The women’s soccer team headed to the West Coast on Wednesday to prepare for this weekend’s games against top-10 teams Santa Clara and Stanford. The Hoyas possess a sparkling 7-0 record thanks to the top offense in the country and a stingy defense that has recorded five shutouts and has yet to yield more than one goal in a game.

“I had hoped we’d be 7-0 going into this weekend,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “We’ve everything to gain out [on the West Coast] and not a whole lot to lose.”

Third on the team with 10 points (four goals and two assists) and tied for the team lead with two game-winning goals, junior forward Samantha Baker has played a huge role in the team’s success. As unsurprising as this might be given that Baker has yet to compile fewer than 19 points in a year for the Hoyas, a preseason knee injury threw her previously consistent production into question and makes her contributions this fall all the more remarkable.

“I hurt my knee a week and a half out of preseason. I sprained my MCL,” Baker said. “I was shooting the ball with my left foot, bending it. [It was] a lackadaisical shot that you do every day, and it got stopped and my ankle stayed and my knee kept going.”

After several weeks of intense rehab, Baker was able to get back on the field after missing only one exhibition game and the season-opening 9-0 thumping of American University. Baker will continue to sport a knee brace for a few more weeks, but insists that she’s put the fluke injury behind her.

“Physically, I don’t necessarily think about it in the game when I’m going into a tackle,” Baker said. “I feel like I’m back and I’m OK. . The main issue I’m dealing with right now is fitness level and being able to stay out on the field longer.”

Nolan also rues the impact that the injury had on Baker’s fitness.

“She’s not game-fit now,” Nolan said. “It’d be frightening to think what she could do if she was game-fit, but right now she’s only able to give us about 20 minutes a half. . But when she comes on, she’s such a weapon.”

Baker points to her speed and related ability to create space enough to whip crosses into the box her best attributes as a player. But perhaps the most noticeable aspect of her game is her long throw-in that wreaks havoc in the box and has led to countless Hoya goals over the past few years.

Baker did not begin her soccer career with the intention of throwing the ball very far, but she now spends most of her time jogging to the opposite touchline to launch a throw into the penalty area.

“My club team had a very bad weekend with many [illegal] throws,” Baker said of her middle school team. “So our coach ended practice once with a throwing competition. . Longest throw didn’t have to do fitness-and I didn’t have to do fitness.”

After that, the next step in the process came in her sophomore year of high school when Baker hurt her back on a throw-in and her father, who as the U.S. Olympic water polo coach was the ideal person to help her build abdominal strength, got her into the weight room.

“[I] started doing core workouts and getting strength exercises in,” Baker said. “That’s when my throw-ins started getting really far because that’s when I started adding strength.”

As important for the Georgetown offense as her long throws are, it has been Baker’s set-piece delivery and goal-scoring that has dominated headlines this year. Both of Baker’s game-winning goals this season have come directly off corner kicks, including an overtime golden goal against a scrappy Fairfield squad. Baker readily admits that she is not aiming to score when lining up for a corner kick, but she will gladly take it.

“I aim for back post runs and I can bend the ball really well so it just happens,” she said. “I’ve found that little sweet spot on the ball that gets the right bend and it either goes in the net, gets saved or hits a run.”

Even before this year’s heroics, Nolan says Baker could always be counted on to show up in important moments.

“She has always been a player that scores goals in big games,” he said. “She doesn’t tend to be a player that scores the fifth goal in a 5-0 win. She tends to be someone who scores the first goal in a 2-1 game, and that’s a good habit to have.”

Now, Nolan says, the goal for Baker is to find consistency.

“She tends to be [a] home run hitter. She’ll hit home runs but not necessarily get on base every day,” Nolan said. “But I do feel she could do a lot more. She could be one of the most dominant offensive players in the conference because she does everything [well].”

Upcoming games against No. 10 Santa Clara and No. 2 Stanford will be a measuring stick for Baker – and for the Hoyas as a whole – as the junior forward continues to work her way back into form.

“It’s nice going into games where we have nothing to lose,” she said. “It can only help us. If we get any sort of result against either team, it’ll be huge for our NCAA [hopes]. It’ll be one of those resume games that you need.”

Both Baker and Nolan are quick to praise the impact that the Hoyas’ depth has had on their early season success, but for the Blue and Gray to get a potentially season-defining result on the West Coast, the more experienced players on the roster are going to have to continue their blazing form.

Regardless of what happens, though, Nolan knows that his team will enjoy the challenge of the first West Coast trip of his tenure.

“This group is excited to see if they can play with [Stanford and Santa Clara],” Nolan said. “I certainly feel they’re going to go out there and give it their best shot.”

Kickoff is set for tonight at Santa Clara at 7:30 p.m Eastern Standard Time.”