootout (April 15), and topped Charlotte 2-0 in the Championship Final to claim the league's automatic bid. The Blue & Gray have also won the C-USA Tournament in both 2005 and 2014 (which are also league championships but separate from the regular season). Rice won the league's regular season title in 2012 and also 2017.

STREAKS: Rice enters national postseason play with a nine-match unbeaten streak (8-0-1), and each of the last eight have been by shutout. The Owls, and junior goalkeeper Bella Killgore, have amassed a streak of 815:59 consecutive scoreless minutes dating back to March 15. On April 19 the Internet publication TopDrawerSoccer.com selected Killgore as its National Player of the Week after helping the Owls win the C-USA Championship.

NATIONAL RANKING: The No. 22 ranked Owls received 133 points in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll. View the full United Coaches national poll here.

HIGH R.P.I.: If you have disdain for the politics of the various national and regional polls, and prefer the cold, hard, math of the NCAA's rating power index, then note that Rice's April 18 RPI was listed as No. 33 in the nation. View the NCAA's latest RPI here.

20th SEASON OF RICE SOCCER: It may have taken a little extra time to get here, but the 20th anniversary season of Rice Owls Soccer in in full swing! After starting a full-scholarship soccer program for the first time in 2001, the fall of 2020 was expected to be the 20th anniversary season of the program. Soccer and a lot of sports around the college landscape, however, were delayed due to the world-wide illness. The NCAA is sanctioning spring soccer this semester with a national championship tournament scheduled for the end of the regular season.

HOST OF HONOREES: This year Rice has earned a host of postseason honors - including three of the league's major awards with Mijke Roelfsema selected as the C-USA Defender of the Year, Bella Killgore as the Goalkeeper of the Year, and Brian Lee as the Coach of the Year. The lengthy 2021 spring honors list that was determined by a vote of the 14 C-USA head coaches. Killgore and Roelfsema earned the individual superlative honors and were named to the C-USA First Team. Senior Haley Kostyshyn and junior Delaney Schultz were named to the C-USA Second Team. Rookie Mikala Furuto was named to the league's 12-player All-Freshman squad.

CLASSROOM STARS: Rice's Bella Killgore, Mijke Roelfsema and Delaney Schultz have been named 2020-2021 Conference USA Soccer All-Academic honorees. Killgore was named to the All-Academic First Team while Roelfsema and Schultz were both named to the All-Academic Second Team. Killgore is a junior chemical engineering major who maintained a 3.70 grade point average. Roelfsema is a senior Psychological Sciences major with a 3.88 GPA. Schultz is a junior Cognitive Sciences, Computer Science double major who has juggled her studies and Division I soccer to maintain a 3.75 grade point average.

OWL IN: The Owl In logo represents the continued commitment of Rice Athletics' student-athletes, coaches, and staff to come together for positive change throughout our department, campus, and world. With increased efforts in education, policy development, and action as it relates to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice, members of the Rice Athletics community will become better equipped to ensure we can fulfill our department's desire to be a more inclusive and welcoming place. To learn more about being Owl In, visit RiceOwls.com/OwlIn.

COACH'S CORNER: Rice soccer is under the direction of Conference USA Head Coach of the Year Brian Lee, who is in his second season at the helm of the program. Lee was named the league's coach of the year this season on a vote of the 14 C-USA coaches. A 2018 finalist for National Coach of the Year and with more than 25 years of experience as a Division I head coach, Lee enters this week's action with a career record of 309-196-59. In ten previous trips to the NCAA Tournament his squad has advanced to the next round in three different times. Lee's Rice coaching staff includes Megan Kinneman, Travis Curson and new volunteer assistant Lianne Mananquil.

SERIES HISTORY vs. FURMAN: The Owls are facing Furman for the first time. Rice has played a team from the Southern Conference just one time before. The Owls tied Samford 3-3 at Holloway Field in 2016.

DID YOU KNOW?: Rice was scheduled to play a return trip at Samford in 2018, but lightning strikes just before pregame prevented the teams form taking the field. The road match ended up being canceled.

PREVIOUS OUTING: HOUSTON — Rice scored a pair of goals and junior goalkeeper Bella Killgore notched her eighth-consecutive complete game shutout to pace the Owls to a convincing 2-0 victory over Charlotte and claim the Conference USA Championship April 17 at the Holloway Field. In the first half, Rebeca Keane scored her first goal of the season on a close range shot after a short corner kick off assists by Madison Kent and Delaney Schultz in the 31st minute. Rice was up 1-0, but the team wasn't quite finished. In the 33rd minute senior Callie Ericksen scored with a leaping kick after a centering pass from Kent. A defender by trade the last four years, the goal was the first of Ericksen's collegiate career. Charlotte continued to battle and out-shot Rice 6-4 in the second half, but Owl Killgore made the margin stand with her tenth complete game shutout of the season.

SEC STANDOUT JOINS OWLS: Coach Lee announced the addition of SEC junior transfer Serena Pham to the Owls' roster, to be eligible for competition starting the Fall of 2021. Pham, a midfielder originally from Chantilly, Virginia, played the previous two seasons at Alabama (2019-2020). She appeared in a total of 28 matches for the Crimson Tide with 15 starting assignments. In 2019 Pham recorded the most assists by a freshman in Alabama soccer history (6). Two of her assists in 2019 were on both Tide goals in the 2-1 win at Rice on August 29. It is also worth noting the program has enjoyed great success when ACC transfer Mijke Roelfsema (originally at Boston College and now an Owl senior) joined Rice in Lee's first year at the helm of the program.

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