This past Wednesday night, the DePauw University Tigers women's lacrosse team traveled to Springfield, Ohio, where they took on the NCAC first-place Wittenberg University Tigers.
Despite a valiant effort, DePauw was handed its eighth loss of the 2014 season, losing 25-12. Considering Wittenberg stands at 10-2 overall and 6-0 in NCAC competition, DePauw was not disappointed by their outcome.
"I thought we played pretty well even though the scoreboard didn't look great," said sophomore attacker Elizabeth McCracken. "We were confident going out there."
McCracken scored four of the Tigers' 12 goals, including three in the last 12 minutes of the contest. Joining McCracken on the Tigers scoreboard was junior Carey Kunz, who netted three goals, and fellow classmate Jamie Powell had two. A pair of freshmen, Emily Scinta and Taylor Summers, each scored one goal to round out DePauw's twelve goals.
Scoring 12 goals against Wittenberg was no small feat. The last time the top-ranked team lost a game was a March 27, double overtime match against the University of Mount Union Purple Raiders.
For DePauw, a team that was only officially established a season ago, they feel they are stepping in the right direction.
"There are definitely things that we could have improved on in yesterday's game against Wittenberg," said junior Carey Kunz, "but with them being the top ranked team, I think we gave them a good fight and were able to get more goals on them than we had expected."
Kunz and Powell make up half of the juniors on the Tigers squad, with the lone senior midfielder Amy Clark. Powell, who was third in team goals in 2013, has seen great progress in her Tigers team since two years ago, when they were only a club team.
"The team work's a lot better, and we're getting to know the game," said Powell. "Over half the team are freshmen, and we're getting players who have never played [lacrosse] used to the sport. Last year, we came out well as a first year program compared to a lot of teams. Now, almost every coach from the opposing team congratulates us on how far we've come."
Most of the team thinks that as far as they have come, they still have a long way to go. Since the majority of the team is freshman players, including their goalie Liz Hawkins, the women hope to continue growing into an NCAC contender.
The team currently stands at 2-4 in NCAC competition, with their two wins coming in the season-opener against the College of Mt. St. Joseph and a 14-13 nail biter home appearance against Oberlin College. Nevertheless, the team needs to get better outcomes in order to appear in post-season competition. As they are well aware, it starts with confidence.
"I think being such a new team playing teams that have been around for a few years, we've had problems staying positive," said McCracken. "Other than that we've been doing pretty well."
Even with the loss, McCracken and several other leaders thought last Wednesday's matchup against Wittenberg was a step toward building that confidence. The Tigers now know that if they could compete with the 10-2 Wittenberg Tigers, they should be able to matchup against anyone in their Conference. They hope to take this mentality into this Saturday's home conference game against Allegheny College.
"The most important thing going into our game Saturday against Allegheny is to keep up the communication on the field and to be confident in how we play," said Kunz. "Knowing that we have been able to compete and beat established teams in our conference such as Oberlin."
Saturday's matchup against Allegheny begins at noon and will take place at DePauw University's Boswell Field.