Junior Mia Hollingsworth and the Lady Flames will look to race past the competition in 2017
Head coach Chris Hennessey begins his third season of leading one of the universities' most successful athletic programs. Hennessey was an outstanding defender for the men's program (2006-09) and returned to Lee to serve as the top assistant under former women's coach Matt Yelton. Over the past two campaigns he's directed the Lady Flames to a 25-8-6 mark.
This past year Hennessey and his Lady Flames were Gulf South Conference (GSC) regular season co-champions (14-3-2 overall) and 11-1 in the league.
For the second consecutive year his club qualified for the NCAA National Tournament.
RETURNEES WILL PLAY KEY ROLE
The coaching staff will be searching for ways to replace GSC first-teamer and All-American Kinsey Cichowitz. In 19 games last season, the talented mid-fielder paced the Lady Flames with 14 goals and two assists.
Forward Summer Lanter (11 goals, 6 assists) is ready for her senior season. Lanter, an Academic All-American, was named the 2016 GSC Player of the Year. She will be joined upfront by junior Lauren Peters (11 goals, 1 assist). Senior Haley Gribler returns in goal and seniors Meagan Newman and McKenzie Bricker (7 goals, 6 assists) will anchor the defense. Bricker, Peters, Gribler and Newman were named 2016 All-GSC second team performers. The senior leadership continues with Suzanne Arant returning at midfield. Junior Mia Hollingsworth is also back at a midfield position as is senior defender Katie Cloud.
Kelsey Jones, Isabelle Berthoud, Anna Lanter, Malia Brock, Sara Corum, Devin Healy and Kelsey Yoder make up the list of freshmen, while Riley Engels will be a sophomore transfer from Trevecca Nazarene and junior Kate Carney comes to the Lady Flames from Austin Peay State University.
TEAM'S STRENGTH
"In my opinion the depth of the squad is good this year –providing we can stay injury free of course," said Hennessey. "Having been a part of the NCAA tournament now for two years, it's been noticeable that those teams still playing late into November and early December have carried large squads. This is something we needed to address and I feel we have. We also needed to change our mentality and this is something that we worked on in the spring, so I am excited to see this carry over this fall."
HAPPY WITH 2017 CLASS
I am very happy with our 2017 class, proclaimed Hennessey. "We have added seven new freshmen and two transfers. I think our freshmen certainly have the talent to push and compete for starting spots right away. Overall the whole class will bring a healthy competition to training and give us the ability to rotate players and make sure we are fresh going into (hopefully) post-season."
TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
"Our non-conference schedule is again another tough one, perhaps one of the toughest in the country," noted the coach. "We open at home with the University of North Georgia and Rollins College (Fla.) and then head to Orange Beach to play Embry-Riddle (Fla.). I think playing teams of such high caliber really helps us prepare for a grueling conference season and gives us a good measuring tool on what we need to improve on over the course of the season in order to compete with the best."
CONFERENCE TOUGH AND CROWDED
Coach Hennessey has one goal in mind as he prepares his club for the upcoming season – "To qualify for the conference tournament. It is very hard to predict how the conference might play out this year. You have teams like UNA (North Alabama), UWF (West Florida) and MC (Mississippi College) that have been right in the mix over the past couple of years. I also know a lot of the teams have added quality to their rosters this year, so it's very difficult to predict. With the addition of two new teams (Montevallo, Ala.) and (Auburn Montgomery) it's going to add extra games to an already tough and long conference schedule. I think the key for any team competing for the championship this year will be to establish consistency right from the start.
STRONG COACHING STAFF
Luidgi Beauzille enters his fourth season as a Lee women's soccer assistant. He served as a goalkeeper during his playing career with the Flames. "It is hard to describe what Luidgi brings to the program," said Hennessey. "We are extremely lucky to have such a dedicated and knowledgeable coach on staff. He does a tremendous job with our goalkeepers and has a unique ability to make game-changing decisions during games. I am very happy to have him with me again this year."
Sami Rutowski, who is from the Cincinnati, Ohio area, is joining the coaching staff as a graduate assistant after a playing career at Northern Kentucky University. "This will be Sami's first year with us," pointed out Hennessey. "She comes from a great program at Northern Kentucky University where she captained the team to their first NCAA tournament appearance last fall. Sami has a good work ethic and is keen to learn. We are looking forward to seeing what she can add to our program."