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September 3, 2004 > Sports > Soccer shuts out Baylor, Houston during opening week

Soccer shuts out Baylor, Houston during opening week

By Jonathan Yardley | Thresher Editorial Staff

Despite continued struggles to score goals, the soccer team emerged from its opening week unscathed. The Owls hope to rectify their offensive woes with two home games this week.

Rice (1-0-1) faces Jacksonville State University (1-1) tonight in its home opener at the Rice Track/Soccer Stadium before traveling to Natchitoches, La. Sunday to take on Northwestern State University (1-2). The Owls then host crosstown foe Texas Southern University Wednesday, completing a three-game stretch against teams from weaker conferences.

“They’re all very winnable games, but I hope games that are not overlooked,” head coach Chris Huston said. “[Jacksonville State is] one of those teams that doesn’t get as much recognition as they deserve. If we come out flat, we’re going to be in for a rude awakening.”

Jacksonville State competes in the Ohio Valley Conference and last year lost 7-2 to Alabama, which Rice beat 1-0. The Owls crushed Northwestern State 5-1 last year at home, while Texas Southern is a second-year program that went 2-8 last year.

“We expect to go into conference play undefeated,” senior goalkeeper Lauren Shockley said. “We don’t have as strong a schedule as we did last year, but we know that it’s not going to be easy. We’re going to have to come out and play every single game [well] to go into conference play undefeated, but that is our main goal.”

Huston said the games will be tougher than comparative scores would indicate and expects these games to provide experience for young attacking players like freshman forwards Clory Martin and Caitlin Robbins and midfielders Samantha Conn and Lennie Waite.

“It doesn’t matter who our opposition is; we need to come out every game playing to the best of our abilities,” Huston said. “We’ve got three or four new starters on at any point, and it’s just getting to know each other.”

Rice struggled in the traditional 4-4-2 formation Tuesday night on the road against Baylor University, so Huston switched to a 4-3-3 in the second half. Martin centered the attack, and sophomore Maria Fadool returned to the central midfield alongside sophomore Vanessa Serrano — with whom she combined to form a dangerous playmaking duo in 2003 — and Conn, while sophomore Brandy Bellow substituted for senior Betsy Huete at stopper. Rice wore down the Bears and had the better of play in overtime, but neither team could break the deadlock and the game finished in a 0-0 tie.

“After halftime, we changed our formation, and once we did that, I think we got the confidence that we can play with this team,” Huston said. “I think we created a lot of opportunities for ourselves and ended up dominating the second overtime period.”

Shockley said the second-half adjustment was necessary because of how effective the Bears’ attack was during the first half.

“Our most important thing to do when we’re playing against a team that’s not as strong as us is to focus on playing our style of play,” Shockley said. “Last night we had to adjust to Baylor, but in these next coming games, we want to focus on playing our game and making them adjust to us.”

Shockley now has eight shutouts in 22 career starts, and Huston said the 200-minute scoreless streak to start the season was not surprising.

“She has done such a good job controlling her box,” Huston said. “Her leadership back there is great — she’s got the back line organized.”

The Owls started slowly Friday against an outmanned University of Houston side at Robertson Stadium but quickly grew more comfortable, as Martin made a 30-yard run to set up Robbins for a shot in the 27th minute. Five minutes later, Conn hit an instinctive 22-yard left-footed volley that beat UH keeper Katie Cook but crashed against the underside of the crossbar.

“It’s good for me having [Conn] in the center midfield because she does really well defensively and has an offensive mindset to keep the pressure off the defense,” Shockley said. “Having [Martin] and [Robbins] up top has been great because … they’re working well off of each other already, even though they just started playing together.”

Rice continued to mount pressure late in the half, when senior midfielder Sarah Yoder had a goal disallowed for being offside, and Martin teased the crowd with a half-volley that went just wide.

The pressure told six minutes into the second half, as Martin won a tackle after a poor goal kick and fed a through ball to Robbins, who coolly slotted the ball under Cook from 15 yards out for her first career goal. Rice had a chance to make it 2-0 within 10 minutes, as a timely overlap from junior defender Erin Droeger set up Martin for a header she directed just inches wide.

Despite great second halves from senior forward Ashley Anderson and Droeger, the Owls could not put the game out of reach. Waite, Bellow and Serrano combined to set up a chance in the 83rd minute before Bellow skied the shot over the bar.

But Shockley was never tested in net, and Rice tied the all-time series with its future Conference USA rival at two games apiece. The two straight shutouts to start the season give the Owls four in their last seven games dating to last season.

“The back five — when we go out on the field before the game, that’s all we say to each other,” Shockley said. “We don’t say, ‘Let’s go,’ we don’t say, ‘Let’s do this,’ we say, ‘All right, shutout.’”

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