The Lee men and women soccer teams arrived back on campus late Sunday afternoon as a tired but a very happy group. Both teams were still celebrating back-to-back championship victories in the NCCAA national tournaments in Kissimmee, Fla. on Saturday.

After the Lady Flames followed the men’s thrilling 2-1 win over Bethel (Ind.) with a heart-stopping 6-5 shootout victory over Grace (Ind.), it touched off a celebration between the two championship teams that lasted for several minutes. Maybe Lee men’s coach Paul Furey stated it best when he said “It’s just a great day to be a part of Lee soccer.”

The soccer teams joined the Lee men and women golf teams as the university’s only squads to win national titles on the same day and at the same venue. The fete may never be accomplished again, especially with all Lee athlete teams moving into full membership in NCAA Division II next year and competing for Gulf South Conference and D2 titles.

While some questioned if the shootout 6-5 decision would be counted as an official victory, the NCCAA confirmed it would go down in the record book as a victory, giving the Lady Flames a final record of 16-4-1. The men posting four straight impressive tournament victories, finished at 12-9-2 and claimed a huge national title.

After things had settle somewhat, Lady Flames coach Matt Yelton and coach Furey took time to reflect on the experience.

Matt Yelton said:
“This year has been a remarkable season in so many ways and to finish it off the way we did is just indicative of the way we approached the entire season.

“We started the year with one win in our first four games and had conceded seven goals in our first four games. We responded with 14 shutouts in our remaining games and gave up four goals for the remainder of the season.

“In the final we went down a goal in the first 20 minutes and had to battle for the remainder of the game to get the goal back. I’ve seen a lot of teams buckle under the pressure, but in truth I wasn’t really nervous as I believed we were going to get a goal and get ourselves back in the game.

I can’t say enough good things about the quality of character within this team. They are truly a special bunch of players that bought into the vision that we laid out in August with what we hoped to achieve.
“We never mentioned winning championships. I don’t think I have ever had a team improve from day one of practice to our final game as much as this team did.

“We had a number of different players that made huge strides over the course of the season and that made a real impact on our tournament run. The play of our entire roster and the fact that we had multiple players make an impact in pool play and semi-final games allowed us to play 18 players in most games and kept us as fresh as possible for the final.

“One of the ideas that we really pushed with this group was that we had a motto of “we take care of us” and that simply meant that we would work hard for each other and push each other to be at our best in everything that we did and that we would not depend on anyone outside of our team to do us any favors. With the conference regular season championship and the NCCAA National Championship, this group certainly learned how to take care of each other.

“I have six very special players that I watched play their last game this week. Alison (Braun), Brianna (Prugh), Kathryn (Healy), Michelle (Spangler), Marbel (Egwuenu) and Rachel (Cox) are a group of women that have left their mark on our program with their effort, character, and drive to be women of faith. They live their lives in a way that is exemplary to others and I am blessed to have coached them.”

Coach Furey said:
“Our guys can really take pride in doing something special and I think they will remember this for a long time. The competition was very good and we had to work hard in each of the matches.

“We really played a very solid first half against Bethel, controlling the flow of the game for the most part of it, but we still were down 1-0 at the half which could have been discouraging, yet once again we showed great resilience.

“It was a storybook ending for (senior) Joey (Hinshaw) in goal as he wrapped up his playing career at Lee, I’m not sure you could have had a better finish to your college career after having just had your first start nine games ago,

“It was a very proud moment as a coach and a father to see Justin (Furey) playing his final game and walking off the field as a champion. After the game he was the first one I looked for to give big hug,

“Obviously you don’t win a championship without it being a total team effort and I feel like so many of our guys contributed to helping us make it happen. Our back line was solid and John (Findlay) had a special tournament. Up top Quade (Marinell) was just very difficult to contain. He did so much for us and created things. He was definitely a key to our success.

“What a thrill it is to win a national championship and then share the same experience with our women’s team during the same day.”