Senior Maggie Cambell fights through the Christopher Newport
defense in Saturday's upset win. ABBY MARGULIS / THE DEPAUW
Tigers Upset Christopher Newport on Saturday
The DePauw University Tigers stepped onto their home turf Saturday at Reavis Stadium, hoping to upset Christopher Newport University, ranked fourth in the nation. The 20th ranked Tigers landed two goals in the back of the cage, marking their third win of the season with a 2-1 victory.
“We came out with ‘Let’s give it everything we have,’ and from the start of the first whistle we showed that we can compete,” senior forward Maggie Campbell said. “I think it’s a testament to the team. We’re not just a Midwest team, but we can compete nationwide.”
The Tigers started strong, dominating the Christopher Newport Captains on offense. DePauw put a total of 16 shots on goal and capitalized on two; scored by sophomore Addie Ball and senior Paige Henry. Goalie Maggie Steele, senior, was only forced to make two saves throughout the entire game.
Both teams entered halftime scoreless, but it didn’t take the Tigers long in the second half to put a goal on the scoreboard. The team advanced on a corner called nine minutes into the second half. Ball finished the play off an assist by Henry. After that, it was Henry’s turn to score. She followed with a second goal with 6:30 remaining in the game.
“Today’s game shows what the team is made of and has to look forward to in the upcoming weeks,” Henry said. “This is the best we’ve played. This is all of our hard work through preseason and the first two weeks. Today really showed our full capabilities. Every single person on the team brought it today and really played the best they could.”
Stepping first to each ball resulted in chance after chance for the Tigers to take advantage of and put another game away. In practice this past week the team focused on creating options on attack, which Head Coach Gina Preston saw done in today’s game.
“We played well together,” Preston said. “When our defense stepped up we had a lot of options moving forward to attack as a team and then took advantage of the opportunities when we had them on our end.”
Even with the win, the Tigers still respect Christopher Newport’s skill.
“They’re a great team,” Preston said. “They attack with speed and really push our defense. They have great defense inside the circle too. We had a hard time getting it through to goal. It was a great game played both ways. We were excited with the finish.”
The Tigers will play again Sunday, Sept. 7, against Centre College at 2:30 p.m. at Reavis Stadium.
Even with Saturday's win, the women will be starting fresh Sunday to face the Centre Colonels.
“This is just the beginning of the season and we need to keep building and getting better from here,” Campbell said. “This is a great building block but we still have things to work on. We’re excited for it to keep progressing.”
First-year Maddy Burds advances into the circle in Sunday's
matchup against Cetnre College. The Tigers won 5-3.
ABBY MARGULIS / THE DEPAUW
Tigers stay undefeated after win over Centre
Coming off their win against Christopher Newport on Saturday, the DePauw Tigers (4-0,0-0) continued their undefeated start to the season defeating Centre College 5-3 in Sunday’s match.
The Tigers came out strong pushing hard on Centre’s defense from the moment the first whistle blew. First-year Paige Berliner put up a natural hat trick in the first six minutes.
“It was a team effort,” Berliner said. “They made it easy for me.”
Despite taking a 3-0 advantage early in the game, the Tigers were forced to work hard until the final buzzer.
“We kept working harder throughout the game and once we saw what was working we kept doing that,” Berliner said.
The women were able to take advantage of space in Sunday’s victory.
“We were able to move the ball around and create space for ourselves,” junior Grace Goodbarn said. “Being able to create opportunities for ourselves and use everyone on the field was able to touch the ball which made a difference today. It was a great team effort.”
The Colonels refused to go away. Center scored three times after while challenging DePauw’s goalies Maggie Steele, senior, and Sarah Guendert, freshman, nine times.
“Centre had a lot of players that had a lot of players with individual skill and could really dribble with speed,” Head Coach Gina Preston said. “That was different from what we have seen so far this year.”
The Tigers came out early with aggression and the mindset to attack leading them to their overall victory over Centre.
“We were looking to attack when the space was there and then in the second half we were able to settle in and go when we had the opportunity and then also possess when the opportunity wasn’t there,” Preston said.
The Tigers have a few things to work on in practice this upcoming week before they face Kenyon College in the first North Coast Athletic Conference match up of the season.