Late Goal Lifts Rice Over UAB

Sunday, October 6

Houston, Texas

1:00 p.m

UAB

2-4-4, 0-2-1

Rice

6-4-1, 3-0-1

UAB

Rice

Late Goal Lifts Rice Over UAB

10/6/2019 4:20:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

HOUSTON – Rice's Louise Stephens found the back of the net in the 87^th minute to give Rice a 1-0 victory over UAB on Sunday afternoon.

The Owls connected after their third straight corner kick. Lianne Mananquil found a slashing Stephens in the box, who put the ball past Blazers' keeper Johanna Popp.

The setback drops the Blazers to 2-4-4 on the season and 0-2-1 in Conference USA play. The Owls improve to 6-4-1 overall and remain undefeated in league play at 3-0-1.

Asha Zuniga led all players with four shots.

The match was a defensive battle from the start. Neither team registered a shot until Rice's Hayley Kostyshyn went wide in the ninth minute. The Blazers did not get its first shot off until the 27^th minute when Kassandra Daniel was stopped by Owls' keeper Bella Killgore.

UAB would keep the pressure on, but Killgore would stop Megan Hudgens and Natalie Presedo in the 34^th and 35^th minutes respectively. The Blazers caught a break in the 42^nd minute when Rice's Callie Ericksen's shot hit the crossbar. UAB's last scoring chance of the half was in the 43^rd minute when Lucy Thrasher's shot went wide.

The Blazers were only able to get one shot on target in the 2^nd half – Sarah Buse was stopped by Maya Hoyer in the 67^th minute.

"I thought our players did a great job with executing, giving effort and energy the entire 90 minutes," said head coach Erica Demers. "To travel and play a game against a team that has been off for seven days is a true testament to the path that we want to take. I thought our back line again was solid and Sarah Buse in the midfield played an exceptional game. Unfortunately Rice got one lucky bounce and it went their way."

UAB will play the rescheduled match at LaTech on Friday Oct. 11 before coming back to BBVA Field on Oct. 13 against North Texas.