CLUB ROUNDUP: Women's rugby wins at Mardi Gras

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Rice dropped the first match on Saturday to the University of North Carolina 17-0 but came back to win their second game of the day in a close 15-10 match against the University of Florida.

Freshmen wings Carrie Mills and Kathy Rivera scored their first tries of the season in the first half of the University of Florida game, with junior inside center Megan Moir rounding out Rice scoring with a conversion and a penalty kick. Rice held off a Florida drive in the last minutes of the match to hang on to their lead and advance to the consolation championship the next day.

"The forward pack showed a lot of endurance and intensity by holding off UF at the end of the crucial second match, and the back line had its best performance ever this weekend," outside center Rose Wilde said.

"We recognized our weaknesses halfway through the tournament, fixed them and came out strong for our last game," freshman fly half and captain Katie Newman said.

Newman and Mills each scored a try against the Aggies, with Rivera and senior eight-man and captain Heather-Michelle Stewart completing two tries each. Moir added four conversions and one penalty kick.

Ultimate gets serious, pulls off victories in Baton Rouge

This weekend, ultimate team Cloud Nine participated in the Mardi Gras Tournament in Baton Rouge, the first major tournament of the college season. In a real come-uppance, Cloud Nine defeated Regional Champion University of Georgia 8-5, beating the Bulldogs for the first time in Rice history. After going up 6-2 on Stanford University, a nationally ranked team, Cloud Nine fell prey to mental errors and solid defense, losing 8-6.

Rice went a total of 4-2, beating the University of Illinois 5-3, the University of Pennsylvania 9-3 and Purdue University 11-1 and losing to Louisiana State University 11-9 in another nailbiter, squandering several opportunities to tie the game.

The weekend also marked the debut of Rice's two newest ultimate sensations, Catch Her on the Fly and LoG (the Lay out Gurus). Catch Her on the Fly is the Rice women's team, while LoG is the men's B team. "We scored five points [all weekend], and we were damn proud," freshman captain Julliette Thompson said. High points included Catch Her scoring on Ozone, a nationally ranked team and LoG's squeaker loss to Texas A&M University.

The next major Cloud Nine event is the 2nd-Taste-of-Rice Banquet, tomorrow in the Sid Richardson College Commons, at 6 p.m.

The team is also hosting a one-day open three-on-three (one alternate allowed) tournament tomorrow at 10 a.m. Entries should be sent to kgwill@rice.edu . There is no entry fee, but T-shirts and discs will be sold. Participants are asked to bring a light and a dark shirt for team distinction.

Rowing team falls to Tulane

The Tulane University and Rice crew teams faced off in a short 900- meter race last weekend in Louisiana. Rice did not do quite as well as was to be expected, but in the words of new coach Laura Bicknell, "This was only our first time out against another team."

Bicknell, a Canadian Olympic hopeful for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, is taking time out of her hectic training schedule to coach the crew team.

The experienced men's boat beat Tulane by half a boat length, approximately 30 feet. The boat was powered by senior Tim Grogean, junior Herman Yue, freshman Josh McCune, sophomore Carl Williams, junior Brian Harms, freshman Paul Griesemer, senior Preston Evans and junior Andy MacKay. It was coxed by senior Adam Cohen.

The other boats all came in second behind Tulane.

Junior Kathryn Gibson, the women's team captain, said, "This was a no-pressure chance to look at how far we've come and to look at how far we need to go before our first big regatta in Austin."

They will have a chance to avenge themselves in two weeks at the Rice Invitational at Clear Lake.

Women's soccer makes it to finals, falls to Texas A&M

On the weekend of Feb. 7-9, the Rice women's soccer team placed second in a tournament sponsored by Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Despite a shortage of players, Rice swept through their first three games only to lose to Texas A&M University in the finals.

The first game was against Lamar University, whom Rice had beaten 7-0 in the fall season. Although Rice dominated the game, the only goal was scored by a header from freshman midfielder Annie Mortland in the last few minutes of the game, leaving Rice victorious by a narrow 1-0 margin.

The second game that day was against LSU, and despite the fact that the score was again 1-0, it was a much closer game. LSU's tight, controlled passing was stopped by Rice's defense, while the offense made numerous good plays, such as a goal scored by junior midfielder Amy Chlapowski.

In the third game, played on Sunday, Rice blew away Northwestern Texas State University with a 7-0 win.

Sophomore forward Elisheva Boudabin McQuown popped in the first goal just minutes into the first half, and then Chlapowski knocked in two more. Freshman fullback Diane Berry made the score 4-0 by halftime with a penalty kick.

Although they played down the second half in order to try to even out the game, Rice scored three more goals, made by senior forward Allison Bahme, sophomore sweeper Casey Robinson and freshman forward Brooke Cotter.

Despite a valient effort by Rice in the finals, they were defeated 2-0 by Texas A&M. The first goal was off a direct free kick just outside of the penalty box and the second from a header from one of A&M's forwards.

Overall, Rice performed much better than they had expected, and they look forward to a strong season next fall.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the February 14, 1997 issue.

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