It helps to be on a four-game winning streak. The Omni Rankings ( http://www.omnirankings.com/wcb.html), an independent fan site devoting equitable attention to all Division I basketball, as well as football teams, has recognized the Rice Owls women's basketball team as one of its "Teams on the Rise."

The Owls are now 14-9 overall and 6-3 in Conference USA, tied for second with Memphis (17-6, 6-3).

Also, according to the latest (Feb. 7) NCAA RPI rankings the Owls are now 135, up 12 spots from last week's rating of 147 (http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d1).

The last time that Rice won four games in a row was last season when it won the last four non-conference games of the season Dec. 28-Jan.2 over Northwestern State, Hofstra, at George Washington, and vs. UTSA. The last time that the Owls won four straight C-USA games came in the 2008 season with wins over Tulsa (Feb. 23), Marshall (Feb. 28), East Carolina (March 1), and vs. East Carolina in the C-USA tournament first round. Rice last won four regular season C-USA games in 2007 (Houston, SMU, Tulsa, and UTEP).