Owls Fall in Valiant Effort at No. 17 Texas State

Thursday, September 3

San Marcos, TX

7:30 p.m.

Rice University

1-3-2, 0-0-0

No. 17 Texas State

6-0-1, 0-0-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Rice	2	1	3
Texas St.	0	4	4

Photo by: Fernando Giron

Owls Fall in Valiant Effort at No. 17 Texas State

9/4/2026 1:46:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Anthony Roberts (ar186@rice.edu)

SAN MARCOS – The Rice soccer team put up a valiant fight after being short-handed for the final 70 minutes of the match, but couldn't hold off No. 17 Texas State 4-3 Thursday night in San Marcos, Texas. The Owls fall to 1-3-2 in the season, while the Bobcats move to 6-0-1.

How It Happened
The Rice offense struck right out of the gates, with Neerali Kapadia finding the back of the net off a saved shot by Valentina Labuschagne just seven minutes into the match. Shortly after, the Owls were assessed a red card, going down to 10 players. In the 22^nd minute, the Owls struck again off a goal from Sloane Popov, with Kapadia recording the assist. Rice was given a second red card soon after, going down to nine players. The Owl defense held the rest of the half as Rice led 2-0.

Five minutes into the second half, Texas State found its first goal to cut the deficit to one. In the 65^th minute, Lauren Pickup found a response off a pass from Jadyn Jaeger to extend the Owl lead. Texas State broke through Rice's nine-player defense in the final 20 minutes, netting three goals to take the win.

Scoring Summary
07:49 – RICE – Goal by Neerali Kapadia, assisted by Valentina Labuschagne
21:11 – RICE – Goal by Sloane Popov, assisted by Neerali Kapadia
50:58 – TXST – Goal by Matsuri Tsutsui, assisted by Victoria Meza, Constance Agyemang
64:44 – RICE – Goal by Lauren Pickup, assisted by Jadyn Jaeger
71:13 – TXST – Goal by Nerea Sanchez, assisted by Annabelle Fisher
73:40 – TXST – Goal by Kaylie Smith, assisted by Victoria Meza
89:04 – TXST – Goal by Victoria Meza, assisted by Ava Kooker

Quick Hits
Texas State outshot Rice 22-13, while both sides had seven shots on goal.
The Bobcats had a 10-3 corner kick advantage.
Kapadia and Popov scored their first career goals.
Pickup netted her third goal of the season.

Up Next
Rice continues the ranked matchups Sunday afternoon at the reigning national champion, No. 15 Florida State.