Despite an extra day to prepare thanks to Hurricane Irene, the No. 20 Georgetown women’s soccer team came out flat against No. 2 Stanford on Monday afternoon and trailed the entire way en route to a 4-1 loss.

The Cardinal started the scoring early, when senior forward Lindsay Taylor found the back of the net in the second minute. The goal sapped the Hoyas of momentum and put Stanford firmly in control from the beginning.

“The first goal was a mistake on our part. It was something we talked about not doing and we did it in the first minute,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “That rocked us a little because when you play a team like this you have to hang in there for the first 15 minutes. Good teams set the tone early and [Stanford] set the tone early.”

One of the best teams in the country, the Stanford squad had both a substantial size advantage and a deep bench, which allowed them to maintain relentless pressure on the Georgetown players through the opening minutes.

“They have national team players coming off the bench. There’s no rest from the quality they throw at you,” Nolan said.

The pressure kept Georgetown from getting involved until late in the first half, and Taylor was able to score her second goal in the 34th minute on a blast from 30 yards out. The long goal was a sight to behold but it appeared to have come from a breakdown on defense.

“We had talked about [closing Taylor down,] but we kind of hesitated and in that moment of hesitation she just cracked it,” Nolan said.

Down 2-0 at the intermission, Nolan made an adjustment to move senior midfielder Kelly D’Ambrisi to a more central spot, which helped Georgetown show some fight and charge into the second half. It wasn’t enough, however, to stop Stanford’s sophomore forward Sydney Payne from scoring in the 59th minute off an assist from freshman forward Chioma Ubogagu. Payne’s goal extended the visitors’ lead to 3-0.

The Hoyas got onto the board in the 78th minute with a beautiful free kick by senior forward Sam Baker. However, Stanford once again had Georgetown’s measure and Payne scored off a rebound from the goalie before the Blue and Gray faithful had even finished the fight song.

Georgetown could get no closer and the final tally was 4-1. The score didn’t necessarily reflect strong Georgetown effort, however, and Nolan singled out D’Ambrisi and sophomore defender Emily Menges for their contributions on defense.

“The most disappointing thing for me is that we played well enough but there were mistakes and we didn’t perform as well in those moments as we needed to,” Nolan said.

The Hoyas will travel down I-95 to Williamsburg, Va. on Friday to take on William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth in the Tribe Invitational.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game, and we need to rebound from this,” Nolan said.