Lee’s Sam Pewitt and Michelle Spangler battle West Florida player for loose ball.
photo by Lee University
In a contest that was evenly played for the entire 90 minutes, visiting West Florida scored a goal in the 62nd minute and then held on to hand the Lady Flames a 2-1 defeat on Friday evening.
The Gulf South loss leaves Lee at 3-1 in conference play, while West Florida improves to 3-1.
The Argonauts are 5-3 overall, while Lee slips to 4-4-1. The Lady Flames will continue GSC action on Sunday when they host conference newcomer Spring Hill College at 1 p.m.
The visitors broke the scoring ice in the 41st minute when Julianne Gaubron slipped a shot by Lee goalkeeper Erin Olson. Kaitlyn Culotta and Taylor Harbison were credited with the assist. The score gave West Florida a 1-0 lead at the break.
The Lady Flames came out quickly in the second half and hit the bar with one shot before Nicole Blanchard drilled a shot from the top of the box to tie the contest at one apiece. Kinsey Cichowitz got the assist. It was Blanchard's fourth goal of the season.
The game-winner came some two minutes later (62:03). West Florida's April Syme connected on her sixth goal of the season off a corner kick. Tricia Gould and Kelly Andres carded the double assist.
"We have to use tonight as a learning experience and make sure that we are building from this," said Lee coach Matt Yelton. "We need to take the lessons learned from tonight into our future matches. One of the keys for us tonight was to eliminate their chances from set pieces and unfortunately, we can see the two goals came from corners."
The evenly played defensive match saw both teams attempt seven shots and place three on goal. Emily Grammer had two key saves in the win. West Florida was awarded five corner kicks and Lee four.
"I was not in any way displeased with the effort we brought into the match," declared Yelton. "West Florida is a very tough team to play against and they bring a lot of intensity into every match. I thought we matched their intensity, unfortunately we just couldn't get a few more breaks to go our way.
"We have to make sure we are ready to play on Sunday against Spring Hill. We are at the halfway point in the season now. The key for this team is to continue to improve over the course of the season and Sunday is another opportunity to do so."