Gulfport, Miss. - Lee University's women's soccer team captured the SSAC tournament championship for the 10th straight year at the Sportsplex in Gulfport. Lee also was also the regular season conference champion, going undefeated with 12 wins. Lee blanked the #3 ranked Lady Rams, 2-0.
Freshman Laura Thacker, the Tournament MVP, put Lee on top to stay with a goal in the 20th minute. Soon after, in the 27th minute, another freshman, Kathryn Healy, tallied on a beautiful assist by Leah Fortune.
Both teams, Lee ranked #2 and Mobile #3, received automatic bids to the national tournament; Lee by means of winning the regular season championship and Mobile as runner up in this tournament championship.
In the men's tournament championship, Southern Poly State University won out over Auburn University at Montgomery in penalty kicks. The intensity and the ruggedness of the game left those in attendance wondering who was going to come out on top in this battle. Southern Poly was up 2-0 at halftime with goals by Jumol Harewood and Andre Santos.
In the 55th
minute AUM Junior Angel Gonzalez scored off of an assist from senior Chris Ross
to get them back in the game.
Vitor Silva tied the match up at 2-2 scoring a penalty kick.The match went into a scoreless double
overtime resulting in a penalty kick shoot out. Southern Poly converted all five of their attempts while AUM
fell in scoring three of their four shots.
Southern Poly and the University of Mobile advance to national via automatic bids to the NAIA national tournament via automatic bids earned for winning this tournament and being the regular season champion, respectively. Belhaven University and William Carey University received at-large bids into the tournament
