The Lady Flames (17-2-1), who extended their unbeaten streak to 16 straight matches with the win, got on the scoreboard in the 17th minute when Darcy Brannen and Christiane Christensen combined to assist on a goal by Jamie Achten as Lee to an early 1-0 lead.

Less than seven minutes later, Christensen set up the Lady Flames’ second goal with a pass to Lauren Good for the finish as Lee extended its lead to 2-0.

The score would remain that way until the 83rd minute when Candice Shelton capped off the 3-0 win with a goal off an assist from Achten.

Lee, which has outscored its opponents 82-6 and posted 14 shutouts in 20 matches, held a commanding 31-3 advantage in total shots and a 12-0 edge in shots on goal. The Lady Flames also recorded a 14-0 margin in corner kicks. Junior goalkeeper Jenessa Loewen posted nine saves for the Lady Cougars (11-6-2), who were making their first NAIA National Championship appearance after capturing the program’s first-ever American Mideast Conference Tournament title, while Leah Wilson did not have to make a save for Lee in posting the shutout.

"First and foremost, we give God all the praise, glory, and honor win, lose, or draw,” said MVNU first-year coach Daniel Seiffert. "I truly believe that our girls definitely represented Christ in a great way today on the field. (Lee) is definitely a very solid program, but I felt like especially in the second half we showed that we can compete with teams of this caliber. We got off to a little bit of a shaky start as we were in a new atmosphere, playing in a new place, and at such a high level. The girls gave everything they had and I could not be more proud of my team.”

"Jessica (Estep) had a phenomenal opportunity that she created midway through the second half when she beat a defender and drilled a shot that went off both the crossbar and a post,” Seiffert continued. "If that would have gone in, I really think that it would have changed the momentum.”

"It has truly been an honor to have been a part of the lives of the four seniors on this year’s team,” said Seiffert of Erin Miller, Mara Hughes, Angie Misamore, and Nikki Bruscino. "All four of these girls are irreplaceable and are just incredible players with awesome hearts and strong leadership. They mean so much to me and it has been an honor to have been a part of this program this season. This team has had an incredible season. They set the goal to reach the NAIA national tournament and they worked hard with strong determination and keeping God first to do something that no other women’s soccer team at MVNU has done. I am very fortunate to be able to be here and it has been a great first season. These girls all mean so much to me. We are going to look to take things from here and continue to grow throughout the years always keeping God first in everything that we do.”

While the Lady Cougars will lose four seniors from this team, the other 20 players are all eligible to return as MVNU will look to build off this successful campaign when the 2010 season kicks off.