CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Even with standout goalkeeper Kristi Koudelka and midfielder Samantha Hare not available last year because of knee injuries, the Lee University women’s soccer team was able to repeat as NAIA national champion.
And because they were not available then, the two are playing now as fifth-year seniors and help give a much younger Lady Flames team a shot at a threepeat. Seven seniors, including six starters, are gone from coach Matt Yelton’s 2009 champions, and five freshmen have started regularly this fall.
Ranked No. 2 with a 17-2-1 record, Lee hosts Tennessee Wesleyan at 7 p.m. Saturday in the first round of the national tournament, and the winner will be one of 16 teams advanceing to Decatur, Ala., for the week of Nov. 29. Even with Concordia (Ore.) ranked ahead of them, the Lady Flames know they’re the main target for the rest of the 32-team field.
“Everybody’s out to get us,” Hare said.
“We get everybody’s best game,” said sophomore and fellow captain Clair Lanter from Soddy-Daisy, who was the East defensive player of the year in the Southern States Athletic Conference. “We can’t take any team for granted. Any team can beat us if we’re not at our best.”
Lanter is a friend of Wesleyan’s Kent triplets from Hixson – Kimberly, Kathleen and Blair – and has shared with them her regrets that one team’s season will end Saturday night. Lee definitely is not taking Naomi Clarke’s Lady Bulldogs for granted.
“She’s done a great job with that program,” Yelton said. “She was a very good player and is a very good coach.”
Yelton noted that his last two teams had players who largely played together for two to four years, while this team has had to assimilate several youngsters in maintaining its trademark talent and depth.
Freshman Ashley Aragona has had an SSAC-high 16 goals plus 10 assists to go with junior captain Jamie Achten’s league-high 18 assists and 15 goals. Freshmen Katrine Korsgaard, Danielle Ciabatonne (from Notre Dame) and Ode Fulutudilu have eight, seven and eight goals and 11, six and five assists. Hare has five goals and three assists from her midfield spot, one goal fewer than senior defender Chelsea Eisnaugle.
Hare said she knows the freshmen have plenty of time to get national titles, but she wants them to know this is her last chance at another, and she wants them to realize how much work is involved with the quality of competition at this point. But she and Koudelka are thrilled to be in this position again.
“Not playing last year was not as hard as it was frustrating,” Koudelka said. “It’s fun to just sit and watch, but it’s frustrating not to help the team as much as you’d like to.”
Leah Wilson from Chattanooga Christian was a third-team All-American as a freshman in her absence, and Koudelka had to work hard to win the starting spot back.
“We love each other,” said Koudelka, who has allowed only 10 goals in her 18 games. “We are competitors on the field, but off the field we support each other 100 percent. She definitely motivated me to work even harder to play.”