After yet another six-goal rout of the College of Wooster on Wednesday, field hockey will advance to the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament final against Kenyon College on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
The lady Tigers have scored at least six goals in the final five games of the regular season while only conceding two goals in that span.
Contrary to most tournament teams, the Tigers have not changed their approach in any way. Junior forward Maggie Campbell commented on the even keel attitude of her team.
"Our approach all season has been to focus on one game at a time," Campbell said. "Each week we work to improve upon the last week, and build from there." This philosophy has proven successful, as the Tigers have not swayed from their goal to improve each and every week and take the season one game at a time.
Clearly their approach has remained steadfast through the regular season transitioning into the post season, as the Tigers played eerily similar to most other games during the regular season.
"There's always added pressure playing in the post season, but it's good pressure. The post season is what we play for. It's always exciting and high intensity," said Campbell.
Every player performed her job and took care of business early as the familiar names stepped up again, including second time NCAC Player of the Week junior Paige Henry. Forwards Micheline Figel, a senior, and Henry provided goals at 14 and 29 minutes in, respectively. The Tigers ended the half up 2-0.
The second half proved much the same for DePauw with two goals from Campbell, as well as goals from sophomore Grace Goodbarn and junior Kate Jovanovic. The Tigers outshot the Fighting Scots 30-1, continuing their defensive dominance.
In their final regular season matchup the Tigers took on Wittenberg University in another 6-1 thrashing. Like clockwork, the Tigers scored a little over five minutes into the first half on a well-worked corner finished by Henry for her first of three goals that day.
Corners seemed to be the weakness in the Wittenberg defense as junior Grace Fisher added a goal at 27:31. Each corner seemed to create problems for Wittenberg with many saves made by the Wittenberg keeper in such situations. First-year Addie Ball added a third goal in the first half five minutes later putting DePauw up 3-0. The Tigers ended the half at 5-0 with goals added by Henry and senior Maddie Lee.
The second half started slow with the Tigers content to keep possession in the offensive end, but not many clear cut chances were created until Henry added her third goal on a brilliant finish through the legs of the keeper. The Tigers looked like scoring many times after, however the Wittenberg keeper began to turn her performance around making a number of incredible saves.
Over the past several games, the Tigers have used bench players more and more providing them with valuable experience, including first-year Annie Wyman. DePauw has been able to do this because of the huge leads the starters have been able to establish.
"The entire team gets excited when everyone plays and cheers everyone on," Wyman said. "It definitely boosts your confidence getting in games and it shows that your part of the team."
Wittenberg finally got on the score sheet late in the game, but the goal proved to be no more than a consolation as the Tigers held out for the 6-1 win on their way to their third straight regular season NCAC win.
With the win over Wooster, DePauw have advanced to the NCAC final against Kenyon. With a win over Kenyon the Tigers would advance to the NCAA tournament where, last year, the team lost in the finals.