Junior Aly Marzonie runs to the ball duirng Sunday's
game against Thmoas More College.
LEANN BURKE / THE DEPAUW
As the Tigers (1-4, 0-0) added a fourth loss to their record Friday night, this time 2-0 at the hands of Thomas More College (5-0, 0-0), DePauw head coach Megan McCormick insisted her team is ready to turn around what has been a slow start to the season.
“We are starting to see the number of dangerous chances we create in a match increase, so as long as we continue to create more chances, the goals will come,” McCormick said. “Ultimately, as that happens players simply need to stay calm and collected as they strike the ball.”
Right now, however, it’s hard to ignore the straight up facts: DePauw has scored in only one of their five games while allowing over two goals per match and they are being outshot 80 to 29 so far.
Friday night was a little bit different, though. The Tigers came out and were able to play with a top-15 school in the nation. DePauw was cooled off after a quick start, allowing goals in the sixth and 29th minutes respectively, but came out strong in the final 45 minutes.
“We put them under quite a bit of pressure in the first 8 minutes of the match but lost confidence as a team after giving up a goal,” McCormick said. “We limped through the rest of the half playing Thomas More's style of play and giving up a 2nd goal.”
The second half was a different story, as the Tigers were able to dictate the pace of play and create several solid scoring chances.
“We were able to compete with the now 10th ranked team in the country and had we put together 90 minutes of the way we played in the 2nd half, we may have ended up on the other side of that scoreline,” McCormick said.
“We were in their half quite a bit of the second half and we created goal scoring opportunities,” sophomore Elizabeth Seewer said.
All of those opportunities, however, only amounted to one shot on Thomas More keeper, Megan Barton. DePauw’s last line of defense, senior Emma Cooper, shined once again, stopping eight of the 10 shots that challenged her.
Cooper keeping the Tigers relevant in matches this year has become a common theme. She has recorded seven or more saves in each of DePauw’s first five games and has kept DePauw within striking distance.
“Emma has had a tremendous start to the year,” McCormick said. “Her ability to maintain focus and effectively communicate throughout the course of a match has certainly helped us stay organized.”
Time is of the essence now for the Tigers. With a poor non-conference record, their chances of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament are next to nothing. Most likely their only chance into the tournament would be to qualify for the NCAC tournament and then win the conference’s at-large bid.
The Tigers wrap up their non-conference schedule this Wednesday when they host Franklin College at Reavis Stadium starting at 7 p.m.
On this coming Saturday, the Tigers will face their first NCAC challenge and first road game as they head to Hiram College for a tilt beginning at 5 p.m.
“We will get this win on Wednesday to put the confidence we need as well as the gained Saturday to go strong into conference this weekend and get the job done,” Seewer said.