The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 2, 2007 Page: 15 of 24
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Page 15
Thresher Sports
THE RICE THRESHER ]
Friday, November 2, 2007
Daniels paces Owls to C-USA title
by Justin Hudson
THRKSHER STAR
Revenge, although not always
admired, can sometimes be very
sweet. The women's cross country
team got to experience a bit of
revenge last weekend, wresting
the Conference USA title from the
defending champion University of
Alabama-Birmingham at the C-USA
Cross Country Championships in
El Paso, Texas.
The Owls, currently ranked 16th in
the nation by cross country coaches,
left little doubt about who was the
top team in the C-USA In the most
dominant performance in conference
meet history, Rice's score of 26 points
was far better than second-place Uni-
versity of Tulsa's 54, to say nothing
of Southern Methodist University's
third-place score of 105. UAB finished
fourUi in its title defense.
Rice also bested the previous
record of 29, set by former members
Marquette University in 2002.
Tine team will now take aim at
a much higher goal: the NCAA
South Central regional champion-
ship. Held Nov. 10, Rice will travel
to Fayetteville, Ark., to compete
against perennial favorite and host
University of Arkansas, which is
ranked 10th in the nation. Head
coach Jim Bevan, who won coach
of the year honors with his team's
championship, said he believes the
Owls will be confident enough to
challenge the Razorbacks.
"We look forward to the chal-
lenge, like we looked forward to
everything this year," Bevan said.
"I'm confident that we will give a
good accounting of ourselves racing
the [field]," Bevan said.
The Owls will enter the regional
championships as a team that is
getting constantly stronger as the
season progresses. The gap between
Rice's top runner, senior Marissa
Daniels, and the rest of her team-
mates has continued to shrink as the
season progressed. Rice placed all
five scoring runners within the top
ten, with each scorer finishing within
36 seconds of each other.
mm
YOU KNOW?
With their impressive
victory at last weekend's
C-USA Cross Country
Championships, the Owls
earned their second confer-
ence title in three years.
In 2005, Rice was led by
then-senior Kate Gorry
(Lovett '06), who finished
second overall to help
the Owls clinch the title
in their first year in the
conference.
Comingin behind only conference
champion Alex Becker of Tulsa and
C-USA Freshman of the Year Silje
Fjortoft of Southern Methodist Uni-
versity, Daniels placed third overall
Volleyball heads on the road
for rematch with Tulane
by Natalie Clericuzio
THRKSHER STAFF
Sometimes, the team with the bet-
ter stats does not always come away
with a win. Unfortunately for the vol-
leyball team, that situation happened
last weekend. Despite dominating
both Marshall University and East
Carolina University at home, Rice
lost both matches to fall back in the
Conference USA standings.
The ()wls (10-14,5-7 C-USA) hope
to even t he season score witli Tulane
University tonight at 7 p.m. in New
Orleans, La. Rice fell to Tulane ear-
lier this season in a 3-1 loss. Tulane
(23-5, 11-2 C-USA) is currently
second in Conference USA, having
only lost to the University of Houston
and conference-leader Marshall. The
Green Wave leads the C-USA in hit-
ting percentage, assists and kills and
is riding a six-game winning streak
heading into the weekend. Despite
Tulane's formidable resume, fresh-
man libero Tracey Lam said the
team's size will help stymie their
opponent's hitters.
"I think we're a good match with
Tulane because they have really big
hitters and our blocking's been start-
ing to pick up, so it'll be interesting to
see how that turns out," she said.
Rice will then travel to El Paso,
Texas, to take on the Univer-
sity of Texas-El Paso on Sunday at
1 p.m. UTEP (8-16,2-11 C-USA) has
struggled for most of the season,
and now finds itself near the bottom
of the conference standings, ahead
of only the University of Southern
Mississippi and University ofCentral
Florida. Hie Owls and the Miners
have already met once this season:
Rice dominated their in-state foes
3-0 on Oct. 12.
Home for the second weekend in
a row, Rice started slowly against the
top team in the conference, Marshall
(18-8, 11-1 C-USA) last Friday. The
Thundering Herd opened strong,
scoring the first three points of the
match to build an 8-3 lead. But Rice
refused to give in, coming back to
take the lead at 27-26 before closing
out the game 30-28 with consecutive
kills from sophomore middle blocker
Natalie Bogan and freshman setter
Meredith Schamun.
Rice then came out and grabbed
a quick 8-4 lead in the second game,
which they maintained until Marshall
garnered a 28-27 advantage. Despite
coming back to tie the game at 29 and
30, the Owls was unable to subdue
the Thundering Herd, falling 32-30.
Marshall was back in control at the
start of game three, going on a 6-0
run and another 7-0 run midway
through to win 30-24.
The fourth game was far and away
the most hotly contested as each
team traded points without anyone
gaining a definitive lead. However,
Marshall established a four-point
lead at 27-23 and maintained the
advantage to take the game.
Head coach Genny Volpe said
despite the eventual score, her
team competed well with the con-
ference leaders.
"We played great defense, and
that's typically been our forte for this
year," she said. "I was really proud
of the team's focus coming in. ... It
was nice to see them come in, play
confidently, attack them hard and
play great defense."
On Sundav. Rice hoped to finally
defeat ECU (13-14,4-8 C-USA) after
losing to the Pirates in five straight
games over the past two seasons.
See VOLLEYBALL, page 19
with a time of 17 minutes, 50 seconds.
Freshman Allison Pye followed in
fourth place with a time of 18:07, with
fellow freshmen Becky Wade finish-
ing fifth with a time of 18:20.
OntopofBevan'shonor Idee also
had six runners gain all-conference
honors. Daniels, Pye and Wade
received first-team all-conference
honors for their top five finishes,
while seniors Callie Wells and Ixnnie
Waite and sophomore Nicole Mericle
received second-team honors with
their finishes within the top 10.
Pye's and Wade's first-team all
C-USA honors are all the more im-
pressive considering diat both were
running in their first conference meet.
However, Wade believes the calming
inl luence of the team's upperclassmen
helped the duo settle into form.
"We were pretty nervous, because
this was our first conference meet
ever," Wade said. "But having the
upperclassmen there helped a lot
and being able to run with each
other and with the older girls who
had already run in conference before
helped a lot, too."
The Owls' upperclassmen
helped to solidify the dominat-
ing performance. Wells finished
sixth with her time of 18:22, while
Mericle ended the race only four
seconds later to place eighth,
rounding out the scoring. Waite
garnered the last of Rice's all-
conference honors with her time
of 18:48, placing her tenth.
The key to Rice's success was
the same conservative strategy that
Sec CONFERENCE, page 21
, - ■ ■ . .
ailllsiHii
COURTESY CONFERENCE USA OFFICE
Senior Marissa Daniels races in last weekend's C-USA Cross Country Cham-
pionships. Daniels' third-place finish helped the Owls win their second C-USA
title in three years.
Soccer snaps scoreless streak with win over Tulsa
by Bobby McFarlane
THRESHER SI AIT
Last Sunday was a good day for
the soccer team. In addition to get-
ting a 1-0 win on the road against
the University ofTulsa, Rice ended a
scoreless streak of over 200 minutes
and in the process clinched a spot in
the Conference USA tournament.
The Owls (10-5-2, 4-2-1 C-USA)
will wrap up the regular season at
home this weekend, starting tonight
against Colorado College (9-4-3,4-2-1
C-USA). The Tigers have displayed
the second-best defense in C-USA
this year, allowing only 0.81 goals
per game to their opponents. Rice
then wraps up its regular season
against the University of Texas-El
Paso Sunday at 1 p.m. at home.
The Miners (10-6-2, 4-2-1 C-USA)
barely edged the Owls 1-0 in their
last matchup.
"We're out for revenge against
UTEP for last year's loss," head
coach Chris Huston said. "It's such
a big rivalry, it's always going to be
a good game."
If the Owls hope to have any shot
at knocking off these tough confer-
ence opponents, they must be able
to convert on scoring chances. In a
2-0 loss last Friday against Southern
Methodist University, Rice was once
IN FOCUS: SOCCER
Record: 10-5-2
C-USA record: 4-2-1 (tied-3rd)
Last week: Rice lost 2-0 to
SMU on Friday before re-
bounding with a 1-0 win over
Tulsa two days later.
Up next: The Owls face
Colorado College tonight
at 7 p.m. before finishing
the regular season Sunday
against UTEP at 1 p.m. Both
matches will be at the Rice
Track/Soccer Stadium.
again hindered by its inability to
capitalize on easy scoring chances,
a problem that has plagued the team
all season. Even though they out shot
the Mustangs 11-5 and had three
corner kicks to SM U's one, they failed
to find the net on a single shot.
"We create so many opportuni-
ties, but finishing them has been
frustrating," freshman goalkeeper
Meghan Erkel said. "We've been
working on that as a team, taking
corners and shots."
SMU's goals both came in the
second half, the first by forward
Caitlin Carter and the second by
forward Brittainy Vice. Carter's
goal came in the 56th minute off a
direct free kick by midfielder Allison
Brill, who served the ball from the
Rice endline into traffic near the
Rice goal, allowing Carter to break
free and blast a shot from nine yards
out. Vice's insurance goal came in
the 77th minute off a direct free kick
near the Rice endline.
"We didn't come prepared to play
against SMU," Huston said. "We
weren't the better team on that day.
Had we come out with our A-game,
it wouldn't have been a competition,
much less a loss for us."
Against Tulsa, all the scoring the
Owls needed came on a sixth minute
one-timer from freshman midfielder
See SOCCER, page 19
0WL00K
- THE WEEK IN SPORTS
Friday, Nov. 2
•Soccer vs. Colorado College
Sunday, Nov. 4
7 p.m. — Rice Track/Soccer Stadium
•Powderpuff: Lovett vs. Will Rice
Saturday, Nov. 3
1 p.m. — IM Field 7
The two teams meet in the final week of the regular season
• Football vs. UTEP
2 p.m.. — Rice Stadium
•Soccer vs. UTEP
i p.m. - Rice TracK'Soccer Stadium
•Men's Tennis in Rice Reunion Classic
The Owls wrap up their C-USA schedule against Miners
All Day — Jake Hess Tennis Stadium
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 2, 2007, newspaper, November 2, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443115/m1/15/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.