Lady Raiders place 3rd in host tournament

The Rice Lady Raiders soccer team defeated the Caldwell Lady Hornets 1-0 Friday afternoon on Rice’s home field.

The Lady Raiders started the tournament off with a loss to Luling, but head coach Maria Wagner said her team got better as the tournament went on.

“We started off kind of slow in the first game, we did not play how we have been playing, but I definitely saw some improvement playing this game,” Wagner said. “These girls came out and they played like the team we have been seeing so far this season.”

Defensively the Lady Raiders played a great game, they did a great job of blocking the middle from the Lady Hornets. They kept everything outside and frustrated the Caldwell offense.

The Lady Raiders were aggressive defensively and Wagner said that is by design.

“The aggressiveness comes from us just trying to get our players to have a defensive mind,” Wagner said. “We are actually having to rebuild the program pretty much, we lost a lot of girls last year, I graduated a lot of them, so we are just trying to get these girls to understand their positions and how to move on the field.”

As for the offense, the Lady Raiders were able to find the back of the net and win the game 1-0. But the Lady Raiders missed several scoring opportunities because they saw the play just a second too late.

Something that Wagner said the team is already working on fixing.

“We are still trying to work on our offense. A lot of these girls played defense last year, so they are still working through the transition between offense and defense,” Wagner said. “They are slowly getting it though, like they are recognizing how certain balls are played and how to attack when there is an opening.”

In their last game of the tournament and a bronze medal on the line against Columbus the Lady Raiders offense was able to find the back of the net one time. That proved to be enough to defeat Columbus 1-0 to take home 3rd place.

While the Lady Raiders had a quality soccer team, they had to deal with during the game it was also cold and windy on Friday which added to the adversity. Wagner said she was proud of how her team handled the conditions.

“It is really cold, some of our girls wore sweats, some didn’t, I don’t know how they did that honestly,” Wagner said while laughing, “But they took in stride and came away with the win.”

The Lady Raiders will be back on the soccer pitch on Tuesday, Jan. 14, when they take on Hempstead on their home field.