It's stick-to-stick passing head coach Gina Wills and the DePauw field hockey team preaches daily.
In Sunday morning's game against College of Wooster, an individual effort sealed the Tigers' 13th straight win.
Sophomore Maggie Campbell earned both goals of a 2-0 win over the visiting Fighting Scots (8-6, 7-4 NCAC) on a blustery Blackstock West Field. Her first goal came on a pinpoint pass by fellow-sophomore Paige Henry, and her second came on a breakaway, again started by Henry.
The shutout was also DePauw's (14-1, 11-0 NCAC) 11th of the season, and second blanking of Wooster. The Tigers previously defeated the Fighting Scots 1-0 back on Sept. 16.
"They have a really strong defense, and there are a lot of really solid girls back there," Campbell said after the game. "Our main thing this season has been stick-to-stick passing. ... That's how we were successful to move the ball down field."
In the eighth minute, Henry corralled the ball near the left sideline, and curled into the scoring circle beating her defender and drawing attention from other Wooster players. As the Fighting Scots converged, Campbell made a back-door cut in front of the goal cage, and Henry capitalized.
A wide-open Campbell flicked her wrists for her second goal of the season.
"Paige did a really nice job," Campbell said. "She carried the ball down the field then crossed it right down the center, and it just hit my stick and went in."
Added head coach Gina Preston Wills: "Paige is a brilliant passer, and we really worked on making sure off-the-ball we're in a great position to receive, and Maggie was in a good position to receive. Paige is just magnificent in traffic."
For the rest of the first half, a back-and-forth battle ensued with both teams creating pressure in the scoring circles. Late in the first, the Fighting Scots' Clare Nelson-Johnson missed just wide left from close range on the right side. Nelson-Johnson's shot was the only Wooster shot in the entire game.
DePauw outshot the Fighting Scots 10-1 in the first half, and in the second, the Tigers continued their onslaught.
Seniors Bridgette Shamleffer and Margaret Ellis dictated play at midfield while fellow senior Caroline Torie worked on the sidelines. Henry and Campbell along with sophomore Kate Jovanovic received passes in the circle, but were constantly stood up by a stout Wooster backline.
"Wooster has a lot of great defenders who have really good one-on-one skills," Wills said. "We knew we would have to get good numbers up to eliminate defenders. When we were able to do that and make good passes we had better looks and good shot opportunities."
Despite DePauw's offensive strategy, it was Campbell's individual effort that was too much for the Fighting Scots.
It started at midfield in the 65th minute of the game when one official blew her whistle for a penalty. Wooster players assumed it was in their favor, and began pressing forward. However, the referee reversed her decision, and Henry alertly shot a pass down the far right sideline.
Campbell ran after it and dribbled into the Fighting Scots scoring circle. At that time, two Wooster defenders assembled in front of Campbell, but somehow, neither of them was able to get a stick on the ball to poke it away.
Wooster goalkeeper Carrie Mount came out in a final effort, but the ball rolled to the right, and Campbell flicked it into the cage for her second goal of the game and third of the season.
"Everybody thought (the penalty) was going the other way, and they all went up field," Fighting Scots head coach Brenda Meese said. "Then the official reversed it, and we had one player down. It may have been the right call, but she didn't give our team the chance to adjust to the change of direction."
For Wooster, the loss dropped them to fourth in the NCAC standings behind Kenyon College (8-6, 7-3 NCAC).
Meese attributed her team's loss not to a strong DePauw offense, but the Tiger's defense.
"It's the defense that really holds (DePauw) together," she said. "We had a very good first half and had a couple of opportunities to score, but we didn't convert."
With just three games left in the regular season, the Tigers almost have the regular season NCAC conference title wrapped up. DePauw's perfect 11-0 NCAC record leads Kenyon and Denison University (11-4, 7-3 NCAC) in a tie for second.
The 19 shots taken in Sunday's game is an improvement for the Tigers over the two teams' earlier matchup, which featured DePauw taking 11 shots. The higher shot total can be attributed to better passing and better decision making by the forwards, according to Wills.
The next step is increasing the shots-on-goal total.
"We are trying to make sure that if we shoot it wide, we're in the lanes to deflect it back," Wills said. "We're taking quicker shots, and the next step is keeping the ball in play and looking for the corner of the goal. Sometimes, we look wide to direct it in, instead of taking the shot-on-goal."
The Tigers next travel to Earlham College (0-13, 0-11 NCAC) on Wednesday before facing Denison on Saturday.