Match 14 | No. 22 Rice Owls (12-1, 2-0) at North Texas Mean Green (8-9, 2-0) | Friday, Sept. 30, 6 p.m.
Location: Denton, Texas (North Texas Volleyball Center)
Video Stream: ESPN+
Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Series: Rice leads, 17-5 Last Meeting: Rice won, 3-0 (9/26/21)

Match 15 | No. 22 Rice Owls vs. Florida Atlantic Owls (10-4, 0-2) | Sunday, Oct. 2, 1 p.m.
Location: Houston, Texas (Tudor Fieldhouse)
Promotions (Dig Pink Match): Dig Pink Fundraiser | Paint station | Post-match autographs
Buy Tickets: RiceOwls.com
Video Stream: CUSAtv
Live Stats: Sidearm
Series: Rice leads, 7-2 Last Meeting: Rice won, 3-0 (11/8/19)

SETTING THE SCENE
Winners of eight straight, the No. 22 ranked Owls head north on Friday for a showdown against in-state rival North Texas at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ from the North Texas Volleyball Center.

Then on Sunday the Owls return home to face Florida Atlantic in the annual Dig Pink match. It will be the first meeting between the two programs since 2019.

RICE NOTES
A week after making their season debut in the AVCA Top-25 at No. 23, the Owls are ranked No. 22 in the latest AVCA Top-25 Coaches Poll. It's the 17th time in program history the Owls have appeared in the Top-25.
Rice junior libero Nia McCardell was honored by Conference USA for a fourth time this season on Monday, earning the league's Defensive Player of the Week after another stellar weekend. The Missouri City, Texas native totaled 30 digs across just six sets (5.0 digs per set) as the No. 23 Owls swept both C-USA matches this past weekend to improve to 12-2, 2-0 on the season. McCardell, who ranks 11th in the NCAA this season in digs per set (5.35 digs per set) and 24th in total digs (262), collected 16 digs in Rice's sweep of UTSA followed by 14 more digs against Louisiana Tech on Sunday. McCardell joins former Owls Lee Ann Cunningham (2018) and Tracey Lam (2010) as the only Rice players to earn four C-USA Defensive Player of the Week awards in a single season.
As a team the Owls currently rank 3rd in the NCAA in digs per set (18.06) and are 10th in opponents hitting percentage (.148). The Owls have held 12 of 13 opponents below a hitting percentage of .200 or worse this season.
Dating back to 2014 the Owls are 94-20 (.824) in Conference USA play, which includes a 49-3 (.942) record the last three seasons. Rice has won 28 consecutive C-USA regular season contests dating back to the 2019 season

UNT should be relatively as the only two teams of elite they've played (Washington, Baylor) they were swept badly, and they have a number of really bad losses. However, the did take both both Oregon State and STephen F. Austin to 4 sets before losing, and they swept both FAU and FIU last weekend.

FAU has an impressive record, but have beaten absolutely nobody. As weak an OOC schedule as I've ever seen...

https://fausports.com/sports/womens-voll...edule/2022

...and last weekend they were swept by UNT and lost in 4 sets to UTEP-- both at home. They've lost 3 straight now.

Heading to Denton now, let’s sweep ‘em, Owls!

Rice trailing in 1st set 21-19 after a cold start. The team continues to be surprised when a lower-ranked opponent doesn’t agree that Rice should be awarded the win just for showing up.

Rice wins 1st set 26-24.

Easy 25-21 2nd set win for UNT, which led the entire set.

Gawd are we playing awful. UNT outplaying in every aspect of the game. We were lucky to win Set 1, and were blown out in Set 2 (play was nowhere near as close as the score-- UNT was up 1-8 and after we closed the gap to 8-9, they ran off 7 straight points). The only effective offense is in the middle with Adekunle and Kostelecky, but they're getting far less chances than our other 3 outside hitters who are all hitting at or below .000. The ladies better wake up.

Middles seem to be only ones hitting well.

(09-30-2022 07:15 PM)dragon2owl Wrote:  Middles seem to be only ones hitting well.

No "seems" about it. Bickelmeyer, Maruska and Courtley are killing us. Courtley 3rd poor match in the last four, yet she continues to get the lions share of offensive opportunities. I just don't get it.

Up 9-6 in Set 3. Courtley up to 27 attacks. No one else has more than 17.

9-6 Rice lead forces a UNT timeout— our first 3 point lead tonight

13-7.

15-7 Offense finally clicking despite not one attack going to our middies get this set. UNT calls final TO of set.

Ugh...and UNT coming right back in it with back-to-back blocks. They're up to 11 blocks on the match.

15-10

20-13

23-16 UNT really error-prone this set.

25-17 Now, let's finish them off in Set 4 as I don't want to risk a 5th set on the road. Much better all-around set. Offense hit only .250, but that's lightyears better than the first two set, and the defense stiffened up both with increased number of digs and 4 blocks.

5-5 as Maruska is heating up, but no defense so far this set.

6-8 UNT up to 14 blocks....and still no defense this set.

10-13 UNT outhitting us .375 - .105 this set. No defense whatsoever, and the offense has cratered once again.

Rice timeout.