THE QUINNEY AND GABI SHOW: Owls 5, Cardinals 3 (Blog date September 14, 2013)

Rice Owls 5, Lamar Cardinals 3
W-D-L: 2-2-2            3-0-3
September 13, 2013
7:00 pm @ Rice University, Houston

Visiting teams beware, the Rice Owls' fans are heavily into the game. They will blatantly make every effort to get under your skin. They won't be vulgar or profane, but they will be as obnoxious towards you as they can be. The way they do it is to gather information from all of your various online profiles, like the official team website and your Facebook page's "About" section, and use it against you. So, if you choose to listen, you may hear your goalkeeper's boyfriend's name being chanted from the stands and the date of your center-back's anniversary. You may hear some questions about your left-midfielder's choice of major, or comments like, "Hey number twenty-four! Why do you love children, huh?" I would refer to this sector of the crowd as Rice's "12th Woman," in keeping with this blog's standard practice of using gender-correct terminology, but most of them are dudes, including the one with the megaphone. It continues through halftime, as you emerge from the locker room underneath the stands for the second half, a couple of them hurling your online facts at you from the ramp. As a spectator, I was a little discomforted and annoyed, and wondered if the Rice players were also distracted by the constant heckling at their opponents.   

Whether these antics were successful Friday night is a question for the Lamar players. If they were listening at all to the Rice cheering section and were disturbed or distracted by them, they didn't let on. But I would imagine that the Cardinals were less concerned with what was happening off the field than on it. What the Cardinals defensive line was faced with was a colossal mismatch against a faster and quicker midfield that repeatedly beat them into space and to the ball.

I have often heard that Rice University is the "Ivy League of the South." Indeed, the private institution established in 1912 now ranks as #18 in the newly released U.S. News and World Report's annual Best Colleges rankings, based upon up to 18 or so academic excellence indicators, accepted as the standard in national educational ratings. Rice excels and leads in numerous fields, its music, international relations, engineering and business schools particularly touted as among the best in the world. There is one field, however, where Rice has underachieved - the soccer field. Finishing last season as Conference USA co-champions for the first time in school history, Rice provided the best hope for the city of Houston to be represented at the national dance. But a first-round elimination in the C-USA tournament by Southern Methodist, whom the Owls defeated during the regular season, dashed those hopes and the year ended abruptly in October. (See my blog dated November 10, 2012.) With 17 returning letter-earners including eight starters, among them last year's striking tandem of Holly Hargreaves and Lauren Hughes who came in third and fourth respectively in the conference in goals scored, Argentine national U-20 left midfielder Gabi Iribarne, defender Jasmine Isokpunwu and the most effective center-midfielder in the southwest Quinny Truong, Rice has to be expected to achieve a double and make their national stage debut, especially since the C-USA tournament will be played on their home pitch. (The Rice heckling section will be quite busy. Opposing C-USA players may want to temporarily deactivate your Facebook pages until the third week of November.) 
 
Even faster, stronger, smarter, and quicker than she was last year, Rice's tireless center-midfield captain Quinny Truong dominated the middle, bolstering her case for another all-conference selection. Among Quinny's many strengths, perhaps the most effective in this game was her creative visionary passing, taking charge to set up drive after drive into the box, playing the position very much like a scrambling quarterback making plays on the run, delivering the ball to the right and to the left flank where Gabi repeatedly outsprinted Lamar backs to cut back and launch some devastating crosses to, you guessed it, the aforementioned Holly Hargreaves and Lauren Hughes who netted two each, now accounting for a combined seven of the Owls' 11 goals thus far. It takes the playmaking of a Quinny and Gabi to neutralize Kristin Bos and Kimmy Albeno, Lamar's prolific offensive pair. The most effective Cardinal forward of the night, therefore, was Jannet Hernandez, who had the speed and quickness to create some significant possessions inside the Rice box. Able to get behind the defense a few times, Jannet was rewarded with a hard-fought goal that tied it up as the first half ended. Her penalty in the final few minutes though was little consolation in a match in which Rice dominated every third of the pitch.

Argentina U-20 international Gabriela Iribarne (6) wreaked havoc in the midfield for Rice, launching some devastating crosses from the left side.

Taylor Mitchell (17) stretches to pressure Gabi (6) to keep her from getting the ball to Quinny (21) in the middle.

Sophomore striker Holly Hargreaves (12) continues her form from last year when she led the Owls in scoring as a freshwoman.

Marked tightly by Alejandra Amador (15), Holly (12) receives the ball with her back to the goal. Holly was able to turn the ball often on her way to a two-goal night.

The most dominant center-midfielder in Texas, Quinny Truong (21) controlled the flow of the game, and distributed the ball with precision and pace.

In the battle for the center midfield, Quinny (21) had the upper hand over Kristin Bos (10).

The task of marking Quinny Truong (21) in the middle often fell to defender Jennifer Moore (2).

The Lamar defensive line and keeper Bailey Fontenot (1) had their work cut out for them, outsprinted by the C-USA's defending co-champion offense that features Holly Hargreaves (12) and Danielle Spriggs (19), two of the Owls' 17 returning letterwomen.

Jennifer Yacuta (14) slides one past Rice goalie Amy Czyz (00). In her freshwoman year, Jennifer is tied for first on the team in goals scored.

Lamar forward Jannet Hernandez (16) keeps the Rice defense on their toes. Fast and quick, Jannet provided the Cardinals' most effective offensive possessions.

(All photos by Kokoy Severino.)

This is one of those matches that represent the closest I'll ever get to seeing my dream of a cup tournament involving the eight schools within the greater Houston landscape. Now that most of them are members of different conferences, people like me will have to be content with watching single matches until someone can find a way to get such a tournament together.

UPCOMING MATCHES OF THE WEEK: 

Sunday Sep 15 Louisiana State University (#66) @ Rice (#82) 1:00 pm

Sunday Sep 15 U of H (#126) @ Houston Baptist University (#205) 7:00 pm

Friday Sep 20 Oklahoma State University (#76) @ Rice 7:00 pm
           
Sunday Sep 22 South Carolina State University (#292) @ TSU 7:00 pm

Friday Sep 27 Northwestern State University (#260) @ HBU* 7:00 pm

Sunday Sep 29 Vanderbilt University (#114) @ Texas A&M University (#15)* 2:30 pm in College Station

Thursday Oct 3 University of Cincinnati (#227) @ U of H* 7:00 pm

Friday Oct 11 TSU @ Prairie View A&M University (#303)* 7:00 pm

Friday Oct 18 Oral Roberts University (#124) @ HBU* 5:00 pm

Friday Oct 18 Colorado College (#50) @ Rice* 7:00 pm

Sunday Oct 20 Mississippi Valley State University (#275) @ TSU* 1:00 pm

Thursday Oct 24 University of Central Florida (#20) @ U of H* 7:00 pm

Friday Oct 25 Grambling State University (#322) @ TSU* 7:00 pm

Saturday Oct 26 University of Texas-Tyler @ Concordia* 5:00 pm at St. Stephen's HS, Austin

Sunday Oct 27 East Carolina University (#97) @ Rice* 1:00 pm

Thursday Oct 31 LSU @ Tx A&M* 7:00 pm in College Station

Friday Nov 1 Sam Houston State University (#233) @ HBU* 5:00 pm

Friday-Saturday Nov 1-9 Red River Athletic Conference Tournament* @ Houston Amateur Sports Park
Monday Nov 4 Conference USA Tournament Quarter-Finals @ Rice* Wednesday 
Nov 6 Conference USA Tournament Quarter-Finals* @ Rice
Thursday Nov 7 Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament* @ Houston Amateur Sports Park
Friday Nov 8 Conference USA Tournament Semi-Finals* @ Rice
Saturday Nov 9 Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament* @ Houston Amateur Sports Park 
Sunday Nov 10 Conference USA Tournament Final* @ Rice

(Kokoy's Matches of the Week are those which I plan to attend.) 

Kokoy Severino has been coaching junior high school soccer in the public school system of the Greater Houston area for 19 years. He holds a National Youth Diploma from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, two coaching certifications from the United States Soccer Federation, and a Master in Educational Leadership degree from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. His research focuses on the relationship between interscholastic competitive soccer and the academic success of at-risk students. He returns regularly to his native country of the Philippines and conducts soccer training sessions for economically disadvantaged youths.

"This blog is to document the intensity, the depth, the passion, the strategic and tactical nuances, the stars, the spectacular play that I witness in the women's teams at the college level. And in doing so, it is my hope that others might be inspired to discover for themselves the beautiful game brought by the women." (Kokoy, from blog entry dated Nov 4, 2012)