Women’s soccer off to slow start with offensive struggles

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The DePauw women’s soccer team’s offensive woes continued on the road over the weekend. On Friday night, the Tigers headed to Ohio Northern for a nonconference matchup with the Polar Bears.  The Bears put a shot just past DePauw first-year goalie Mia Manney, who was making her first start for the team, twelve minutes into the contest, giving them a 1-0 lead over the visitors. That would prove to be the only goal of the night as Ohio Northern’s defense dominated the game. Ohio Northern smothered the Tigers, not allowing DePauw to attempt a single shot in the game while the Bears took 25 shots of their own.  Manney held her own during the game, recording 6 saves.                       

DePauw continued to play in Ohio, traveling to Columbus on Saturday to face the Capital University Crusaders.

The Crusaders took an early lead in the game, scoring in the 15th minute.  After a long stretch of scoreless soccer for both teams, the Crusaders managed to put a second and final goal in the net during the 84th minute.  This effectively finished the game as a 2-0 win for Capital as neither team would go on to score.

The Tiger’s offense showed few signs of improvement in the game as they were outshot 10-1 by their opponent.  DePauw’s only shot came off a Bridget Brendza header that was saved by the Capital keeper.  The Tigers have now been outshot by their opponents this season by a combined 61 shots.

Senior forward Kathryn Ruark pointed towards early season growing pains. “It’s taking us more time than preferred for everyone to get together on the field, but I have no doubt we are going to turn it around,” said Ruark. Those offensive struggles have cost the Tigers gravely as they are now off to a 0-3 start on the season.

Ruark and the team appear to be keeping a positive outlook saying that they anticipated a rocky start after they saw their competitive schedule.“If we have to start the season 0-3 in order to make a strong postseason run, then for right now I’ll take it.”                            

DePauw hopes to end their losing streak as they head to Terre Haute to face Rose-Hulman tonight.