PENSACOLA, Florida – A magical season continued Saturday afternoon for the No. 2 Lee women's soccer team as it captured the program's second Gulf South Conference Championship with a 3-0 victory over West Georgia from the Ashton Brosnaham Park.
The Lady Flames scored early and often in the championship match. Lauren Weimer got things going in the seventh minute as she received a cross from Ellie Crisler and promptly fired it into the back of the net to give Lee a 1-0 advantage.
Fifth-year senior Anna Lanter gave the Lady Flames a commanding 2-0 lead if the 27
th minute. The veteran they nickname "Bullet", delivered a bullet into the top shelf of the goal from 25 yards out.
"It feels amazing to win this, we've been knocking on the door for a couple of years so this is a great moment. We were motivated to get here and to win and our focus as been just one game at a time and that has helped us stay focused," said Lee senior midfielder Kelsey Yoder. "Our defense has been absolutely amazing and getting the early goals really help us settle into the game. I'm super proud of the girls who scored and its multiple girls scoring which is really tough to defend."
The two-goal lead was more than enough for Lee keeper Jackie Burns and the stifling Lee defense. Burns was named the GSC Tournament Most Outstanding Player as she posted her fifth-straight clean sheet and tallied two saves.
"I'm proud of the way we came into the game and today was a really good result and a great moment for our program," said Lee head coach Chris Hennessey. "Anna's scored more goals this season than her whole career so we hope that continues but her and Kelsey have been such great leaders for our team. They have a tremendous work ethic and desire to win and it's infectious and rubs off on the whole team. They were freshmen during our first GSC Tournament Championship back in 2017 so I'm really happy for them."
Freshman Katie Wilson put the icing on the cake in the 74
th minute as she drilled a free kick into the lower left corner of the net.
Lee outshot West Georgia 11-4 and placed six on target. The Lady Flames improve to 12-0 all-time against the Wolves.
In addition to Burns, Weimer, Yoder and Lanter were named to the GSC All-Tournament team.
This is our fourth final and we've been on the losing in a few times, so we need to get through that hurdle mentally and we have a really nice approach to the match and the girls really executed well," added Hennessey. "These tournaments are so tough to win and credit to West Georgia on a great season. We are happy get this one and we are going to enjoy it and get ready for the NCAA Tournament."
The Lady Flames improve to 19-0 on the year and will host the opening two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The selection show is Monday evening. West Georgia ends its season at 11-8.