GREENCASTLE, Ind. (November 5, 2023) – Mara McGlone's goal in the 66th minute got the scoring started and then Callie Davis added an insurance goal in the final two minutes to propel the fourth-seeded Denison University women's soccer team to a 2-0 victory at third-seeded DePauw University and the program's fifth North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament Championship.

With the win, Denison (8-4-6 overall) will receive the NCAC's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament. This marks the second year in a row the Big Red have qualified for the NCAA Tournament and is the 18th bid in program history.

In addition to earning its second-straight conference tournament title, the win on Sunday marked the high-point of Denison's first season under the leadership of first-year head coach Sarah Brink.

The first half of the contest was a battle between the defenses with Denison leading 4-2 on shots but putting up just one shot on goal by Kendall Sierens while DePauw put both of its first-half attempts on target, resulting in a pair of saves for goalkeeper Molly Noga. Each of Denison's four shots in the first half came in the first 20 minutes.

The Big Red then fired up their offense and put the pressure on at the start of the second half.

A free kick just outside of the Tiger 18-yard box created a scoring opportunity for Denison as McGlone set the ball up and prepared her attack. Mcglone capitalized by burying the ball into the back of the net as her right-footed shot soared past both the DePauw wall and goalkeeper.

Denison continued to apply pressure as a corner kick by Davis led to a shot on goal by Eliza Roach less than a minute later, and then Davis missed just wide right less than 40 seconds after Roach's shot.

The Tigers found two opportunities to try and equalize minutes later, but Noga stood strong in between the posts and made her fourth save of the match in the 69th minute.

Competitive play reached its peak with five minutes remaining in the contest as the Denison defense fought hard against a desperate DePauw offense. The Tigers attempted a shot from about 40 yards out off a free kick, but Noga came out and made another big save to prevent the equalizer.

With 3:30 remaining on the clock Noga again came out to the edge of the box to go shoulder-to-shoulder with a DePauw player. Noga earned the stop and continued to keep the Tigers at bay.

Lastly, with just under two minutes to go, Noga made her final stop of the game, and then she quickly switched to offense and sent the ball out to her teammates to set up a counter. With the Tigers sitting heavy on Denison's half of the field, they were ill prepared for an attack and within 30 seconds the Big Red worked their way deep into DePauw territory. With only 1:30 remaining on the clock, Davis sealed the deal with a shot that proved too difficult for the Tigers' goalkeeper.

In all for the second half, Denison posted 11 shot attempts and outshot DePauw 6-2 on goal.

In the postgame awards ceremony, freshman defender Reily Brinley, sophomore defender Sarah Sollinger, junior defender Kate Dalimonte, senior midfielder Ellie Reiser and Davis were each named to the 2023 NCAC All-Tournament Team while Davis was also selected as the tournament most valuable player after leading the Big Red with nine shots during Denison's two matches. It was the second-straight selection to the all-tournament team for Dalimonte as she, Brinley and Sollinger helped pace a Big Red defense that posted back-to-back shutouts in the tournament.

The NCAA will announce the field for this year's tournament at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, November 6, on NCAA.com.