Although the Anderson Ravens scored the first goal, DePauw’s women’s soccer team came out on top on Saturday morning and won the scrimmage with a final score of 4-1.
This year, the Tigers are led by six seniors and have gained eight new first-year players. The team kicked off its season with an all-new coaching staff, consisting of head coach Cristin Allen, assistant coach Kendall Sipp-Paris and assistant coach Steph Martin.
“I think the seniors and juniors especially have gone through a lot of adversity, and noting that, I think they’ve welcomed any change we’ve thrown at them,” said Allen. “So, a bit of kudos to our upperclassmen. I think they’ve done a great job leadership-wise and I think that’s really gonna help carry us through the season.”
The team was eager to get into competitive play after putting in a lot of work during the preseason.
“This was a great start with the new coaching staff. I’m really excited to be under these coaches because I think we’re going to have great progress this season,” sophomore Allison Harvey said.
Harvey made the first assist to senior Shaili Kumar and started the momentum that carried the team through the remainder of the game. The score was 1-1 at the end of the first thirty minutes.
Before the next thirty minutes began, Kumar said, “Coach advised us to stay focused and keep working together as a team. We focused on making good runs to get in the attack and defending together as a team.”
The Tigers scored another two goals during the second portion of the game. One goal was scored by first-year Anissa Nourse and another by sophomore Abbie Morris. Before the final thirty minutes of the scrimmage began, DePauw held the lead at 3-1.
After the Ravens first goal, the Tigers successfully held their ground on the defensive end, while creating chances in the attack as well. The score became 4-1 when junior Sophia Silcox scored during the last thirty-minute segment of the game.
The Tigers biggest strengths are their work rate on the field and their depth according to Coach Allen. When reflecting on the success of the game, Coach Allen said, “We have players that can play multiple positions. We have players that can step in right at the starter and maintain a level of play, so for us that is really nice to see that we’re not relying on 4, 5, or 6 core people. We really have a good core of 20 some players that can step in and play.”
Looking ahead into the season, the team is most looking forward to playing against College of Wooster and Denison University, two of its biggest rivals. Another large competitor each year is Washington University, which the team will face in the DePauw Challenge Cup on Saturday, Sept. 14.
“The goal is always to win a conference championship,” said Coach Allen when speaking about the upcoming season as a whole. “That’s kind of the far-reaching goal right now, but I think for us, we’ve got to start to establish some roles, meaning, who is going to play where, time frame of how much you’re going to play and then still. Right now we have to establish how we’re going to be good and not really focus on our opponents.”
This weekend, the Tigers will travel to Dallas, Texas for their first two official games of the season. The first game is against University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the second against University of Texas at Dallas.
Do you want to see the Tigers live in action? The team’s first home game will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 4 against Carthage University at 7:00 p.m. Mark your calendars and head over to Reavis Stadium.