Dynamic duo leads Lady Vols in soccer

Kylee Rossi scores the goals. Jaimel Johnson stops the goals.

It's a dynamic combination of opposing skills that has University of Tennessee women's soccer coach Angela Kelly excited about the No. 13-ranked Lady Vols.

"Any time you have two leaders on your team that are rising seniors, both up for the Hermann Trophy for the best player in the country," Kelly said, "it makes it pretty exciting for the possibilities of this year.

"We're not going to take anything for granted, but we're looking forward to some great things happening this season."

It starts with Rossi and Johnson.

Going into tonight's season opener at Chattanooga, Rossi will begin her quest to shatter Lady Vol scoring records.

She already has 75 career points and has led UT in scoring every year since coming to Knoxville from Pennington, N.J.

"Kylee is extremely crafty on the ball," Kelly said. "She's very deceptive, has good speed and good technical skills.

"She's flashy and she kind of slices and dices as a forward. Her precision and her scoring ability has increased each and every year."

So has her leadership role.

"What I'm most proud of with Kylee is how she has grown as a young lady," Kelly said. "She came in as a very wet-behind-the-ears freshman and now she has blossomed into a young woman who has so much character and so many great attributes that go along with becoming a great leader and role model."

Johnson, coming off of an All-American junior season, gets the same kind of praise from Kelly.

The Dayton, Ohio product set a UT single-season record with 111 saves and had 10 shutouts as the Lady Vols went 15-5-2 and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2007.

"Jaimel is what we call a gamer," Kelly said. "She's a shot stopper and we've convinced her over the four years that if she trains every single day as hard as she can the sky is the limit.

"I've said this a million times, but she's the best goalkeeper in the country."

Add six other returning starters to the mix, and seven incoming freshmen ranked among the best classes in the nation, and Kelly has her long-range goals set higher than Sweet 16.

"I've never put too much weight into rankings," she said. "Coming from North Carolina and winning four national championships with only one loss in college, my mentality is if you're not No. 1, it doesn't matter if you're No. 2 or No. 25 - it's still not good enough.

"Being ranked 13th in the country is not good enough. Each and every year, you want to be in the top five and that's what we're gunning for."

Kelly will be in attendance tonight at Chattanooga's North River Soccer Complex, but she is serving a one-game, UT-imposed suspension for a minor NCAA infraction this past winter.

"I want the focus to be on my team, not me," Kelly said. "It won't affect our team in the least."

She returns to the sidelines when UT travels to College Station, Texas, to take on Indiana (Aug. 29) and North Carolina (Aug. 31).

UT's home opener is Sept. 5 in the First Tennessee Lady Vol Classic against West Virginia.