It took a while for the Lee women’s soccer team to recover from a rugged 1-0 loss to West Florida on Friday, but the Lady Flames regrouped and handed host West Alabama a 5-3 defeat on Sunday afternoon.
Lee improved to 7-3 overall and 4-1 in Gulf South play. West Alabama dropped to 8-4 and 3-2.
“"Today we started slow and finished poorly but during the 75 minutes in between we were pretty good,” said coach Matt Yelton after the win.
“It’s always tough to get back up and play after a game like we had on Friday, but I thought overall we put together some good soccer today. We were a little beat up and West Alabama made us play really hard for 90 minutes. Anytime you get a win on the road in this league it's a good result."
The Wolves jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by Katy Morris less than two minutes deep into the match. Seven minutes later Danielle Ciabattone (8:53) knocked in a header off a corner kick by Leah Fortune to tie the match.
"I thought Danielle had a big game for us today,” noted Yelton. “She definitely played her best soccer of the year and gave our team a big lift with the effort she put into the match."
The Lady Flames never trailed again. Laura Thacker made it a 2-1 game when she took a throw in from the ever-present Fortune and tallied on a header from 3-yards out at the 28:05 mark. The margin grew to 3-1 at the break when freshman Summer Lanter scored her sixth goal of the season. Ode Fulutudilu sent the ball into the box and Lanter converted on the rebound.
"We had two seniors put in really good performances in Ode and Leah,” praised Yelton. “Even though her name doesn't show up on the stat sheet, Ode had her best performance of the year and Leah just got better and better as the game went on."
Already with a pair of assists, Fortune put the contest far out of reach with two goals in the 62nd minute and 74th minute of the second half. The first came on a long service from Lee keeper Haley Gribler and the second was unassisted from the top of the penalty box.
West Alabama got a penalty kick from Lauren Tate in the 76th minute and Tori Brook got the Wolves’ final tally on a shot after an earlier block by Lee’s Gribler.
Lee had excellent marksmanship with shots, taking 21 and putting 16 on goal. The same could be said for West Alabama. The host club took 11 shots and eight were on target.
"After this weekend we are looking forward to getting back home to play a really good Christian Brothers team on Friday night,” said Yelton after the long road trip to Florida and Alabama. Kickoff for Friday’s match is slated for 7 p.m.