CLEVELAND, Tenn. - It was a cloudy and sometimes rainy Sunday afternoon at the Ray Conn Sports Complex, but it did not stop the Lee University women's soccer team from celebrating. They honored Abby Whitcomb, Nora Burton, Grace Berry, Avery Sides, Alison Lalance, Analisa Lujan and Alaysia Nye in a 2-0 victory over Christian Brothers University on Senior Day.
The win moved the Lady Flames to 9-2-1 in Gulf South Conference play and 11-2-3 overall. It was Coach Lee Hughes team's seventh straight contest without a loss and it finished the regular season in second place (GSC) behind a University of West West Florida team that is unbeaten in conference and regular-season play.
Lee will enter post-season play next Saturday evening and will entertain Mississippi College in a quarterfinal game. The winner will advance to the semifinals which will be hosted by the Huntsville (Alabama.) Sports Commission.
The Lady Flames and Lady Bucs battled to a scoreless first half. However, Lee outshot the visitors 5-1 in the first 45 minutes and had two on goal while CBU had none on target.
Lee quickly jumped on top in the 48th minute of the second half (48:30) when senior Nora Burton nailed her shot into the left corner of the net off her right foot. It was her fourth goal of the year and Grace Berry picked up her third assist of the year.
The final score came in the 65th minute (65:52) when Megan Davis ripped her left-footed shot into the left corner of the goal. The assist came from Lucy Smith. It was Davis' fourth goal of the year and Smith's fourth assist. The team's leading scorer Alaysia Nye (11 goals) is out with an injury.
Again, it was Sides, Whitney Carrigan and Molly Cook playing the entire 90 minutes and leading the defense to their seventh shutout of the year. Keeper Whitcomb was in net all the way and did not have a save as the Lady Bucs were held to just two shots the entire game and none on target. As usual, Coach Hughes went to his bench often and used eight reserves in the victory.
On the other side, the Lady Flames fired 15 shots and placed nine on the mark. Sydney Clements and Berry had two on goal while Madleen Franz and Mallory Miller also placed shots on the net. CBU keeper Maria Carrico was kept busy turning away seven shots by Lee.
The Lady Flames had seven corner kicks and the domination showed again when the Lady Bucs did not have a corner. There were 15 fouls called, eight against Lee and seven against CBU. There were no yellow cards issued.
Coach Lee Hughes' thoughts:
"It's always nice to honor our seniors. This group has done so much for Lee women's soccer in their years here and I am grateful to have had a couple of years with them! Credit to CBU today, they made it really difficult to break them down. I am happy our girls stayed consistent with the things we were asking of them."
