Hercules Lifts Cougars to 1-0 Victory

HOUSTON -- Freshman forward Lynda Hercules netted her second career goal in No. 9 BYU's 1-0 victory over the Rice Owls on the road, Saturday.

The victory advances the Cougars to an undefeated 7-0-1 record and drops the Owls to 3-5-0. The win is BYU's third shutout victory of the 2010 season.

"This was a really tough win for us on the road," said BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood. "Rice came out and played tough against us. They (Rice) had a lot of energy, they're a very good team and definitely took us out of any rhythm we tried to get into but we did what we had to do to get the win and I'm really proud of the girls' effort tonight."

The game-winner from Hercules came off an assist from junior Auna Janis-Doria in the 43rd minute after a close first half played by both teams.

"Lynda went in, played extremely well and got the right goal in the right place for us tonight," Rockwood said.

The Cougars headed into the locker room at halftime after taking seven shots to Rice's five, and two corner kicks to Rice's three.

In the second half, BYU took three more shots on goal before the Owls could get another chance on the offensive side. BYU ended up taking 15 shots to Rice's eight with Lauren Anderson and Hercules leading the Cougars with three shots each.

Carlee Payne, Jessica Ringwood, Jennie Marshall and Kassidy Shumway all added two shots each to the team's total.

Midfielder Jessica Howard led the Owls with three shots in 67 minutes of play.

The Cougars will continue their Texas tour with a game against the University of Texas Longhorns at 7 p.m. CT on Monday. Check the BYU women's soccer schedule page for a link to live stats and live video of the match.

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