The DePauw women’s field hockey team fell to Kenyon College 2-1 in overtime of the NCAC championship match.
“Even though our season didn't end the way that we wanted it to, we still achieved a lot and had a great year,” said first-year forward Kate Milner. “We finished first in the conference in the regular season and had an 11 game winning streak at one point.”
Katelyn Hutchinson of Kenyon scored a penalty stroke just three minutes into overtime to give the Lords the 2-1 victory over the Tigers.
The Tiger’s sophomore goalie Sarah Foye made her first save in overtime, but following the penalty call, Kenyon was able to set up the game winning shot. “You can never control the officials and what they choose to call, so all we could do was our part and that's what we did,” Foye said. “The outcome wasn't what we expected.”
Kenyon and DePauw played evenly throughout the game, offsetting each other’s goals in the first half. The first goal came two minutes into the contest off of a penalty corner. Senior midfielder Addie Ball struck from the the top of the circle and junior forward Paige Berliner deflected the shot in for the goal. It was Berliner's conference leading and team-high 21st goal of the season.
DePauw outshot Kenyon 14-12 overall and 7-2 in the second half. Kenyon won the corner advantage 10-9, but took all 10 of their corners in the first half while DePauw took seven in the second half. Despite the close contest, DePauw was unable to prevail in overtime.
Kenyon moves to 14-6 overall and receives the automatic bid into the NCAA Championship Tournament. The loss snaps DePauw’s 11-game winning streak, dropping them to 17-4 overall. The Tiger’s were not awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Ball, junior defender Maddy Burds and sophomore midfielder Rose Revolinski were named to the NCAC All-Tournament team. In addition, Berliner was named NCAC offensive player of the year and Milner was named Newcomer of the Year along with an All-NCAC second team selection.
“I was really excited when I found out I was offensive player of the year,” Berliner said. “Our conference has some really talented players, so getting the recognition meant a lot.”