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Rice Athletics: Top 10 Moments from 2023

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2023 was filled with highs and lows for Rice Athletics. The Roost picked out 10 moments that stood out the most along the way.

10. Rice women’s basketball beats BYU in WNIT

Getting back to the postseason was something near the top of the priority list for head coach Lindsay Edmonds and Rice women’s basketball. Not only did the Owls achieve that, qualifying for the NIT, but they were able to go on the road and get a win over a very good BYU team.

9. Forbes named Top 30 NCAA Women of the Year Award

Forbes was on pace to be one of the most decorated women’s track athletes ever to run for Rice before sickness abruptly ended her collegiate career. An excellent student an ambassador for the university, seeing Forbes continue to receive honors well after her athletic career had come to an end was extraordinary and much deserved.

8. Rice football inks another historic signing class

For the fourth time in the past five years Rice football head coach Mike Blomgren signed the No. 1 recruiting class in program history. Despite only adding 13 players in this cycle, the Owls made sure their limited scholarship slots were well utilized, bringing in a Texas-centric crop of high school athletes with five impactful transfers.

7. Field Athlete of the Year, times two

One of the final Conference USA honors before Rice made the move to the AAC, the Owls claimed not one, but two Field Athlete of the Year awards. Alexander Slinkman took home the men’s honor for his prowess in the pole vault. Tara Simpson-Sullivan took care of the women’s side of things, dominating the weight and hammer throw events.

6. Rice baseball has three players drafted

Justin Long (7th Round), Hayden Durke (13th) and Matthew Linskey (16th) heard their names called in the 2023 MLB Draft. While the Owls work to return to their winning history at Reckling Park, it’s encouraging to see the pro pipeline continue to produce results.

5. Rice basketball upsets North Texas in Denton

North Texas and Grant McCasland had been the standard in Conference USA for years and Rice basketball hadn’t faired well against the Mean Green, losing 10 of the last 11 by an average of 25 points. To win, and to win by double-digits on the road, was one of the most significant victories of head coach Scott Pera’s tenure.

4. Rice Volleyball beats USC

There have been a lot of high points for Rice volleyball under head coach Genny Volpe, but few individual matches were as impressive as a win over No. 22 USC in straight sets. It was the first sweep of ranked team for Rice since 2009 and the fans in Tudor Fieldhouse had the arena rocking the whole way.

2. Rice football goes bowling once again

Although the results of the SERVPRO First Responders Bowl left much to be desired, reaching back-to-back bowl games is a feat that has only happened on two other occasions in program history. The next step will be finding a way to win and seeing if the Owls can improve their win total once again — but those are questions for 2024.

2. Tommy McClelland named Athletic Director

Following the departure of Joe Karlgaard for the private sector, Rice president Reginald Desroches named Tommy McClelland the Owls’ newest Athletic Director. McClelland has already bolstered the athletic staff and discussed potential renovation projections at Rice Stadium. Having someone with his track record to guide Rice into the AAC will be crucial for all the Owls’ programs.

1. Rice football upsets Houston, wins Bayou Bucket

For the first time since 2010, Rice football won the Bayou Bucket, defeating rival Houston in overtime. The win would eventually become crucial for the Owls’ bowl eligibility hopes and serve as the only Power 5 win by any American Conference team in the regular season. This singular victory will go down as one of the most impactful wins for Rice football in quite some time.

Honorable Mentions…

How about you? Which of these moments from Rice Athletics did you enjoy the most? Cutting this down to 10 was challenging. Which Rice Athletics events should be added to the list?

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Rice Women’s Basketball blasts PVAMU

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Trinity Gooden returned to the court and Rice women’s basketball rolled to a win, routing Prairie View A&M at home.

Rice women’s basketball was slow out of the gate in their last game against Gonzaga but turned things on in the second half. Even though they didn’t win that game, the Owls found a way to keep that intensity going into their next game against Prairie View A&M.

Buoyed by the return of Trinity Gooden to the lineup after a month’s absence, Rice quickly turned a minor three-point advantage into a double-digit lead. Gooden, Dominque Ennis and Maya Bokunewicz sparked that run with a three-pointer apiece. With the lead in place, the Owls would continue to add to it from that point onward.

That initial run would prove to be a harbinger of things to come as Rice women’s basketball delivered one of their most balanced attacks of the season thus far. Seven different players scored double-digit points as that 10-point lead grew to 20 and eventually to 33 points.

Final Box | Rice 85 – PVAMU 59

What they’re saying

“It feels good to get a win. It’s always good to get a win at home. I thought we played pretty well today. Again, coaches, we’re never happy, right, but I thought for three quarters, we really competed and played Rice women’s basketball [and then] we had a little bit of slippage in the fourth. What I am really proud of is that we had seven in double figures, so a well-balanced attack.

We took care of the basketball even against their pressure and only had 12 turnovers. I thought this was a good game after we had a week off for exams to get us back going and to get us in the win column and get us ready for the next one.” – Rice women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Rounding into form

A healthy Trinity Gooden makes this team better. It also allows coach Edmonds to iron out rotations and roster combinations. Had this game been played in early November, the benches would probably have been emptied and we would have seen 15 players play in the blowout win. Instead, just 10 Owls saw action, with all of them seeing at least 10 minutes of court time apiece.

It’s clear a core group of starters and top bench pieces are forming. How players like Fatou Samb and Kennedy Clifton fit into those permutations is something this staff would prefer to figure out sooner rather than later. Saturday was a good start to those efforts.

Up Next: at Houston (Wed, Dec. 20)

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Early deficit dooms Rice Women’s Basketball against Gonzaga

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Rice women’s basketball was unable to climb out of a massive early hole against Gonzaga, falling to the ranked Bulldogs at home.

The visiting Gonzaga Bulldogs were the No. 23 team in the country entering the game and gave every indication they belonged among the nation’s best from the star, opening their contest against Rice women’s basketball on a 15-0 run before Shelby Hayes broke their scoring streak nearly halfway through the first quarter.

Trailing by 15, the situation grew more dire as Zags shooter Eliza Hollingsworth delivered a career-best performance, matching her best-ever totals for points and three-pointers by the middle of the second quarter. That enabled the visitors to extend their lead to 21 before the Owls scratched the deficit down to 14 in the final minutes before halftime.

Rice was able to trim the hole to single digits in the final moments of the third quarter, leaning on a complete team effort on both sides of the court to get within seven points. After falling behind big early, to have the game in reach entering the fourth was encouraging, but the deficit would prove too big to overcome.

Gonzaga would do just enough offensively in the fourth quarter — including a pair of dagger three-pointers — to keep the game out of reach. Rice threatened, but could never close the gap, ultimately falling to 5-4 on the season.

Final Box | Gonzaga 80 – Rice 72

Key takeaway |  When the threes don’t fall

Rice women’s basketball is 4-1 when making at least eight threes this year and 1-3 when they don’t (they made three today on 18 attempts).  Their lone victory when they didn’t shoot the three particularly well came against Houston Christian, a team the Owls should be more than capable of handling regardless of how well their outside shooting fairs — Rice made 32.2 percent of their threes (6-for-21) in that game.

The Owls have had some career performances from long-range this year. Maya Bokunewicz tied the school record with seven triples against Saint Mary’s. Dominque Ennis had a personal best six threes against Texas Southern. When someone wasn’t lights out from deep, though, this team has struggled to find its groove offensively.

Finding a solution to that problem is becoming increasingly more important and Saturday’s third quarter might have served as one of the most tangible signs of progress yet. When Rice took possession for the first time in the period, they trailed by 16 points. They made just one three but entered the fourth quarter down by just nine.

It took some strain to get there, but Rice was able to attack the rim, get to the line a couple of times and make their foul shots. That’s a recipe for success, regardless of what’s happening from long range and it’s one Rice might need to lean on again in the near future if the cold streaks from three continue.

Up Next: vs Prairie View A&M (Sat. Dec 9)

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Rice Women’s Basketball rolls past TAMU-CC on the road

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Rice women’s basketball started fast and never let up, rolling past Texas A&M Corpus Christi on the road to improve to 5-3 on the season.

Before Texas A&M Corpus Christi had exhaled from the opening tip, Rice women’s basketball had a 9-0 lead. The visiting Owls wasted no time announcing their presence on the Islanders’ court, jumping out in front quickly thanks to the return of Malia Fisher and well-placed shots from Dominque Ennis and Shelby Hayes.

Staked to a near-double-digit lead, Rice expanded their cushion in the second quarter in which they shot 67 percent from the field including a trio of three-pointers. That lengthened the Owls’ advantage over the Islanders by a ten spot and sent Rice into halftime with a 56-28 advantage.

Both teams traded baskets after the break, but the result of the game was never really in doubt thanks to the Owls’ tremendous opening effort. Not only did Rice never trail in this game, they spent the majority of the second half with the game well out of reach. It was a dominant effort away from home and an extremely encouraging showing near the midway point of nonconference play.

Final Box | Rice 84 – Texas A&M Corpus Christi 56

Key takeaway | Winning away from home

The road had not been kind to Rice Women’s Basketball in this young season. The Owls sludged through a victory at Abilene Chrisitan in their first game away from Tudor Fieldhouse before dropping successive away contests, the first at TCU and the second at SFA.

This is a very similar team to the one that went undefeated in nonconference play a season ago, so the ability to win away from home is clearly there, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t clicking. Saturday’s performance against Texas A&M Corpus Christi served as a powerful reminder that the Owls still have what it takes to go into someone else’s gym and walk away with a win.

As cliched as it is, winning on the road is hard. The Owls were effective on offense, rebounded well and made their free throws. The defense was stingy, too. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but it was a respectable one and one that will be good enough to get the job done, more often than not.

Up Next: vs Gonzaga (Sat. Dec 9)

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Dominique Ennis, Rice Women’s Basketball drown TSU with threes

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Rice women’s basketball and Dominque Ennis exploded from long range, drowning Texas Southern in threes en route to a lopsided victory.

Rice women’s basketball returned home on Wednesday night in search of a bounce-back win following a disappointing road showing against SFA on Saturday. The Owls fell behind early against Texas Southern 6-2 but quickly composed themselves and fired back, tying the game a few minutes into the first quarter before amping up the intensity even further.

A 14-0 Rice run put the home team in front by double-digits. Texas Southern cut their deficit down to four in the second frame, but Destiny Jackson wasn’t going to allow it to slip any further. She scored 10 of the teams’ 12 points in the final five minutes of the half, propelling the Rice advantage back to 10 points at the half.

Texas Southern opened the third quarter with a free throw to get within nine, but that’s the closest the visitors would come for the remainder of the game. Dominque Ennis caught fire from long range and her teammates continued to get her open looks with the basketball.

Ennis’ career night helped spurt runs of 14-0, 9-0, 16-4 and 11-2. The lead ballooned past 20 midway through the third and Ennis and company just kept pouring it on. Back-to-back threes from Maya Bokunewicz put the Owls ahead by 30, ensuring a comfortable home win, the 700th victory in program history.

“It’s about us. This is an ‘us’ game. We wanted to be playing the best basketball we could be playing today,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “It wasn’t about what Texas Southern was doing or what the score was on the scoreboard.”

Final Box | Rice 74 – Texas Southern 44

What They’re Saying

“If feels good to get back in the win column. It feels good to be back at home. I thought we came out with a lot of energy and we saw a lot of energy for the majority of the game. And that’s the team that I know that we can be. That’s the team that we’re working to be every night. When we can play fast and when we can share the basketball the way we did, I think we have a really, really, really good team.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Have a day, Dom

On a night without Malia Fisher, Rice women’s basketball was going to need someone else to step up. In some ways the phrase, “step up”, is an overused sports colloquialism, a trope coaches, broadcasters and writers alike lean on to suggest the necessity for a collective effort in the face of adversity.

Seldom does the conveyor really believe that one person will truly rise up and take the burden upon themselves. But that’s exactly what Ennis did on Wednesday night.

Ennis scored a career-high 25 points, connecting on a career-best six three-pointers. Tack on five assists, five boards and four steals and you have one of the most impressive stretches of basketball anyone in this program has produced so far this season.

“I think Dom’s capable of that every night,” Edmonds said. “I feel like Dom’s had a great summer. I feel like her overall confidence in the game has grown so much since last season and so it was kind of like, waiting for it. I think she’s had very solid games this season but this was definitely the breakout game of the season and what our expectations are of what she’s capable of. Very proud of her.”

Up Next: at Texas A&M Corpus Christi (Sat. Dec 2)

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