Coach Matt Yelton said before taking his Lee women's soccer team to the NCCAA National Championship that Dallas Baptist might be the best team in the nine-team tournament.
The sixth-seeded DBU team (16-6-1) on the year, proved Yelton right when they handed the Lady Flames a stunning 3-0 defeat on Wednesday afternoon at the Austin-Tindall Regional Park. The defeat eliminates Lee from the tournament and ends its season at 14-4-2.
The Texas squad wasted no time in zipping to the only score they would actually need.
Ashley Cox scored with only 1:14 gone on the clock. Megan McDermand made it a 2-0 game at the 13:07 mark and in the 36th minute Danielle Presley made it a 3-0 halftime lead.
The Dallas Baptist team only allowed the Lady Flames 11 shots and just three reached the target. At the same time the DBU offense was firing 18 shots. Five of the 18 that were on goal went into the back of the net. Kerry Edwards had three saves for the winners and Haley Gribler had two in defeat.
"First, all credit to Dallas Baptist," commented coach Matt Yelton in statements released after the game. "They played very well today and played with a lot of desire and energy. They put in a complete performance as a team and will be a very tough team to beat in this tournament. Their players and coaching staff did an excellent job in preparing for this game and brought a fantastic intensity to the first 30 minutes of the match.
"Even though we didn't play well at this event I hope it doesn't take away from what we did achieve. This was a team that won a lot of games against good opposition and played well against a very tough schedule, but unfortunately we didn't play well this week and we are going home earlier than we would have liked.
"Unfortunately we conceded early goals both days and when that happens it's my fault as it shows the team wasn't ready to play. We gave up a lot of similar goals this week and I'll take the blame for not doing a good enough job of preparing our team to be successful.
"Given the fact that we lost eight starters from last year's squad, I'm still pleased with this team and they showed an amazing amount of progress between last year and this year. Dallas Baptist is a very good Division II program and gave us a good lesson on what it will take to be competitive in NCAA post season."