The Long Beach State women’s soccer team picked up their first win of the season last night as forward Nadia Link scored her first career goal in the closing minutes to give the 49ers a narrow 1-0 victory at Fresno State last night.

The win brings Long Beach State to 1-1-0 on the young season, an especially encouraging victory since the team suffered through a losing campaign last year and is trying to get back to its winning ways.

Link capitalized on a golden opportunity in the 88th minute when a Jazz Strozier shot was blocked by a Fresno State defender and the ball bounced directly to Link. The sophomore put it in the back of the net to secure the shutout win for Long Beach State.

The 49ers were uncharacteristically outshot by their opponents, 14-10. But this is a team that falls into the bad habit of being inefficient with their shots, so it’s a particularly good sign to earn a win while being outshot. Head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said after a good showing in last week’s 2-0 loss to #14 BYU that he felt the team was moving in a good direction and they backed him up on Monday.

Now they’ll have to do it again, in the midst of some very tough competition. Long Beach State will face two ranked opponents in the Aggieland Invitational Tournament in College Station, Texas, when they face #21 Washington State and #15 Virginia Tech this weekend.

Last night’s win was Long Beach State’s fourth consecutive shutout victory over Fresno State, with junior goalkeeper Emily Kingsborough notching four saves.