Tatum Miller scored a goal and added an assist in Saturday's opening victory over Trevecca.
The sixth-ranked Lee University women’s soccer team opened the 2021 season with a 3-0 victory over a battling Trevecca Nazarene University club of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference on a near perfect Saturday afternoon on the Lee Soccer Field.
The Lady Flames will hit the road and face two more Great Midwest Athletic Conference teams on Thursday (Ohio Dominican) and Saturday (Cedarville University). They will open Gulf South Conference play in the annual Kickin’ It for Kids with Cancer game with Union University on Friday, Sept.
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“I was really happy with our performance overall,” said Lee coach Chris Hennessey. “We created a number of really good scoring opportunities and were finally able to cash in on a couple in the later part of the game.”
Lee led 1-0 at the end of the first half as red-shirt senior Hannah Lanter picked up an assist from senior Avery Engels and tallied from some 17 yards out at the 12:39 mark in the half. “Honestly, I felt like we should have scored a few more goals in the first half,” admitted Hennessey. “I told the girls the longer we let them hang around the more dangerous it would be. Credit Trevecca, they battled and had a couple of close looks that would have tied the game late in the contest.”
The Lee coach was right on target. Trevecca goalkeeper Layne Goodbread had four key saves in the opening 45 minutes to keep the Lady Trojans in the contest, despite the Lady Flames applying tremendous pressure.
The second 45 minutes was a different story. The Trevecca club was the team applying the pressure and this time it was Lee goalkeeper Jacqueline Burns that came up with a key save and the Lee defenders knocked away another late attempt by the visitors from Nashville.
After the late surge, the Lady Flames were able to salt the victory away when sophomore Tatum Miller broke free after picking up an assist from freshman Katie Wilson and scored on a one-on-one matchup against Goodbread in the 82nd minute. Red-shirt senior Riley Henry added a little insurance in the 89th minute after picking up Engels’ second assist of the afternoon.
Overall, the Lady Flames had 20 shots and eight were on goal. The Trojans fired nine shots and placed three on target. Burns finished with a pair of saves and Goodbread had five. Trevecca was awarded eight corner kicks, seven in the second half, and Lee had seven for the game.
“Overall, I’m pleased with the start. We have a great group of girls and a balance of veteran and young players that I think can do some special things this year. We have really come together well in preseason and I am excited to see what we can do this year,” said Coach Hennessey in closing.