Postgame interviews here: http://www.riceowls.com/sports/w-soccer/recaps/083114aaa.html 

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Freshman Samantha Chaiken made her first career goal a memorable one, scoring the game-winner in the 86th minute as the Rice soccer team claimed a 1-0 road victory Sunday night at LSU.

The teams were deadlocked in a back-and-forth scoreless draw right up until nearly the very end of regulation. Where the Owls finished with ten shots to LSU's 11, the area where Rice was clearly holding an advantage was in a 9-1 margin in corner kicks.

Rice's first eight corners of the game, and for that matter the first 40 corners here in the early season, were not especially memorable. The ninth and final one Sunday may resonate for a while - particularly for Chaiken. The rookie from Dallas foundQuinny Truong's long service from the right side corner and converted a header in heavy traffic around the keeper's box in the 86th minute. The score was Chaiken's first collegiate goal for a 1-0 Rice advantage.

The Blue & Gray indeed had the lead on the road against an SEC team, but there was still the matter of four more excruciating minutes to go. Senior goalkeeper Amy Czyz made the margin stand up with her second-straight shutout performance after a 2-0 victory at Lamar on Friday night.

Czyz had tied the school record for career shutouts by a Rice goalkeeper with her 19th clean slate on Friday, and then set the new mark (20) on Sunday. She finished the LSU match with just one save, so no small amount of credit can also go to the Owls' defenders, The new-look backline with two true freshmen, Mary Claire Danilevics and Mallory Radtke, joiningJenny Fichera and Ashton Geisendorff, frustrated LSU for the better part of 90 minutes and kept the Tiger attackers from taking solid and clear shots.

Rice improved to 2-1-1 on the season. LSU is now 2-1-0 overall.

After a pair of weekend road games the Owls next return home for a pair non-conference games on Sept. 5 & 7. Rice hosts Vanderbilt on Friday at 7pm, followed by a match with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi next Sunday at 1 pm.