UTSA head women’s soccer coach Derek Pittman sat in a chair along the home team’s sideline, trying his best to find shelter in the time of a storm. It was during the second half of the Roadrunners’ American Athletic Conference match vs. Rice on Friday at Park West Complex, and the rain that was forecasted for days was relentlessly falling.

The inclement weather was expected, but the performance displayed by the home team wasn’t. An offense that earlier this season was pumping in two goals per game was so disjointed, predictable and hesitant that it didn’t attempt its first shot until 51 1/2 minutes elapsed. A defense, long a program staple, continues to have critical breakdowns.

Rice capitalized on each misstep and flaw and rolled to a 3-0 win. The contest, the first between the teams since meeting last November in the AAC tournament final, was originally scheduled for Thursday night but moved back a day because of anticipated bad weather.

“As coaches, we have to look back at ourselves, how we prepared the team this week,” Pittman said. “It obviously wasn’t right. That first half is definitely not a team that I have seen all season. … I hope it is an anomaly. We talk about being dogs, we talk about being competitors and tough kids. Unfortunately, we were pretty soft tonight. For us to fix that, we’ve got to get our minds right, get our attitudes right.”

The Roadrunners (4-3-4 overall, 0-2-1 in conference) need only to look to Rice (4-5-3, 2-2) for a blueprint. The Owls entered Friday’s game fresh off their own implosion — a 3-0 beatdown at home vs. Tulsa.

Rice, which earlier this season played defending national champion Florida State to a 1-1 draw, erased the memory of the Tulsa setback with two goals less than 50 seconds apart only 30 minutes into play. Midfielder Neerali Kapadia, who headlines a strong freshman class, was pivotal in both scores. Her speed had UTSA on its heels from the start and led to the first scoring opportunity when Roadrunners sophomore defender Kacey Grahmann tripped up Kapadia inside the penalty area while trying a slide tackle. A penalty kick was awarded, and senior forward Eileen Albers converted for the game-winner.

Forty-eight seconds later, Kapadia made another run up a sideline and sent a pass in front of the goal that UTSA senior goalkeeper Jasmine Kessler batted away. The deflection fell to Sloane Popov, another freshman and the team’s leading scorer, and she slotted it in to increase the Owls’ lead to 2-0. The score stood at halftime.

“They just honestly outworked us this game,” UTSA redshirt sophomore forward Ava Jackson said. “Just growing, talking as a team, how can we work on that going forward, bringing back that fight mentality that we used to have preseason-wise? … We never expect perfection, but just working together, working for each other. We do have a lot of talent, it’s just getting that together and combining it, and just staying competitive in games even when we do go down. I thought we did a good job of coming back in the second half and getting some momentum, but obviously it wasn’t enough.”

The Roadrunners unleashed all nine of their shots in the final 45 minutes, including six on target. But Rice senior goalkeeper Kirsten Ruf was up to the challenge. She was in goal in last year’s tournament finale when UTSA’s Bri Carrigan put a shot into the upper left corner to secure a 1-0 victory in overtime and a berth into the NCAA Division I tournament.

“That feeling last year wasn’t the best, and we wanted to get our get-back,” said Ruf, who had six saves and backstopped Lilly Reuscher, Lauren Pickup, Jadyn Jaeger and Brianna Bogar in a strong defensive effort. “I think that was a great team performance, and it will be a good momentum for us moving forward. … All of our new players have brought so much energy, and they’ve been great additions to our team. Putting together this full 90 minutes really just showed what we’re capable of this season.”

Rice added another score for good measure as an unmarked Pickup found open space on a corner kick and made a dash into the center of the penalty area and headed in a pass from Jaeger inside the right post. UTSA would go on to suffer its third loss in the past four games. The Roadrunners are 0-3-1 after a 4-0-3 start and find themselves in last place in the early stages of the conference race. They were picked to finish second this season in the AAC in a preseason coaches poll.

“Regardless of the tactics and technique, if you don’t have the tough mentality and gritty mindset to go out and compete for every inch, this league is really, really difficult,” Pittman said.

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