The DePauw women's lacrosse team finished off its inaugural season at the hands of the Wittenberg Tigers on Monday night, 22-3.
It came down to Wittenberg having a solid defense that gave DePauw an extra hard time to get any shots off.
"Wittenberg had the best defense we'd seen all season," head coach Susana Wilcox said. "Just a lot of strong defenders that were able to work together very well. We had a better shooting day, we took more shots but they just weren't falling. Their goalies did a very nice job, just a very tough, aggressive defense."
This ended their season with a 4-8 overall record and a 1-7 record in conference. All eight of their losses happened in the last eight games of their season.
"The second half of the season we played a lot of better teams," freshman defender Abby Snively said. "We played teams that were top in our conference as opposed to teams who were also beginning programs, so when we got to conference we played teams that were also established for years and had lots of backing. We started to lose not because we didn't have the skill level, but because we didn't have the background."
The three goals on the tigers side were scored by the trifecta of sophomore middie Mary White, senior attack Natalie Swiler and sophomore middie Jamie Powell. Sophomore middie Carey Kunz added an assist.
"I think the last few games we've started to play together better, starting against Kenyon," Wilcox said. "I thought we actually played a much better game and it's starting to build on stick skills and fundamentals."
The team was starting to finally come together toward the end of the season as they continued to work on building their program.
"As an inaugural season we had a really good season, especially at the beginning," sophomore defender Ella Smoot said. "I think from here the team can only get better with new recruits and such. I think that we lost what we had at the beginning for a while, like when we started losing. But toward the end we started to pick it up more."
Even though their season was a losing one, the Tigers did fulfill many accomplishments in their inaugural season. Freshman attack Elizabeth McCracken had a fifty-point season with thirty goals and twenty assists. Plus, three separate players on the teams scored twenty-five plus points: Jamie Powell, Natalie Swiler and Elizabeth McCracken.
The inaugural season has come to a close, but they are already looking toward next year.
"We have a strong incoming freshman class," Wilcox said. "So hopefully the returning girls will see it as motivation to work hard and improve because hopefully we will have more depth next year."