The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 15, 1991 Page: 16 of 20
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lft FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1991 THE RICE THRESHER
Owls snap losing streak against SMU
fay Jason Martinez
Another homecoming was ruined
Saturday, but this time it was the Owls
who did the ruining. Rice showed up
to play in Dallas and produced a 31-10
victory over the Southern Methodist
University Mustangs.
With the combined efforts of fresh-
man quarterback Josh LaRocca and
tailbackTrevor Cobb, the Owlsrushed
for a win that upped their record to 4-
5 and renewed hope for the first win-
ning season in 28 years.
SMU defensive end Chad Patton
said, Their quarterback really got us
at the end. 1 thought we contained
Cobb. "The statistics disagree, as Cobb
gained 203 yards on 41 carries and
scored two touchdowns. It was his
third 200-yard game and eighth 100-
yard game of the season, both Rice
records.
He set new records for most points
in a season with 78 and most touch-
downs in a season with 13. He also
moved back to the top of the national
rankings with 159.9 yards rushing per
game.
When the mobile LaRocca replaced
starter Greg Willig early in the game,
he exploited the SMU defense.
LaRocca only completed four passes
on 11 attempts, but gained 78 yards on
the ground on 12 carries.
He kept the Mustangs off balance
and enabled Cobb to pillage and plun-
der thedefense'He'sarunning threat
and a passing threat," said Cobb. That
SPORTS
keeps people from keying on me."
The first score came after an inter-
ception by Nathan Bennett which was
returned 13 yards. After a 19 yard
drive, Darrell Richardson made a 43
yard field goaL
When Rice got possession again,
they drove down the field 51 yards and
scored on a six yard Cobb run. The
defense let up a little bit and the Mus-
tangs booted a field goal as a result
LaRocca made the score 17-3 with a
one yard touchdown run.
On the whole, the Rice defense
played well, holding the SMU run-
and-shoot to an anemic 282 yards and
only 30 yards rushing.
Two interceptions and a fumble
showed how badly the depleted Mus-
tang offense was suffering.
"SMU's offense never had the mo-
mentum today," said Bennett Their
team had some momentum, but I think
our defense did a good job of stopping
them."
LaRocca threw an interception at
the beginning of the third quarter to
set up an SMU touchdown, but he
quickly came back and burned the
defense by scoring on a 29yard option
keeper in the third quarter. Cobb
scored again on a two yard run to put
the cap on the 31-10 victory.
Women's tennis ends season at Westwood
by Tim Lam
Finishing their fall season, the Rice
women's tennis team competed in the
Westwood InvitationalTournamenton
November 8-10 in Austin and in a dual
match versus Southwest Texas State
on November 6 at home Head coach
Paul Blankenship said he is very happy
with the team's performance, espe-
cially that of the freshmen, Antonette
Veloso and Jackie Brown.
At the Westwood Invitational,
standout players were Veloso, Renee
Capri, Blair Strassner and Brown.
After losing in the first round,
Veloso secured three victories in
consolation play. She defeated Nicole
Monsul 7-5,6-3 and Marga Valera 7-5,
6-1, both of Texas A&M and UTs
AshleyJohnson6-4,6-4on her way to
capturing the consolation title.
Capri advanced to the quarterfinals
before being knocked out of the
tournament Blankenshipthoughtthat
"Renee played some of her best tennis
since she came to Rice." In the first
and second rounds Capri beat Texas
A&M's Jen Wussow 6-1,6-0 and Ellie
Stark ofTCU 7-6,6-3.
Owl sophomore Blair Strassner
downed Claudia Ramirez ofTCU 6-1,
62 in the first round but then lost to
Nancy Terrell 4-6, 63, 2-6. Strassner
was the on ly player to win a set against
TCU's Terrell, who went on to win the
tournament
Brown bested Christina Dinardo
from Texas A&M, one of the top-
seeded players, 6-4, 6-7,60. She was
hampered by bad shin splints and had
to retire from the tournament "J ackie's
got a lot of heart She was hurting
during that match but insisted on fin-
ishing it" Blankenship commented.
Injuries to Brown and senior
Rachelle Mack hurt Rice's efforts in
doubles play; however, the team of
Abby Daniels and Katie Nederveld
defeated a team from Baylor.
In their only dual match of the
season, Rice wiped out Southwest
Texas State, 90. Blankenship said,
"this was a team we certainly should
beat but we played well regardless."
Winners for Rice were, in singles
play, Veloso, Daniels, Nederveld,
Brown, Strassner and Capri. In
doubles the teams of Daniels and
Nederveld, Strassner and Veloso and
Capri and Tracey Gilmore won.
Owls, Cougars set to
battle for Bayou Bucket
by Eric Anderson
Saturday marks the continua-
tion of the fierce rivalry between
Houston's two major universities
as the Houston Cougars will be
pitted against the Rice Owls in a
fight for the "Bayou Bucket" When
both teams take the field at Rice
Stadium, the Owls will have their
much-awaited chance to take re-
venge for last year's bitter loss.
The Owls' final home game this
year is the 21st meeting of the two
Houston rivals. The Cougars have
dominated the series, 16-4, but last
year'sgame proved to both Cougar
and Owl fans that either team can
walk away with a victory. Houston
narrowly escaped an upset by Rice
by kicking afield goal with only ten
seconds left
As far as the two teams this
year, the Cougars find themselves
at 3-5 after rebounding from an
awful start, while the Owls, with a
4-5 record, have only won one out
of their last four games.
Both teams are coming oft wins
this week: Rice thrashed SMU,
while Houston upset the Texas
Longhorns. Although Rice upset
an eighth-ranked Baylor team five
weeks ago, Rice head coach Fred
Goldsmith said, "We're a decided
underdog."
Goldsmith recognizes the task
his team faces. He noted that
"Houston is really improved (from
earlier this year]" and that the
Cougars have a "new, young, for-
midable defense."
But, as always, Houston's
strength is its offense, the run-and-
shoot Goldsmith said the key to
the Cougars' offense is their re-
ceivers' speed, saying, "it's a chal-
lenge just to keep up with them."
They're running the ball bet-
to- than last year," he added, "and
that fact adds depth to their of-
fence." Goldsmith also praised
quarterback David Klingler "His
ability to throw the long ball or just
toft it up makes their passing game
all the more dangerous."
However, Goldsmith sees vic-
tory as attainable for the Owls.
"WeVegotayoung team,and we've
been playing hard." He is pleased
with the play of the true freshmen
on the team, and with the nation's
leading rusher, Trevor Cobb, as
well as linebacker Tony Barker
and wide receiver Eric Henley.
The coach hopes that a large
crowd will help the Owls exploit
the home field advantage. He noted
that "with over 1800 out of 2800
students coming out to every game,
the support for the football team
has been excellent"
So as the Cougars and Owls
clash on theartifidal turf, the battle
for Houston will rage on, and the
chances for a Rice winning season
will be held in the balance.
Men's tennis hosts America West tourney
by Tim Lam
The Rice Owls men's tennis team
will be hosting the America West
Challenge Cup this weekend, Novem-
ber 15-17, at the Jake Hess Tennis
Stadium on campus. Action will start
at 9 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and
the championship match will be at
noon on Sunday.
This tournament pits the best play-
ers from the Southwest Conference
against those from the west coast
Head coach Larry Turville stated that
it "will give the spectators a chance to
see many of the players that will be in
the NCAA Championships. It should
be a very exciting tournament "There
will be two flights of 32 players each.
Rice, TCU, SMU, and Texas A&M will
vie against USC, Pepperdine, Wash-
ington and five other schools.
Nationally ranked players compet-
ing will be Pepperdine's Howard Joffe,
ranked 40th, Rice's Steve Campbell,
ranked 25th and Luis Ruette andTony
Bujan, both of TCU, ranked eighth
and twelfth respectively. Wayne Black
and Ken Seton, members of last year's
national championship team from
USC, will also play.
Campbell is on an eight match win-
ning streak. He has won three tourna-
ments already this season and has a
record of 19 wins and three losses.
The Owls competed in the
Westwood InvitationalTournamenton
November 8-10 in Austin. Campbell
won the event's first flight defeating
TCU's Devon Bowen (6-1,6-0), UTs
-Mark Taylor (60,6-1), Scott Phillips
of Texas A&M (7-6, 4-6, 6-4) and
Ricardo Rubio ofTCU (64,6-7,6-2).
Pascal Hos advanced to the semi-
finals before being defeated in two tie-
breaker sets by Kirk Haygarth of UT,
the winner of the second flight
Swim teams dominate Austin
College in home meet
by Lyimanne Foster
The Rice men's and women's
swimming teams left Austin College
in their wake as they swept the dual
meet last Saturday at Rice Pool. Both
teams almost doubled theiropponents'
scores; the men won 103-52, and the
women won 105-58.
The men's first victory this season
was a decisive one — they came in
first in every event
Last year's Most Valuable Swim-
mer, Steve Thompson, credited the
team effort by saying, "We needed a
meet where everyone swam welL This
meet was very important for our con-
fidence."
Thompson, a sophomore, swam
the anchor leg on the 400 Medley
Relay and combined with teammates
Kurt Wagner, Steve Fleming, and Zeke
Cassinelli for a time of 3:50.08.
The 400 Freestyle Relay team of
Ule Ninnemann, Cassinelli, Scott
Fisher, and Ryan Gravelle finished at
3:30.15.
Coach Kris Wingenroth divided
the better swimmers between the two
relays to balance the talent a move
which "paid off with two captured
events.
She also noted that Gravelle, a
freshman, has been swimming well,
saying he is "oneof our best" Gravelle
won the 200 Freestyle in 1:47.09 and
the 100 Freestyle with a time of 49.10.
In the 500 Freestyle, Fisher fin-
ished first with a personal best time of
5:17.88. Wingenroth said Danielle
Edmonds also had a good 500
Freestyle race, finishing with a first-
place time of 5:21.72.
The coach was also impressed with
Erika Bowlin, who had a "really good
swim" in the 1000 Freestyle. She beat
the second place finisher by over three
minutes, finishing in 10:44.14.
The women had an outstanding
performance despite the fact that the
lineups were rearranged. Wingenroth
felt confident enough to change some
swimmers to different races in order
to give them some experience in
events in which they don't normally
compete. Even with the adjusted
lineup, the women only lost two events.
Two Rice teams entered the 400
Medley Relay and finished first and
second. The first place team of Carla
Kneipp, Kristen Pauley, Melissa
Wilczak, and Karin Crowley came in
at 4:16.43.
Both teams face tough competi-
tion today at 6 p.m. against Southern
Methodist at Rice FooL SMU's men's
and women's teams are both ranked
in the top ten in the nation.
The Wee men's team will miss
Cassinelli, who will not swim due to an
injured left ankle. However,
Wingenroth remains confident that
"well be ready for them"
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A Rice swimmer breaststrokes during last weekend's meet in Rice Pool. Rice easily defeated Austin College.
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Zitterkopf, Ann & Howe, Harlan. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 15, 1991, newspaper, November 15, 1991; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245797/m1/16/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.