Volleyball Team Takes C-USA Tournament Title
Capping off a remarkable three-day run, the volleyball team defeated Tulsa on Sunday afternoon to win the Conference-USA championship and the accompanying NCAA Tournament berth.
The four-set victory was perhaps Rice's finest of the year. The Owls finished the first set strong to take a 1-0 lead before Tulsa surged ahead in the second set to take a 19-9 lead. With a 1-1 tie appearing imminent, fate intervened. Rice started to get every break, and the crowd at Tudor helped push the Owls back into the match. Kills by Ashleigh McCord and Jenn McClean gave Rice the second set in dramatic fashion.
After the exhausting second set, Rice appeared to come out slow in the third set, and a late run by Tulsa gave the Golden Hurricane the set, bringing the small group of Tulsa fans to the their feet. However, the Owls came back to win the fourth set, giving them their first C-USA championship since they joined the league in 2004.
Setter Meredith Schamun was named the tournament's MVP, an honor clearly deserved. Schamun had a match-high 49 assists in the final, while also playing a crafty game to keep the Golden Hurricane on their toes. Fellow Owls McClean and Tracey Lam both made the all-tournament team. Both upperclassmen posted strong defensive performances in the finale, each notching double-digit digs.
With the tournament now behind them, Rice has one more tuneup before the NCAA Tournament against LSU on Friday evening at Tudor. They will then try to improve on last year's first-round exit. The team will potentially enter the tournament on a nine-game winning streak, leading to high expectations for their tournament performance.
Spring is Coming
In addition to my normal article about Rice football last week, I quickly recapped the baseball team’s exhibition game. The team’s fall ball schedule was cut to one game this year and the team made the most of it, thrashing Texas State 14-6. (Check out the recap here for more details.) And with the beleaguered football team enjoying a bye this week, I figured it was time for the first baseball blog post of the year.
With many people eagerly looking forward to the season, official baseball practice started in early October. 22 players are returning from last year’s team that earned a 43-18 record as well a 15th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, where it won the Houston Regional before falling to Louisiana State University in the Super Regional.
The Owls lost only one offensive starter, second baseman Brock Holt, who was picked in the ninth round of the 2009 Major League Baseball amateur draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. The next pick in the draft, held by the Baltimore Orioles, was star pitcher Ryan Berry. So although the two draft losses were major ones for Rice, at least the number was limited. Senior outfielder Steven Sultzbaugh, senior pitcher Mike Ojala, and senior catcher Diego Seastrunk were also drafted but remained with the team.
Rice welcomes 13 new faces to the team this year, two of whom are junior pitching transfers. Boogie Anagnostou hails from Alvin College, while Tony Cingrani comes to Rice after playing at South Suburban College.
As for the freshmen, the strong recruiting class in centered around the Houston-area and stars Michael Ratterree, an infielder from Memorial High School who will take over for Holt at second base. He was named a first team Louisville Slugger High School All-American by Collegiate Baseball and was the first team All-Greater Houston shortstop, selected by the Houston Chronicle.
You’ll have to check back in the Thresher next spring for the rest of the baseball preview, but rest assured that the future is bright.
Men’s Cross Country Finishes 3rd at Conference USA Championship
The conditions at Bear Branch Sports Park in The Woodlands, Tex. were near perfect for the Owls' race against seven other conference foes in the C-USA Championship meet, with only the soccer fields possessing a mixture of dew and the remains of the sprinklers' last cycle. Rice was able to get off to a decent start, with redshirt sophomore Michael Trejo and senior Simon Bucknell leading the way for the Owls at the beginning. However, it was relatively clear from the start that this race would belong to either Tulsa or UTEP, as both teams dominated the first ten runners through the first two kilometers of the race.
Following Trejo and Bucknell were senior Scott Zivick and redshirt freshmen Gabe Cuadra, who positioned themselves at a about the edge of the top twenty runners through the first half of the race. Redshirt freshman Matt Carey maintained a very steady pace throughout the meet, and redshirt freshman James Llamas and true freshman Sammy Abuhamra brought up the rear for the Owls.
At about the 15 minute mark, Bucknell began to distance himself from Trejo and moved up to hold even with Marshall's Mathew Schifbauer around edge of the top ten runners. Zivick moved up to run with Trejo by the edge of the 20 minute mark as Cuadra trailed just behind them. About 30 seconds back, Carey began to pick off runners who had tried to push a harder pace at the beginning than they could hold later in the race. Abuhamra also moved up to pass Llamas near the 22 minute mark.
As the race wound down, Bucknell left Schifbauer behind and moved up to compete with Tulsa's and UTEP's third runners, eventually sprinting across the finish line to finish just behind them in seventh, the first runner to cross the finish line not from Tulsa or UTEP. Trejo barely distanced himself from Zivick in the last 200 meters to finish seventeenth, with Zivick trailing six seconds behind him to come in at eighteenth. Cuadra used a great kick at the end to nearly catch up to Zivick to finish fourth for Rice, while Matt Carey kept the same quick pace he had ran the whole race to round out the scoring effort for the Owls. Abuhamra and Llamas finished sixth and seventh for Rice.
In the closest meet in C-USA history, UTEP edged the pre-race favorite Tulsa by one point, 31 to 32, to take the title,with both teams combining to place twelve of the first fourteen runners. Rice finished third with 88 points, to meet their expectations.
Volleyball Sweeps Weekend
For the first time since September, the volleyball team swept their two weekend games, needing the minimum sex sets over two games to defeat conference foes East Carolina and Marshall.
Senior Jenn McClean led the Owls on Friday evening with 18 kills, while junior Meredith Schamun put up 38 assists to direct a strong Rice attack. The victory put an end to the team's three-match losing streak.
Marshall came into Saturday's match with a significantly better record than ECU, as the Thundering Herd sat one spot above the Owls in the C-USA Standings. Yet Rice was able to dispatch Marshall with the same ease as they did with ECU. After a hard-fought first set, Rice won the next two sets with game scores of 25-16 and 25-19. Natalie Bogan, Jess Boulavsky, and McClean all recorded double-digit kills.
With three matches left, the Owls sit percentage points behind SMU and two games back of Tulsa in the conference standings. Rice is assured of a berth in the conference tournament, to be played at Tudor Fieldhouse. Their postseason dreams will depend upon how they play in that tournament, and seeding will play a factor as well, making these next three games crucial for Rice.