CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Three first-team All-Americans from Norway and Brazil were among the seniors on the Lee University women's soccer team that successfully defended its NAIA national championship last weekend.
But coach Matt Yelton didn't go far to get all his players. The two second-team All-Americans for the Lady Flames were the Achten sisters, senior Jenna and sophomore Jamie, from Franklin, Tenn., and their third-team selection was freshman goalkeeper Leah Wilson from Chattanooga.
Two key seniors came from Lee's own hometown, and both contributed significantly to the Lady Flames' 21-2-1 season. Lauren Good, a Cleveland High School graduate who played high school soccer for Baylor, had three goals and two assists in Lee's five NAIA tournament wins -- including the winning score 14 minutes into the championship game against Point Loma Nazarene.
Savannah Neely from Bradley Central started 10 games for the Lady Flames and played in all but two, totaling six goals and four assists to go with Good's six and five.
"Savannah has been a kid who for four years has steadily improved every year," Yelton said. "Her work rate is fantastic, and every single day in training she makes our team better. She's absolutely a team player and an important part of why we have been able to win two straight national championships.
"Goodie has been off and on a starter all four years but always seemed to save her best soccer for the postseason," Yelton added. "This season she played phenomenal the last five games. We don't win the national championship without her performance. Other teams could focus on Chris Christensen or Jamie Achten, but Lauren made them pay for that."
The two All-Americans combined for seven goals and six assists in the five-game nationals, giving Acthen 21 goals and 22 assists and NAIA player of the year and tournament MVP Christensen 17 and 17. Achten was chosen the event's top offensive player.
Good had started only three times in 2009 before the first-round home matchup against Mount Vernon Nazarene, when she was in the opening lineup and scored from a Christensen assist. She assisted on two scores by Marina Lima, another first-team All-American, 15 and 20 minutes into the subsequent first win in Decatur, Ala., and Good converted another Christensen assist for the final goal of Lee's 3-0 quarterfinal win over Martin Methodist.
The mud, rain and cold of that game comprised the worst playing conditions Yelton had ever experienced as a player or coach, he said. Certainly Good and Neely agreed, saying it was worse than trying to run in sand.
Neely, a high school high scorer, played some in most games as a Lee freshman but had to learn to "embrace" a different role as a reserve.
Lee was her college choice all along. The Lady Flames were national runners-up her final fall at Bradley.
"I guess I kind of wanted to stay close to home, and the campus is so pretty, and of course Lee was so successful," said Neely, who works at Jordan's Bar-B-Q in Cleveland and has enjoyed year-round attention from the regulars as the success increased.
Having finally won the national championship after becoming annual contenders, the Lady Flames entered the 2009 preseason determined, Yelton said, not "to be a one-and-done type of program. We wanted to be one of the top programs in the history of the NAIA."
The Lady Flames are "high in the history books" after repeating as champs and allowing only six goals all season, none in the last 11 games. They had 19 shutouts in all.
Good wasn't sure she wanted to play soccer in college, and she was intrigued by the College of Charleston. But West Georgia and Flagler offered her scholarships to play, Lee was a "great opportunity" she couldn't pass up.
She's a physical education major who wants to coach. Neely is an elementary education major.
"Our senior class has been real close," Neely said. "We came in as teammates and we're going out as sisters."
Said Good: "It's been great to be able to practice and play every day with so many friends, and we share that competitive feeling of success -- of getting something done."
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