THIS WEEK: After a big road win over the University of Oklahoma on Sept. 7, the Rice soccer team returns to action this week with a road game on Friday (Sept. 12). The Owls (3-1-0) meet unbeaten TCU (4-0-1) in Fort Worth on Friday at 7 pm.

SUNDAY MATCH WITH PRINCETON CANCELLED: The Rice-Princeton women's soccer game originally scheduled for Sunday (Sept. 14) has been cancelled, Rice head soccer coach Chris Huston announced on Thursday evening (Sept. 10). Coach Huston said Princeton had informed her of its decision to cancel its road trip to Texas this weekend (where the Tigers' soccer team was scheduled to play games at Texas A&M and Rice) due to the impending threat of Hurricane Ike off the gulf coast. Coach Huston supported Princeton's decision and stated the Owls' soccer program will begin looking into the possibility of a replacement game... "Princeton is concerned for the safety of its student-athletes and Rice completely supports that decision," Huston said. "Both schools were looking forward to the game, it just didn't work out this time."

GOOD START: Rice is in familiar territory in its 3-1-0 start to the season. The Owls have posted identical 3-1-0 records to begin a season in three of the last four years.

LIVE IN-GAME STATS: Live in-game statistics for all Rice matches are posted on the web. At the start of the game, go to the respective live stats link at the top of this page and follow a text description of the action.

QUICK ON THE OWLS: There are 17 experienced players on the roster, including six returning starters from last season's team that finished 12-7-2 and reached the semifinals of the Conference USA Tournament. The Owls' incoming class of freshmen was rated among the best in C-USA... In a preseason poll of the league's 12 head coaches, Rice was picked fourth overall while sophomore midfielder Kate Edwards was named to the coaches' 2008 C-USA Preseason Team... Rice has the honor of hosting the annual C-USA Tournament at the end of the regular season (Nov. 5-9).

REGIONAL RESPECT: Rice is appearing in two Regional polls this week. The Owls are 12th in the latest Central Regional ranking by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) and 14th (in the same region) according to the Internet publication SoccerBuzz.com. TCU is eighth and 12th, respectively. Facing quality opponents is part of Rice's philosophy. The Owls have played at least one Top 20 team every year since 2002, which was only the second year for the school to field a varsity program. Here's a quick link to this week's respective regional polls:
NSCAA Central Region rankings
SoccerBuzz.com rankings page

SWEET CORNER KICK FOR CANDEE: In its last outing on Sunday (Sept. 7) Rice defeated Oklahoma 1-0. Junior Anne Candee scored on a direct corner kick in the 88th minute to lift the Owls to the road victory. Before scoring the late game-winner, Candee started against the Sooners on defense and was moved up to forward midway through the contest. In just four games this season, the versatile Candee leads the team with four goals and has already started at forward, midfielder and defender.

MORE FROM THE CANDEE JAR: In the Aug. 24 win over UTSA, Anne Candee became only the fifth player in Rice history to score three goals in a single game. What's even more astounding is that Candee was making her first start in an official game in three years after suffering a back injury after the 2005 season. The Dallas, Tex., native scored in the fourth minute against UTSA and added back-to-back goals in the second half to put the game out of reach and secure her first career hat trick. Candee came off the bench in the Aug. 22 season-opener against Sam Houston State. In addition to sharing the goals in a single game record (3), Candee also shares the Rice record for assists in game with three, which she set during the 2005 season. Roy Hobbs anyone?

IT'S BEEN A WHILE: The win over Oklahoma was the Owls' first win over a team from the Big 12 conference in two years, and it was also Rice's first win in a non-conference road game since 2006.

BACK IN TIME FOR THE FAMILY FEUD: The Owls welcomed back junior Alexa Coralli to the field last weekend for her first appearance in two years. The defender from Dallas was sidelined last year and underwent a redshirt season in 2007. She played 137 minutes over the weekend, including a starting role at OU where she defended against her younger sister, Sage Coralli, a starting forward for the Sooners.

TO THE RESCUE: Goalkeeper Meghan Erkel made four saves at Oklahoma to preserve the team's second shutout victory of the season. On Friday the sophomore keeper from Granite Bay, Calif., posted a career-high 11 saves against 17th-ranked Oklahoma State, the third-highest total in school history and the most by an Owl goalkeeper in six years.

SMASHING ROOKIE CLASS: Two Rice freshmen made their first Division I starts in an extremely intense environment on Sept. 5 and rose to the challenge. The Owls' rookie tandem of Amy Beger and Hope Ward both started against 17th-ranked Oklahoma State before a rowdy crowd of almost 1,400 OSU fans. In Ward's Division I debut against UTSA, the rookie from nearby Kingwood notched two assists in the team's five-goal performance.... Freshman forward Annie Kadota was the star of the season-opener, notching the game-winning goal and an assist in her debut at the Division I level. Kadota, one of the Owls' talented newcomers, opened the scoring with a goal in the 31st minute and then assisted on junior Erin Scott's goal just a over a minute later. The Rice rookie from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., became only the fifth Owl in school history to score a goal in her first career game and she did it just 31 minutes into her collegiate career...

OTHER OFFENSIVE EFFORTS: The Junior tandem of Shelley Wong and Erin Scott also had good offensive outings in the early going. Wong came off the bench to score two goals in 51 minutes of action against UTSA. Scott posted a goal and an assist in the first two games. The goal and assist moved Scott into sole possession of fifth place on the school's all-time list for points with 33.

EWING JUMPS THE TRACK: Senior Chandra Ewing made a name for herself on the Owls' back-to-back C-USA Indoor and Outdoor Women's Track & Field teams, but the versatile star is crossing over to soccer this fall to close out her intercollegiate career. Ewing was a bronze medalist in the 400-meter hurdles in the C-USA Outdoor meet and a member of the Owls' C-USA championship 4x400 relay team. The 6-foot-0 native of Toronto, Canada, is also an accomplished defender at the prep and club levels. Ewing helped lead her club to the Outdoor Ontario Cup twice in 2001 and 2003 and the Indoor Ontario Cup once. She played on the Ontario Provincial team from 2001-2004 and was a member of the Alberta soccer team in 2000. So far Ewing has worked her way into four starts and 317 minutes of game action on the back-line, the second-highest total on the team and second only to sophomore midfielder Kate Edwards, a preseason All-Conference USA selection.

STREAKING STARTERS: The sophomore tandem of Kate Edwards and goalkeeper Meghan Erkel have been in the starting lineup for every game of their collegiate careers. The duo have identical streaks of 25-straight starts for Rice, the longest on the team. With regards to this particular streak, note that neither Edwards nor Erkel are at Baker College!

THE OPPOSITION: Not only is TCU unbeaten, the Horned Frogs have rolled through its first five games of the season. TCU has out-shot its opponents by a margin of 1.8-to-1.

HAVEN'T WE MET BEFORE: The TCU match is breaking a trend that kicked-off the early part of the 2008 season. Rice has actually played the Horned Frogs before this season. Each of Rice's first four opponents in 2008 (Sam Houston State, Texas-San Antonio, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma) were all first-time foes. So far the Blue & Gray is 3-1-0 against the new foes. Since 2006, the Owls are 7-4-2 when facing an opponent the program has never played before. The Owls lead the all-time series with TCU 3-1-1.

JUST FOR KICKS: This year fans will have a chance to get some extra insight to the Rice soccer team via the Internet. The players will be featured one-by-one in a question & answer segment titled "Just For Kicks." Fans can check out the feature at the following link: Just For Kicks

TV TIME: CBS College Sports, formerly CSTV but the same leader in televising collegiate sports across the country, has hand-picked two Rice soccer games for national TV broadcasts later in the season. The Owls' home game against Texas A&M (Sept. 21) and road game at Memphis (Oct. 12) have both been picked up by CBSC.

OSTENDORF SIDELINED: Junior defender Katelyn Ostendorf, an All-Conference USA honoree on the field and in the classroom, has been sidelined with an injury she suffered in the off-season. The standout from Indianapolis, Ind., is expected to miss the season.

ELSEWHERE AROUND C-USA: Conference USA is in full swing. The league's composite schedule for this weekend is as follows:
Friday (Sept. 12)
East Carolina vs. Hofstra, 4 pm
Marshall at Toledo, 4 pm
Southern Miss at SE Louisiana, 4 pm
UTEP at Weber State, 4 pm
Colorado College vs. (22) Denver, 5 pm
Wright State at UAB, 5:30 pm
Illinois State at UCF, 6 pm
Houston at (8) Texas, 7 pm
Oklahoma at Memphis, 7 pm
Rice at TCU, 7 pm
SMU at (2) Notre Dame, 7 pm
Middle Tennessee State at Tulsa, 7 pm

Sunday (Sept. 14)
(12) Illinois at UCF, 11 am
Army at Colorado College, noon
East Carolina at Penn, noon
Marshall at Bowling Green, noon
Houston at (17) LSU, 1 pm
Colorado at Memphis, 1 pm
SMU at Ball State, 1 pm
Arkansas State at Tulsa, 1 pm
Louisiana-Lafayette at Southern Miss, 2 pm
UTEP at Utah State, 2 pm
Samford at UAB, 4 pm

WAIBEL LENDS A HELPING FOOT: Over the summer Rice volunteer soccer coach and Houston Dynamo star Craig Waibel made a total of 10 football field goals to help send 30 youths from local hospitals to the Dynamo's SuperLiga semifinal match against Pachuca... Waibel and Houston Texans kicker Chris Brown arranged to have three kids from local hospitals receive free tickets to the Dynamo game for every field goal Waibel could make after the Texans' practice on July 27. With Brown as his holder and coach, Waibel put on a place kicking display. The Owls' volunteer soccer coach made 10-of-14 attempts, including one eye-opening kick from 63 yards. For his effort, 30 local kids got to see the Dynamo in action... Waibel, who helped lead the Dynamo to back-to-back MLS Cup championships each of the last two seasons, has been a volunteer soccer coach at Rice since 2006.

DID YOU KNOW? The Owls have cancelled games because of Hurricane threats before. In 2005 Rice cancelled a trip to play Idaho State due to the threat of Hurricane Rita. That storm never actually hit Houston, but the threat of it forced the University to close early and eventually shut down the city's two airports.

NEXT IN: Rice wraps-up a stretch of three-straight road games this week. The Blue & Gray then hosts six of its next seven games at home. The Owls' next game after TCU is Sept. 19 vs. longtime rival McNeese State. Start time is set for 7 pm a the Rice Soccer Stadium.