Although the Johns Hopkins women’s lacrosse team may not rival their male counterparts in terms of tradition, you wouldn’t have known that from their thumping of Georgetown (2-3, 1-0 Big East) Wednesday. The visiting Blue Jays jumped out to an early lead and were never threatened by the Hoyas, who lost, 16-12.

“I thought Hopkins came out more prepared than we were, with more energy and more emotion, and that was expressed in the first [10 minutes],” Georgetown Head Coach Ricky Fried said. “We need to show up with a little more energy.”

The Blue Jays had a fast and furious opening, leading by as much as seven in the first half. Even though they dominated possession and made offensive opportunities rare, four different Georgetown players managed to score before the break — including sophomore midfielder Hannah Franklin with 0.6 seconds left — but when the whistle blew it was still only 10-4 JHU.

After the intermission, junior attack Dina Jackson scored a quick goal for Georgetown, which was a sign of better things to come in the second half. The Hoyas actually outscored the Blue Jays, 8-6, in the second period.

“Tactically there [weren’t] a lot of changes” at halftime, Fried said. “It’s just that we executed better.”

But that better execution was not enough. Aided by strong fan support from nearby Baltimore, Johns Hopkins kept calm and reacted 30 seconds after Jackson’s goal with a score of their own on the advantage call, pushing their lead back to six. It never dwindled below four the rest of the way.

Any long-shot thoughts of a comeback were put to rest after the Hoyas failed to capitalize on a prime free position opportunity with 1:32 left. But Fried was more disappointed with the game overall than that one missed opportunity.

“I thought [in] the last four minutes we played the way we’re capable of playing consistently, but we can’t play four minutes out of 60 and expect to beat a team of that caliber,” Fried said.

Two glaring stats stood out in this one for the Hoyas: shooting percentage and turnovers caused. Coming into the game leading the nation with 14.5 forced turnovers per contest, Georgetown could only manage six against Johns Hopkins.

Also, the Hoyas still managed to top their opponents in total shots, as they have in every game this season, but the placement of those shots once again came back to haunt them. To Fried, this was ultimately the difference in the contest.

“I think the decision-making is good as far as the shots that we’re taking. I think the goalie is making some good saves, but I think we’re also making it easy by shooting the ball in the middle of the cage an awful lot,” he said.

This was the third straight loss for this Georgetown squad, who came into the season with high expectations. The Hoyas fell to then-No. 5 Florida and No. 5 Duke over spring break — by scores of 12-9 and 14-7, respectively — and while the caliber of those opponents makes a loss nothing to be ashamed of, Fried wishes that his team would take more away from those kinds of tough games.

“I think that [learning from our mistakes] is the biggest challenge that we have right now,” he said.

The Blue and Gray are going to need to absorb all of the lessons that they can from Wednesday’s game, and do it quickly: No. 3 North Carolina is on the dance card tomorrow. The game is slated to start at 1 p.m. at MultiSport Facility.