LEANN BURKE / THE DEPAUW
The women’s lacrosse team traveled to Wisconsin where they left everything they had out on the field after two close battles. The DePauw University Tigers beat the Concordia University Falcons 12-11, but fell to the Carthage College Lady Reds by two goals in the team’s second match.
The minute the whistle blew on Saturday the Tigers were ready to come out victorious.
“We played hard the whole game and showed Concordia right away we were here to show them what we could do,” said first-year Emma Flynn. “Our transitions and defense were flawless practically the whole game and we were seeing each other on the attack really well.”
DePauw put five goals in the back of the net at the beginning of the game to gain the momentum they needed to win over host Concordia; improving to 2-1 overall in the season.
Senior Carey Kunz wasted little time finding the goal just 1:16 into the opening half. Going into halftime the women led 8-4.
In the last minute of the game Concordia attempted to even the score, but DePauw was determined to come home with a victory as goalie Liz Hawkins, sophomore, saved the shot.
Hawkins totaled 12 saves while Flynn led the team with five goals. Kunz and Abigail Snively, junior, and Taylor Summers, sophomore, each had two goals. Junior Elizabeth McCracken led with four assists.
The game versus Concordia was fast, but it didn’t phase DePauw.
“Concordia is a great team with lots of fast and athletic girls,” said Flynn. "We were very prepared for the fast game they wanted to play, and we played them even faster.”
“We are a very well conditioned team, so we were able to stay in [the game],” added sophomore Emily Scinta. “We used our offensive transitions to our advantage and made pretty moves up the field.”
Concordia was aggressive on the field, but DePauw was able to play their own game Flynn added.
By coming out hard at the beginning, communicating throughout and playing a strong defense the women were able to come out with a win, said Scinta.
Moving into the women’s game against Carthage, both teams were evenly matched.
“We were back and forth the whole game,” sophomore Nicole Gibson said.
Against Carthage the Lady Reds led 4-2, but the Tigers hit back to lead the half 7-5. In the second half the Lady Reds struck again to lead 9-7. The Tigers scored three straight to lead by one, but quickly fell to the Lady Reds, 13-10. In the last two minutes DePauw added one final goal resulting in a final score of 13-11.
“Although we didn't come out with the win, I feel like we are continuously improving and I'm looking forward to our games over spring break where we can really focus on what we need to work on,” Gibson said. “Concordia and Carthage were both very fast, aggressive teams and we can definitely learn from playing them.”
On March 21 the women will play their first North Coast Athletic Conference game against Oberlin College.
Said Flynn: “It’ll be great to test out the competition from teams in our conference and this week we are just getting excited and ready to show the conference with this game that we mean business and can't be ignored.”