W-D-L: 2-1-8 3-2-4
September 29, 2013
1:00 pm @ University of Texas, San Antonio
If you are a regular reader of this blog, I'm sure you have detected a definite bias towards schools in the Greater Houston area. It's not just because I live here - well, okay, it is. But also because I have always had a tendency to gravitate towards the underdog. My adopted home field has a real underdog complex. You've read this over and over - fourth largest municipality in the country, seven Division I schools in the area, four of them located well inside city limits, the other three within a 90-mile radius, and not a single representative in the 2012 national tournament. What's wrong with this picture? Houston has never had a Super Bowl team, no World Series, NHL is not even present, and the 21st century Rockets struggle just to get out of the first round of playoffs. The Comets have yet to make it back to the WNBA championship in the post-Cynthia Cooper era. The Dynamo is the only perennial championship contender this city has, but even they are consistently the underdog, the past two years in a row falling in the finals to MLS glamorboys LA Galaxy. Rice won a national baseball title eons ago, but even at the peak of Phi Slama Jama, U of H couldn't bring home a championship.
Comparable cities around the country were well-represented in the 2012 NCAA national soccer tournament bracket. New York sent four - Long Island, Stony Brook, Hofstra and Princeton (located 50 miles from the City). Los Angeles had two of its schools qualify (Stanford and UCLA), facing each other in the quarter-finals. The San Francisco Bay area was represented by Oakland and Cal. Chicago, Washington DC, Miami, Denver, Milwaukee, Dallas, Seattle, San Diego, Philadelphia, Boston... Conspicuously missing from this list is Houston. Of the five Texas schools that made it to the big dance, none were from the state's most populous city.
Sometimes, I don't like being right. The last time I saw the UTSA Roadrunners, they were run over by the Lamar Cardinals on their own turf. And I observed that this UTSA squad needed just a few matches under their belt to effectively gel. I would have preferred that it took one more week (see my blog entry dated September 4, 2013). When the Rice Owls arrived at the Alamo city for the second match in a back-to-back away weekend, they encountered a home team beginning to hit the dangerous stride I had predicted. The schedule didn't help the Owls much either; a hard-fought win against a higher-seeded Texas at El Paso clear across the state just two nights before still wore on the faces of Quinney, Gabi, Lauren and Holly. Kaytee, Laylla, Kauwela and Taylor, on the other hand, looked fresh, stringing together crisper passes to possess the ball forward, and applied swarming pressure on the slower Owls attackers to achieve a landmark first win in four meetings against Rice.
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| Kauwela Neal (second from left) smacks in her first goal of the year, as Kelsey Rightmer hits the deck and Quinney Truong (left) tries to close in. The second match of a long road trip, the Owls are just a half-step behind. Kelsey, keeper Amy Czyz (00) and the rest of the Owls defensive backs have a very busy day under tremendous pressure from Brianna Livecchi (2) and a Roadrunner offense that is gelling. |
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| In the battle for center-midfield, Kaytee O'Brien (9) has the upper hand... |
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| ...threatening with the ball deep in Rice territory... |
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| ...and down the right flank to deliver some lethal crosses. |
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| Jasmine Isokpunwu (8) is double-teamed by Laylla da Cruz from behind and Kaytee O'Brien (9) in front. The Roadrunners are able to swarm the road-worn Owls defensively. |
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| Quick, physical and smart, Jasmine Isokpunwu (8) has developed into a major aerial scoring threat for the Owls from her stopper position. She forces goalie Bubba Makela (orange) to take a precarious punch at an incoming cross in Rice's second-half scramble to score. |
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| Reinforcements Jessica Howard (10) and Bella Hernandez (9) log some effective minutes for the Rice offense. But Bubba prevails to complete her third shutout of the season. |
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| Strikers Holly Hargreaves (12), Lauren Hughes (7) and Danielle Spriggs (19) threaten often in the second half, but Shelby Wright (22), Tyane Ramos (4) and the Roadrunner defense stay a half-step ahead of the Owls. |
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| Alexis Alaniz (5) contains Gabriela Iribarne (6) along the sideline. |
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| Double-teamed, swarmed and chased by Courtney Bertholf (23), Quinney Truong (21) is left with few options. |
(All photos by Kokoy Severino.)
Fans like me tend to be impatient with our teams. We have to always be mindful that in the sport of soccer, patience is a strategic virtue. Championships are not won in a year, but over the course of several years' hard work. Indeed, the road to the highest league on the planet, the World Cup finals, is a minimum two year process, sometimes more, even for the most advanced teams in the world. For the minnows like my country the Philippines, who are still in the nascent stages of national team development, it will likely take a couple of generations to arrive at that caliber - that is if we stay the course of hard work, and continuous dedication to development, which Coach Ernie Nierras has embarked us upon. In the U.S. college system, championships are usually won in four-year cycles, starting with a freshwoman recruiting class. When we set aside our impatience as a fan, and focus on our perspective as a patient and dedicated coach, we can see the development track more clearly.
With only three seniors on the roster, this junior class, including Quinny Truong, Gabi Iribarne, with fellow starters Kelsey Rightmer, Ashton Geisendorff and keeper Amy Czyz, and sophomores like Jasmine Isokpunwu, Holly Hargreaves and Lauren Hughes, have already made their mark at conference level with a league championship in 2012. These Owls are poised to dominate C-USA in 2014, Quinny and Gabi's senior year. With the C-USA tournament hosted by Rice next month, the Owls may make it even further than one would expect in the current season. On the other hand, I have already spoken about UTSA's crop of stellar junior transfers, such as Kaytee O'Brien, Taylor Wingerden, Happy Orere-Amadu, Teresa Offerman joined by a sophomore class featuring the likes of Kauwela Neal and Alexis Alaniz. By all indications, they are gelling. Thus, what we witnessed today in the Roadrunners' brand new not-even-on-the-map-yet soccer-specific stadium is a preview of next year's collision between the two teams this blog predicts will vie for the Conference USA cup and league.
It will be sweet indeed when a Houston school finally sheds this underdog stigma.
UPCOMING MATCHES OF THE WEEK:
Thursday Oct 3 University of Cincinnati (#140) @ U of H (#232) 7:00 pm (American Athletic Conference)
Friday Oct 18 Colorado College (#24) @ Rice (#134) 7:00 pm (C-USA)
Thursday Oct 24 University of Central Florida (#12) @ U of H (#232) 7:00 pm (AAC)
Friday Oct 25 Grambling State University (#325) @ TSU (#327) 7:00 pm (SWAC)
Sunday Oct 27 East Carolina University (#174) @ Rice (#134) 1:00 pm (C-USA)
Thursday Oct 31 LSU (#55) @ Tx A&M (#56) 7:00 pm in College Station (Southeastern Conference)
Friday Nov 1 Sam Houston State University (#284) @ HBU (#242) 5:00 pm (SLC)
Monday Nov 4 Conference USA Tournament 1st Round @ Rice 4:30 and 7:00 pm
Wednesday Nov 6 Conference USA Tournament Quarter-Finals @ Rice 4:30 and 7:00 pm
Thursday Nov 7 Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament @ Houston Amateur Sports Park
Friday Nov 8 Conference USA Tournament Semi-Finals @ Rice 4:30 and 7:00 pm
Saturday Nov 9 Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament @ Houston Amateur Sports Park
Saturday Nov 9 Red River Athletic Conference Tournament @ Houston Amateur Sports Park
Sunday Nov 10 Conference USA Tournament Final @ Rice 1:00 pm
Friday-Sunday Nov 15-17 NCAA Division I Tournament 1st Round @ Campus TBA
Sunday Nov 24 NCAA Division I Tournament 3rd Round @ Campus TBA
Friday-Saturday Nov 29-30 NCAA Division I Tournament Quarter-Finals @ Campus TBA
Saturday Dec 7 NCAA Division III Tournament Final @ Blossom Stadium, San Antonio 1:30 pm
(Kokoy's Matches of the Week are those which I plan to attend. Schedule subject to change.)
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)
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