For the Tennessee women’s athletics department, one of the primary goals in establishing a women’s soccer program at the start of the 1996 season was to become one of the nation’s premier teams.
In the first four seasons, Tennessee found itself on a topsy-turvy course of wins and losses, typical for a young program. The past three years, however, the Lady Vols have followed a steady uphill course in finding their way among the NCAA women’s soccer powers.
That transformation can be traced back to a shift in recruiting patterns when current UT head coach Angela Kelly took over the helm in the spring of 2000.
Whereas before Tennessee had relied on the talent of primarily southern region-specific athletes, Kelly immediately turned her eyes toward a larger prize – crossing the nation and even the border to pick up the best a class had to offer.
The fruits of her labor were immediate as Canadian star Rhian Wilkinson signed with the Lady Vols in Kelly’s initial recruiting class of 2000. Wilkinson was joined by a quartet of highly-touted recruits from across the nation in the fall of 2001.
Keeley Dowling (Carmel, Ind.), Kayla Lockaby (Hamilton, Ohio), Lyndsey Patterson (Puyallup, Wash.) and Sue Flamini (Cranford, N.J.), along with North Carolina transfer Kim Patrick rocketed Tennessee to its first-ever NCAA Tournament selection in 2001.
Dowling, a member of that highly-touted class of 2001, thinks that Kelly’s encompassing style of recruiting is a big part of why Tennessee is finding success in women’s soccer.
“I think that in order to develop a program, you really have to recruit the best players across the country, not just those in a certain region,” Dowling said.
“I think that what makes Coach’s style different is that she not only recruits talent-wise, but she also recruits players based on their personality and how they’ll fit in with our team. They might not be the best talent-wise, but they’re the best fit for our team.”
Dowling said Kelly always tries to find the right mix.
“We need great players, and we need great role players,” she said. “That’s how she tries to recruit.”
This year’s group of freshmen is certainly no deviation from Kelly’s normal recruiting pattern. The incoming class again brings Tennessee to the top of the recruiting lists after a one-year absence.
Selected as the 17th-ranked recruiting class in the nation and third in the Central Region by Soccer Buzz magazine, a group of eight freshmen will don the orange for the first time this fall.
Headlined by midfielder Melissa Amado from the ranks of the Canadian National Under-17 team, Kelly’s staff succeeded at persuading a cross-section of talent to come to Tennessee.
Amado will be joined by six other recruits hailing from across the U.S. – from Columbus, Ohio, to Washington state.
The freshman class of 2003 joins a squad that achieved its program’s highest point in the 2002 season. Following its initial berth into the NCAA tournament in 2001, Tennessee secured its first-ever SEC regular season Eastern Division title.
The Lady Vols then took their history-making season to the SEC Tournament, where UT knocked off perennial power Florida to win their initial SEC Tournament title.
In the NCAA Tournament, Tennessee defeated Furman and Cincinnati to move on to the Sweet 16 in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Lady Vol’s streak ended with a 3-1 defeat by the Tar Heels, concluding the 2002 season with a program-best 18-6-1 record.
The team returns seven starters and 18 letterwinners this season to face a talent-laden schedule, including eight teams featured in last season’s NCAA tournament and five from the final National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll.
Returning All-American defender Dowling believes that last season’s success should only serve as notice of what this program intends to make an annual event.
“I think our entire team is really excited heading into this season,” Dowling said. “Obviously, after winning our first SEC championship, we not only look to win it again, but to start with that and build our season with that as a goal.
“We’re very anxious to see what the girls coming in, as well as the returning players, can do. We’ve set the bar high and now we just want to continue building this program into one of the nation’s best.”
