The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team (4-8, 2-1 Big East) clinched an 18-7 conference win at home against Villanova (3-11, 1-3 Big East) Wednesday in a game that saw nine different Hoyas score goals.

Georgetown is now 14-5 all-time against the Wildcats, having won the last 13 meetings including last year’s 9-5 victory. The Georgetown win last year handed Villanova its first conference loss of the season and snapped a five-game home win streak for the Wildcats.

Head Coach Ricky Fried said he was proud of his team’s performance and its quality of play Wednesday night.

“It wasn’t necessarily the win that was important, but how we won was important. We had a great team effort today, and everybody contributed,” Fried said.

Junior attack Colleen Lovett finished with a hat trick, while senior midfielder Kristen Bandos scored two more to put her at 20 goals for the season. Senior attack Corinne Etchison scored two to put her at 13 for the season. Senior attack Kelsey Perselay scored four goals and had one assist.

Perselay said she was pleased with her performance and credited her teammates as well for the effort.

“I felt great. Honestly, this was a surprise game, but I really just did it for my team,” Perselay said. “The entire year, we’ve been sucked into who we are playing and everything else, but putting in a full team effort and helping each other all around the field is something we put forth today. We had each other’s backs … and put ourselves on the line in the first half and really finished in the second half.”

Bandos and freshman attack Taylor Gebhardt scored the first two goals for the Hoyas and dominated the first half, which saw the Hoyas lead 11-3. For Villanova, senior attack Meghan Breen scored two goals while senior attack Kelsey Denihan also contributed to the Wildcats’ scoring with a goal of her own. Villanova quickly scored three goals in the start of the second half, including a goal from graduate student attack Jackie Froccaro, who has 26 on the season.

Georgetown promptly responded with a 6-0 run, including three free position shots and an unassisted goal from Perselay. Senior midfielder Chelsea Henderson answered for Villanova, cutting the score down to 17-7, but Georgetown junior attack Kate Snoufer scored her second goal of the season to give the Hoyas the final mark of the game.

Georgetown had 34 shots compared to Villanova’s 20, and the Blue and Gray picked up 17 ground balls compared to the Wildcats’ 11. Villanova had 14 turnovers, while Georgetown had tighter ball control, only giving it away nine times.

Junior goalkeeper Maddy Fisher took the win for Georgetown, making six saves during her half in the cage. Senior Megan McDonald followed with four saves in the second half. Georgetown was perfect on clears and converted on five of their eight free position shots.

Fried said the Hoyas executed on everything they worked on this week during practice.

“The three big areas we worked on going into the game were draw controls, rides and clears,” Fried said. “Draw controls were even, clears we were 100 percent and they were 5-12 and we were allowed to dictate a lot more tempo, because we had possession of the ball more.”

This Saturday, Georgetown will travel to Ohio to face Big East opponent Cincinnati (4-9, 0-3 Big East).
Most recently, Cincinnati dropped a 13-3 conference loss to Vanderbilt (5-8, 1-3 Big East). The Bearcats fell into an early five-goal deficit in the first 10 minutes of the game and never recovered, scoring the first of their three goals in the final 15 seconds of the first half.

Last season, Georgetown beat Cincinnati 8-4. Since the series started in 2009, the Hoyas are 7-0 against the Bearcats.

Opening faceoff is scheduled for noon in Cincinnati.