The Georgetown field hockey team’s season ended in the same way it began: with a loss. In a hard-fought battle against Villanova (4-13, 1-6 Big East), the Hoyas (2-16, 0-7 Big East) fell 1-0 on Georgetown’s home field in College Park, Md.

Prior to the game, seniors Caitlin Samela and Katie Dempsey were honored on the field for Senior Day. Though Samela and Dempsey were undoubtedly eager to finish their collegiate field hockey careers on a high note by helping the team notch its first Big East win, the Wildcats snuck away with the victory.

The Hoyas came out strong in the first half, taking their first shot just four minutes into the game when Dempsey maneuvered her way past the Wildcats’ defensive line and took a shot just wide of the net. The Blue and Gray were in and out of the circle looking for any opening to cut through.

“We started at a higher pace than we have in the past three weeks,” Head Coach Tiffany Hubbard said. “There was a lot of emotion around this game and I really think we started strong.”

Although it was back and forth in the opening minutes, Villanova was able to take advantage of a Hoya shortcoming. On their first penalty corner of the game about 10 minutes in, the Wildcats capitalized off a rocket from junior defender Maddy Harding. It served as the only goal of the game for either side. Georgetown was able to shut down Villanova’s next eight penalty corners, including Harding’s game-high seven shots.

“We’ve been scored on early in the past. I applaud the girls for shaking it off and keeping up our game. We picked up where we left off,” Hubbard said.

At the start of the second half, Georgetown came out firing and drew five penalty corners in the span of four minutes. But all five shots were either blocked or shot wide, including one shot taken by sophomore forward Sarah Butterfield in between the rapid fire.

“I think [the penalty corners] kept the tempo of the game up, although it’s frustrating when you get that many corners in a row and can’t produce, but we were controlling offensively,” Hubbard said. “I think we felt like we dominated and were in it up until the last second of the game.”

While the Hoyas struggled offensively, the defensive line — starting with freshmen goalkeeper Rosalie Nolen — was impressive. After the first goal, Nolen stopped everything with ease, including a one-on-none rush where she came out to the top of the circle in order to cancel a scoring opportunity.

Georgetown has had trouble scoring all season, but the shutout on Senior Day and on the last game of the season was especially disheartening for the Hoyas. The Blue and Gray were outscored 86-12 on the season and were shut out ten times. The inability to jumpstart the offense presented many obstacles that even the best defensive performances could not salvage. Nolen ended the season with a .653 save percentage, a promising statistic for a freshman with time to develop. As for the Georgetown offense, many players such as Butterfield and Weinberg have stepped up to the plate and taken on leadership positions that will undoubtedly carry over into next season. This rebuilding year was vital to the Hoyas’ success in the future and will be beneficial to the collective growth of the team.

With the majority of the team returning next year, the Hoyas are poised to improve on this season’s dismal record. The pieces are there, but the Hoyas will need to use the offseason to put them together.