The Lee women's soccer team closed out the regular season and celebrated Senior Night on Friday with a convincing 5-0 victory over the visitors from Shorter University. The Lady Flames will take an 11-4-2 overall mark and 10-2 Gulf South Conference record into the conference tournament final four next weekend.
After a slow start on a chilly night at the Lee Soccer Field, the Lady Flames led by only a 1-0 margin midway of the opening frame. Kaela Leskovar tallied the first goal with just over two minutes gone in the contest. The second score came as a result of an on goal by the Lady Hawks and the margin reached 3-0 by the halftime break on the second goal of the evening by Leskovar. She finished the contest with her third and fourth scores of the year.
With coach Chris Hennessey substituting freely, even in the first half, the Lady Flames added a pair of scores in the second half. Sophomore Summer Lanter was the owner of both goals and each was unassisted. The first tally came after she was tackled by the Shorter goalkeeper but kept the ball going. Her ninth goal of the season came when she curled a shot over the keeper's head. All four of the scores recorded by Lanter and Leskovar were unassisted.
Lee completely dominated the entire 90 minutes firing 14 shots and putting a super percentage of 11 on goal. On the other hand, the Lady Hawks were able to garner just three shots against Lee's stingy defense and one was on target. Lee keeper Erin Olson was credited with a save and also registered the victory. Shorter keeper Haley Lademann came away with six saves in the loss.
"I thought the match tonight we came out a little slow but we played our way into the game and got the early goal from Kaela to get us going," said Hennessey. "Looking back at this season we had a tough start at the beginning with all the injuries but we've battled through a lot of adversity this season and are co-champions of the conference, if UNA wins Sunday, so I'm very proud of this group."
The Lady Flames honored seniors Laura Thacker and Molly McLaughlin at halftime. Lee will watch the weekend play out and the opening round results before learning their opponent in the GSC tournament next weekend at North Alabama. The Lions scored in the final seconds of the second overtime to defeat Mississippi College earlier on Friday and earned the right to host the conference's final four.
When asked about his two seniors Hennessey said, "Molly has been injured the last couple of years but she has been so important to this team and her character and energy around the locker room is irreplaceable.
Laura is a great leader out there and she is such a great player and is playing a very high level of soccer right now. I'm very proud of her and she will be sadly missed."
