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Rice Soccer: Owls ready for 2021 spring season

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Rice Soccer was one of the sports bumped from fall to spring because of COVID-19 concerns. After a long layoff, the Owls are ready to get rolling. Here’s everything you need to know.

This past offseason has been one like no other for Rice soccer head coach Brian Lee and his team. For one there were no games played before Christmas, an oddity for what is traditionally a fall sport. For another, the vast majority of his team was on campus and ready to play.

Aside from one incoming freshman from England, Catarina Albuquerque, whose arrival was delayed with the unfortunate circumstances, the remainder of the freshman class has been on campus since the fall semester began. “The rest of our freshmen, as part of this delayed season, they don’t feel like freshmen the same way they would in the fall.” Lee said, “Those kids who are back with us, they feel like sophomores already.”

They’ll need all the capable options they can get if they’re going to navigate a shrunken season with the chance for postponed games and last-minute changes. One notable addition was recently announced, Serena Pham, a transfer from Alabama. While in Tuscaloosa, Pham she recorded the most assists by a freshman in school history. She’ll sit this spring but be eligible to play in the fall.

Notable games

Rice Soccer opens its season with an exhibition against Houston at Holloway Field on Jan. 30. After one tune-up game, the condensed season begins with a road trip to face McNeese State on Feb. 4.

Rice is scheduled to face UTSA twice, Houston once more in a regulation game, and five additional Conference USA opponents. Consecutive weekend games against HBU and Texas Southern (twice), round up the schedule, which finishes at home on Apr. 8 against UTEP.

The Conference USA Tournament, hosted by Rice, begins on Apr. 13. You can see the complete schedule here.

Preseason C-USA Poll

Rice was picked to finish second in the West, runners up to a North Texas program that knocked the Owls out of the conference tournament last season before going on to win it all. Here is the complete poll:

West Division
  1. North Texas
  2. Rice
  3. UTSA
  4. Louisiana Tech
  5. UTEP
  6. UAB
  7. Southern Miss
East Division
  1. Florida Atlantic
  2. Charlotte
  3. WKU
  4. Middle Tennessee
  5. Marshall
  6. FIU
  7. Old Dominion

Preseason All C-USA Team selections

Mijke Roelfsema and Delaney Schultz were both honored as preseason All-Conference selections. Rice was one of three teams with multiple selections. FAU (two selections) and North Texas (three selections) also received multiple nods. Here is the complete team:

  • Ambere Barnett, WKU
  • Kelsey Brann, North Texas
  • Allie Byrd, North Texas
  • Luisa Daikeler, FAU
  • Peyton DePriest, Middle Tennessee
  • Julia Patrum, Charlotte
  • Ellis Patterson, UTSA
  • Berklee Peters, North Texas
  • Caitlin Pierce, Southern Miss
  • Mijke Roelfsema, Rice
  • Delaney Schultz, Rice
  • Cassidy Wasdin, FAU
  • Autumn Woodard, Louisiana Tech

Offseason notes:

Rice Soccer was featured in part of our extended offseason showcase, featuring stories about the growth of the program under coach Lee, which players could step up in the future and how Rice is using the Transfer Portal to their advantage. You can check those five pieces out here.

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Rice Athletics: Extended offseason showcase series

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Showcasing a variety of Rice Athletics programs who don’t always get the spotlight was a focal point of the 2020 Extended Offseason. Check out key storylines across many Owls’ sports.

When sports were canceled in March the offseason calendar was more than doubled almost overnight. The silver lining in the midst of the heavy situation was additional time to shed some light on a few Rice Athletics programs that hadn’t been given as much of a spotlight on the site before. Over the span of the last few months, we’ve run weekly series on other programs beyond the revenue sports that typically get the most attention (although we wrote about those too). Here’s a summary of those series, all in one place:

Volleyball

Soccer

Swimming

Tennis

Baseball

Men’s Basketball

Women’s Basketball

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Rice Soccer: Owls set big goals for future

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Head coach Brian Lee has high expectations for the future of Rice soccer and he’s leaning on those nearby to help him reach those new heights.

The 2019 season was a positive step for Rice soccer. The Owls saw their win total rise from seven to 10 as the team adjusted well to the new leadership of coach Brian Lee. The modest improvement was an encouraging sign, but Lee didn’t sign up for 10 wins. He’s looking to turn Rice into a power on the national stage.

Lee’s strategy is two-fold. Recruit the best players and develop those on campus into the best versions of themselves. “I thought last fall was just fantastic evidence of that,” he said. “A huge percentage of [the players] maximized how good they could be in the short term.”

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

Those are the markers Lee uses to gauge where the program is headed. He doesn’t get too caught up in landmarks — win a Conference Title by Year X, win an NCAA Tournament Game by Year Y — instead he focuses on the micro level to influence those macro goals.

“Developmentally we’re seeing kids get better and better every day,” Lee said. Using that as a spring board for the Owls’ next steps.

Lee doesn’t have to look far for examples of recruiting and talent development done well. He cited the recent success of Rice Volleyball under Genny Volpe and Rice Women’s Basketball under Tina Langley. He hopes “to get where volleyball and basketball are on a Conference USA level. And to establish that for 12 months, for 24 months, as the norm.”

Volleyball has been to consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Basketball went to the NCAA’s last year and was on pace to do it again before their season was halted by COVID-19.

That’s a high standard, but Lee sees the success of those programs as proof that it’s more than possible.

“I think this is the best place to be a female student-athlete, or certainly one of the best places,” he said in praise of Rice Unversity. “it’s pretty awesome”

For now, Lee is working to emulate the successes of Volpe and Langley. He’s raising the talent level. He’s equipping the ladies on his roster right now. And most importantly, he’s elevating the brand of a program he believes has all it needs to take soar. In his eyes, there’s no better time to be an Owl than the present.

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“She’s Good”: Rice soccer has high hopes for senior Haley Kostyshyn

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Rice soccer senior Haley Kostyshyn turned heads in her first full collegiate season. Healthy and ready, her final season could be spectacular.

There was excitement when Ontario-native Haley Kostyshyn arrived in Houston.  A member of the 2015 Rice soccer recruiting class, her journey at South Main began somewhat quietly. Kostyshyn came off the bench in her first two seasons, earning two starts as a reserve before an injury stole her entire junior season.

That’s how Kostyshyn, in her senior year, saw her first extended action as a full-time player. The results were spectacular. Even though she was eighth on the team in minutes played, she led the team in points. Despite ceding time to other players, she tied for the team-lead in goals with Louise Stephens, who played 213 more minutes — nearly two and a half full games.

The stellar season was a pleasant surprise for Rice soccer coach Brian Lee. “I didn’t even know if she would actually play,” he admitted.

Not only did she play, she made the most of her time on and off the pitch. Lee said she worked hard and remained committed to “becoming the best player she can be.” Kostyshyn showcased some of that this fall, setting the stage for a terrific finale in 2020.

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

Kostyshyn is expected to lead the Owls next season. No longer on the mend, she’ll contend for All-Conference honors with a ceiling that Lee describes as “very high”, reaching into the professional ranks. For her, so much has changed in such a short time. It’s been quite a transformation, but all it took was a chance.

Lee wasn’t bashful when it comes to talks of Kostyshyn’s future. “She certainly can do even more,” he said. “She’s good.” If Kostyshyn’s can be that good in her first full season, the future is certainly bright indeed.

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Transfer Portal: How Rice soccer found a recruiting edge

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Rice soccer coach Brian Lee is a believer in the Transfer Portal. Despite others’ conflicting opinions, Lee views it as a tool for the Owls to stockpile talent.

The Transfer Portal is almost a taboo subject in the world of collegiate athletics. Depending on your vantage point, it’s either a brilliant or tortuous invention.

For the most part, coaches are reticent to endorse it. There’s no denying the ease of access to other schools that it provides makes retaining their own student athletes more challenging. But it also opens up doors for coaches to improve their teams. Beauty, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder.

Rice soccer head coach Brian Lee likes what he sees. “I think it’s a very good thing for women’s soccer,” he said, adding a quick caveat that “it’s very different for every sport.”

So why does it work for women’s soccer? Lee’s contention is two-fold. First, the sport is at the forefront of high school recruiting. Players make their commitments as highschool sophomores, three years before they’ll ever step foot on a college field.

A lot can happen in three years. That’s especially for athletes who were 16 at the time of their decision and nearing 20 when college arrives.

Beyond the time component, the academic prestige of Rice University is a differentiator as well.

Lee believes that, in general, players’ priorities and reasons for choosing a college the second time around “are way smarter and for the right reasons.” That why he believes the developmental growth combined with all Rice has to offer makes the Transfer Portal a competitive advantage for the Owls.

Last fall Rice soccer went into the portal to snag Boston College transfer Mijke Roelfsema, who picked Rice over dozens of other scholarship offers. This offseason Rice landed LSU transfer Ashton Smith who also selected Rice over more than 50 competing schools.

The Roost Podcast: Listen now to our Extended Offseason Interview Series

“It’s certainly a really good tool for Rice soccer, because short-term, we’re going to be very attractive to kids on the portal as we try to improve our talent level,” Lee said, taking the best from both worlds. The Transfer Portal serves as an intermediary as he continues to lay the groundwork for the future, one that he believes will be aided by talented players hoping to find their way to Rice.

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