LIVINGSTON, Ala. - Freshman Suzanne Arant could not have picked a better time to score her first career goal. It came in the second minute of an overtime period. The score gave the Lee women's soccer team a hard-fought 1-0 victory over a talented West Alabama squad.
The win improved the Lady Flames to 6-4-1 overall but more importantly, to a 4-1 record in Gulf South Conference (GSC) play. It also dropped the host Tigers to 9-2 overall and was their first GSC loss of the year (5-1).
"I thought we put in another very brave effort tonight," said coach Matt Yelton immediately after the big conference victory. "West Alabama is a very tough place to come and play. To get a result on their field is an outstanding accomplishment for any team. It took us the first half to adjust to the space of the field and the (artificial) turf. In the second half, I thought we put in some really good play and we started to move the ball well. We created some very good chances in the second 45 minutes."
Yelton went on to praise the effort of the host club. "West Alabama played a very hard game and they competed from the very first whistle, but I thought we matched their intensity and then uped ours in the second half and in the overtime."
The Tigers almost put the contest away in the final 30 seconds of regulation when a shot hit the crossbar and kicked away. "I thought we had lost it at that point," the coach admitted. "Then to see Kinsey (Chichowitz) break free and create a goal-scoring chance just says a lot about her heart and the effort that she put into the game."
West Alabama played the final minutes a player down due to a red card. "That last-player foul was crucial for us," Yelton added. "The goal that Suzanne scored was just an absolute fantastic strike. As soon as it left her foot, I think most of us knew it was going into the back of the net."
The Lee coach also praised the effort of his defense in the shutout. "I thought our defense played extremely well in being able to contain a very good GSC player (last year's conference player of the year). As enjoyable as tonight was, we just have to pick ourselves up again and get ready to play on Sunday. We are a little banged up at this point and we have some players who are playing injured but Alabama-Huntsville battled us to a tie a year ago." The GSC contest is slated for 2 p.m. kickoff.
The Lady Flames took 14 shots in the battle and placed four on goal. West Alabama fired 11 shots and had five on target. Lee keeper Marbel Egwuenu had four saves for Lee and Tiger keeper Issy Foster came away with three saves for the losers.
