The Tulsa women’s soccer team dropped a 5-2 decision to Rice on Sunday afternoon at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex in Memphis, Tenn.  TU fell to 1-6-1 on the season, while the Owls moved to 3-2-1 overall.

 

“First of all I am proud of the girls,” Head Coach Kyle Cussen said.  “Our depth is being challenged right now with just 13 healthy field players after today’s game.  We talked before the game as a team about having to play a lot of players in positions they were not use to and it hurt us as we gave up two goals in the first five minutes, but the team showed a lot of resolve, no one put their heads down, and we got two goals back.  Then we had another injury and had to make more adjustments and went into the locker room at half time down, 3-2.  It would be comical if it didn’t hurt so much how many injuries we have sustained this season – we are up to 18 players who have missed games due to injury.”

 

“I am really proud of the effort we gave today,” Cussen added.  “We created some chances in the run of play, we kept fighting and pressing, and we were playing to win.  We hope to get some players back before our final non-conference weekend with two big rivals in Oral Roberts and Missouri State, but the team has been positive.”

 

Louise Stephens put Rice on the board very quickly as she scored with just 58-seconds ticked off the clock as she punched one into the top left corner of the net.

 

Annie Walker made it a 2-0 lead for the Owls under five minutes later, but Christina Holmes got one back for the Golden Hurricane in the 19^th minute off a forward pass from Rachel Thun-Blankenship.  Thun-Blankenship evened the score with her own goal in the 23^rd minute off a free ball in the box, but Aliza Wolfe found the back of the net before the break to give Rice a 3-2 advantage at halftime.

 

Nia Stallings and Rebecca Keane both added goals for the Owls in the second frame for the final 5-2 score.

 

Rice had a 21-7 lead in shots, including an 11-4 advantage in shots on goal, and a 4-1 lead in corner kicks.

 

Holmes and Anna Williams both had a team-best two shots, while three others had one attempt.  Rebecca Defer logged all 90 minutes in goal and picked up six saves.

 

Tulsa will return to action on Friday, September 15 against crosstown rival Oral Roberts in the Spectrum Cup.  Game time is set for 7:00 pm at the Case Soccer Stadium on the ORU campus.

 

Scoring Summary

Tulsa       2               0               -                 2

Rice         3               2               -                 5

 

Individual Scoring

Louise Stephens (Rice) at 00:58 (Haley Kostyshyn)

Annie Walker (Rice) at 5:20 (Lianne Mananquil)

Christina Holmes (Tulsa) at 18:43 (Rachel Thun-Blankenship)

Rachel Thun-Blankenship (Tulsa) at 22:27 (unassisted)

Aliza Wolfe (Rice) at 33:13 (Rebecca Keane)

Nia Stallings (Rice) at 54:51 (unassisted)

Rebecca Keane (Rice) at 56:33 (Nia Stallings)

 

Goalkeeper Saves

Rebecca Defer (Tulsa) – 6

Maya Hoyer (Rice) – 2

 

-TulsaHurricane.com-