Owls Earn Historic Draw At Defending Champion No. 15 FSU

Sunday, September 6

Tallahassee, FL

11 a.m.

Rice University

1-3-3, 0-0-0

No. 15 Florida State

4-1-1, 0-0-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Rice	0	1	1
Florida State	0	1	1

Photo by: Fernando Giron

Owls Earn Historic Draw At Defending Champion No. 15 FSU

9/6/2026 2:42:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Anthony Roberts (ar186@rice.edu)

TALLAHASSEE – The Rice soccer team evened the score late in the match to earn a 1-1 draw against the reigning national champion No. 15 Florida State Sunday afternoon in Tallahassee, Fla. The Owls move to 1-3-3 on the season, while FSU moves to 4-1-1.

How It Happened
The Owls applied pressure early on the FSU defense, with Valentina Labuschagne rattling off a shot that was saved by the keeper. On an ensuing corner kick, the Owls looked to have scored the opening goal of the game, but a VAR review took the goal off the board. With the Seminoles threatening late in the half, Megan Sweeney came up with a save to keep the match scoreless. Dayo Tennyson had a late chance to score, but another FSU save kept the match scoreless at the half.

The Rice offense was firing out of the gates again in the second half, with Neerali Kapadia sending several shots on goal, but was unable to get by the FSU keeper. In the 56^th minute, the Seminoles had a chance in the box, but a charging Sweeney made a clutch stop to keep things scoreless. It wasn't until the 76th minute that Florida State opened the scoring. Minutes later, Sloane Popov slipped past a defender and sent the ball off the post into the back of the net to even the score. Labuschagne had a chance shortly after, but the Seminole defense held as the two sides played to a draw.

Post-Match Reaction - Head Coach Brian Lee
"We have been on the verge against some really good teams. Beyond the result, for us to play on the front foot at the defending national champions is a good step forward. The best is yet to come for this group."

Scoring Summary
75:10 – FSU – Goal by Wrianna Hudson, assisted by Sam Erbach
81:30 – RICE – Goal by Sloane Popov, unassisted

Quick Hits
The Owls outshot FSU 13-11 and 9-3 in shots on goal.
Both sides had six corner kicks.
Popov has now scored in back-to-back games.
Sweeney had two saves in her first career start in goal.
Florida State is now 33-1-5 in non-conference games since the middle of the 2019 non-conference season.
Rice is the first non-Power 4 team to earn a result against FSU since Santa Clara during the 2020-21 season.
This marks Rice's first result against a ranked opponent since a 1-0 win at No. 5 West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament (March 1, 2021).
Rice's draw is the first result against the reigning national champion for Rice (0-3-1).
The Owls are now 0-2-1 all-time against Florida State.

Up Next
The Owls return to Holloway Field to face UL-Monroe on Thursday night.