Soccer Comes Up Short Against Rice

Friday, October 21

Houston, Texas

7:00 PM

Tulane University

at Rice*

Senior Kristen Tasca recorded the third goal of her career in Friday's 3-1 loss to Rice.

Oct 21, 2005 | Women's Soccer

Oct. 21, 2005

Final Stats

HOUSTON, Texas - Senior midfielder Kristen Tasca notched her first goal of the season, but three first half goals by Rice proved to be too much for the Tulane women's soccer team to overcome as the Green Wave fell, 3-1, in Conference USA action Friday night.

Tasca's third career goal came off of a corner kick from junior Rachel Thompson, who collected her first assist of the season on the play, with 1:22 left in the game.

"It was good to see senior Kristen Tasca get a goal tonight," Green Wave head coach Betsy Anderson said. "She has given so much to our team both on and off of the field this year."

Rice scored all three of its goals in the first half starting at the 8:45 mark as Anne Candee's corner kick from the left side found Caitlin Robbins who headed the ball past Megan Morey and into the Tulane goal.

The same duo hooked up just under seven minutes later on a similar play as Candee served a corner to Robbins for her eighth goal of the season. The Owls added another goal before halftime when Vanessa Serrano found Samantha Conn, who took a shot from 10 yards out that found the back of the net.

Although the score favored Rice (8-5-1, 4-1-1) at the intermission, the Owls held only a slight edge in the shot category, taking eight to Tulane's six in the opening frame. Corner kicks proved to be the telling statistic of the half as Tulane took two from the corner while Rice had six, two of which resulted in goals. In the second half, Rice managed to fire 19 shots at the Green Wave defense while Tulane was held to just three.

"Rice is a very athletic team, they play well as a unit and look to go to the goal; they got a lot of shots in the second half," Anderson said.

Tulane (1-9, 1-6) heads across town on Sunday, taking on Houston at 1 p.m. in a game that could have conference tournament implications as both teams compete for a spot in the postseason.

"This weekend is very important for us as the conference championship standings will shake out over the next two weekends," Anderson added. "Right now we are one of six teams battling for the final spots."