Kate Dirkse got the Lady Flames on the board with a goal in the 15th minute on Thursday.
The Lee women's soccer team rallied for a late equalizer to earn a tough 2-2 road draw at Valdosta State on a warm Thursday afternoon in the Peach State.
With temperatures near 90 the Lady Flames and the Blazers battled it out for 110 minutes. Lee was playing with several starters out and had to climb out of a 2-1 deficit in the second half to remain unscathed on the season.
"I'm really proud of the effort today," said Lee head coach Chris Hennessey. "I thought we lacked in that area on Sunday so this was a good responsive from girl's today.
Valdosta's a good team but we had some chances that just didn't fall for us today."
The Lady Flames outshot the Blazers, 23-10 and put 18 on frame compared to seven for VSU. Lee banged three shots off the crossbar including one in the first overtime period.
Trailing 2-1 the Lady Flames finally found the equalizer in the 78th minute as freshman Tatum Miller drilled a rebound off a Riley Henry shot into the back of the net to square things up again.
"I felt like we deserved the equalizer at that point," noted Hennessey. "We tried to push to find the winner in overtime and had some really good looks but that's soccer sometimes. We had some big players missing from our lineup, but everyone stepped up. We had a few players out of position, but they responded well and the bench was loud and the energy was good all match long. I'm proud of our fight and effort today."
The Blazers took an early lead just 5:37 into the match off a penalty kick score from Paige Taylor. Lee responded for the first equalizer in the 15th minute as Kate Dirske connected off a corner kick from Mallory Hayden for her first goal of the year. Hayden registered her third assist of the season.
Valdosta State fired right back however just one minute later as Rachael Howard snuck a shot into the right corner of the net. The Blazers would take a 2-1 advantage into the intermission.
Lee freshman keeper, Haleigh Holland registered five saves in the match. Valdosta State's Landon Carter earned every bit of the draw for the Blazers as she compiled 14 saves and faced 23 shots from the aggressive Lady Flames.
The Lady Flames move to 4-0-1 on the year and 1-0-1 in GSC Pool Play. The Blazers sit at 1-1-1 and are tied with Lee at 1-0-1 in GSC Pool B standings.
Lee will return home to host West Georgia on Sunday at the Lee Multi-Sport Complex. The opening kickoff for the GSC contest is slated for 3 p.m.