Riesch takes lead in overall Alpine points

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland, March 18 (UPI) -- Germany's Maria Riesch took a narrow lead in the World Cup overall points race Friday with a fourth-place finish in the women's slalom in Switzerland.

The finish was worth 30 points in the overall standings and moved her into first place, just three points ahead of American Lindsey Vonn with one more race to go in the season.

Riesch finished with a combined-run time of 1 minute, 29.99 seconds, nearly a full second faster than Vonn.

"Today wasn't exactly the result I was hoping for but it was still points and it kept me in the hunt," Vonn said. "I'm only three points behind now. I really hope we race tomorrow and I'm going to give it my best shot."

Tina Maze of Slovenia won the slalom race in 1:29.33. Marlies Schild of Austria was in second, 5/100ths of a second behind Maze. Veronika Zuzulova of Slovakia took third, just 2/100ths of a second ahead of Riesch.

The women's season concludes Saturday with the giant slalom but warm, wet conditions in Lenzerheide could result in cancellation of the race, which would automatically give the title to Riesch.