ORANGE BEACH, Fla. - Juniors Ashley Aragona and Leah Fortune produced late first-half goals and the Lee defense contributed its 14th shutout of the season in allowing the Lady Flames to pass their first test in the 2012 NAIA Women's Soccer National Championship.
The Lady Flames (19-1-1) had to battle for 90 minutes to post the 2-0 victory over the Northwood University (West Palm Beach, Fla.) Seahawks (14-5-1). They will now watch Tuesday's contest between Cumberland University and Concordia University (Ore.) to see who Wednesday's 5 p.m. EST opponent will be.
It marked the 22 straight win in national tournament competition for the Lady Flames. They now stands at a remarkable 27-3-2 in all-time national tourney competition. In earlier action on Monday, No. 2 Lindsey-Wilson advanced to the quarterfinals and so did No. 3 Vanguard (Calif.). The only upset of the first day took place in the final match when Texas-Brownsville upset No. 4 Oklahoma City, 2-1.
"I thought we played a very good Northwood team tonight," said coach Matt Yelton after his club continued its drive to five straight national titles. "We had to play well to get a win. We put in a good performance in the first half, but had to battle to hold on against a really determined team."
It took Lee almost 35 minutes to put the first score on the board. Aragona, the MVP of last year's national, kicked in the goal at the 9:55 mark. Less than three minutes later, Fortune tallied her 16 goal of the season on an assist from Aragona, who now has totaled nine goals and 12 assists on the year. That was plenty good enough for a Lady Flames' defense that has given up only 12 goals the entire year.
Yelton praised his defense. "I thought we got a great [performance from our defense again tonight. (Sophomore) Michelle Splangler came on and played a key role when (senior) Kim Conrad had to leave injured." Yelton said Conrad suffered a hip injury and is 50-50 for Wednesday's match.
Final statistics tell just how hard the team fought. Both clubs took 13 shots and each side put six on target. Senior goalkeeper Leah Wilson stepped to the front and recorded five key saves.
"We are happy to be advancing," admitted Yelton. "The road doesn't get any easier as the potential teams we will face in the quaerterfinals are both excellent squads."
