CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The real season begins Saturday at 6 p.m. for the Lee University women’s soccer team, which has already played 21 games.

The Lady Flames are 20-1 with 14 consecutive wins, the last seven by a 40-0 margin, and they are ranked No. 2 in the NAIA, their preseason position. Their only loss was at No. 1 Lindsey Wilson, 3-1 on Sept. 24 — “couch night” at the Kentucky school — and they own 2-1 victories over two teams that have been No. 1 at times the last two years: Azusa Pacific and Martin Methodist.

Martin Methodist beat Lee in the national championship game three years ago and again last year in the semifinals, when the Lady Flames were ranked No. 1, before winning the NAIA title again.

Lindsey Wilson won it in 2004 and 2006.

But Lee has been right there, so close, and is one of “five or six” teams with legitimate chances of winning the championship this year, coach Matt Yelton said.

The Lady Flames host a first-round playoff against Ohio Dominican, making its first appearance in the nationals, and know they can’t take the Panthers lightly if they want to make the round of 16 at Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach, Fla.

The Lee men’s team also is in the national round of 32 and plays at 1 p.m. Saturday at Mount Vernon Nazarene, other Ohio team. But the Flames, ranked 17th in the preseason, had to make a run through the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament to reach their national berth with the misleading record of 9-9-2. Seven of their nine losses were by one goal.

“We knew we were a good team. We were just not able to score goals,” Flames coach Henry Moyo said, noting that he did a lot of “tinkering” with the lineup and moving players around to adjust to several injuries. “But our defense gave us the confidence to keep fighting, and we did.”

Mark Behan paces the Lee men with eight goals and six assists. Ivan Heredia, whose goal won the SSAC final against Berry, has four goals, as do Nick Chase and Nathan Brown. Chase, a freshman, also has six assists. Goalkeeper Luidgi Beauzile was the SSAC tourney MVP.

The Lady Flames have particularly strong depth, said Yelton and his senior captains, Kristina Chase (Nick’s sister) and Julie Donnestad. Three-time NAIA first-team All-American Janaina Novaes is gone, and even her sister, Luana, broke a leg in September and is not available, but freshman Jamie Achten from Franklin, Tenn., leads the team with 20 goals and 18 assists, and junior Chris Christensen (14), senior Meg Willette, freshman Sandra Kaelin and junior Jenna Achten also have double-digit goal totals.

Senior Tiffany Cox has 13 assists, and juniors Marina Lima and Samantha Hare have 13 and 11.

Chase was an NAIA All-American defender last year who was limited for a while this season with an injury. She has played some midfield as well as in the back and may play forward in the postseason, Yelton said.

“I’ll play wherever,” said Chase, who admitted that she would like to beat Martin Methodist on the way to the championship.

Lee defeated the physically imposing team from Pulaski, Tenn., in the regular season last year, too, so Yelton clearly wouldn’t mind if the road to a title didn’t include the RedHawks. The matchup would be in a quarterfinal this year, so it is very possible.

“And that’s a good mindset for our players to have — to be ready to play them,” said Yelton, emphasizing again that Ohio Dominican must be dealt with first.

“I expect them to be a driven, passionate and hard-working team Saturday night,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we respond the same way.”

He noted that Chase and midfielder Donnestad have done a good job of providing the leadership to keep the Lady Flames focused.

Donnestad, who preceded sisters Chris and Linn Christensen from Oslo, Norway, “has been absolutely fantastic for us the last two years,” he said.

“She probably doesn’t get as much attention on the awards side, but she’s played more minutes than anybody for us, and there’s a reason for that. She was organizing the team so well from the start.”

Former Bradley Central standout Savannah Neely has the only significant injury besides Novaes’ now — a “bruise or sprain on top of her foot,” Yelton said — but the Lady Flames have “about 16” starting-caliber players.

“We can let a lot of people play,” Donnestad said, “and we can play at a high level in practice. As we worked to improve this year, we had to do it in practice.”

The Lady Flames, after all, outscored their SSAC foes 59-3 in the regular season and 19-0 in the tournament. They beat Berry College 6-0 in the championship game last Saturday night.

That’s why the season they’ve planned for starts this Saturday night.

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