The No. 15 Georgetown women’s soccer team ended the regular season on a high note Saturday with a 2-0 win over Seton Hall at Shaw Field.
It was Senior Day for the Hoyas (15-1-2, 7-1-1 Big East) and Georgetown knew that it would be an emotional match. In order to focus on the match, they moved the ceremony to after the game.
“We killed [Seton Hall] last year,” senior defender Emily Menges said. “But this is a team we lost to two years ago… so we couldn’t come in with the mentality we’d kill them again.”
Georgetown could not afford to overlook the Pirates (5-11-2, 3-6 Big East) because the Hoyas needed a win to assure a second-place finish in the Big East and a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Throw in the fact that Seton Hall needed a win to keep any postseason aspirations alive, and the stage was set for a high-stakes match.
When the game began, however, Georgetown looked like the only team with something on the line. Thirty seconds into the match, the Hoyas drew a foul at midfield near the touchline. Senior defender Mary Kroening lofted a high ball to the top of the 18-yard box, where it was flicked on by sophomore midfielder Marina Paul to junior midfielder Audra Ayotte, who took the ball down on her thigh, turned her defender and rifled a shot past senior Pirate goalkeeper Jennifer Pettigrew. Just like that, Georgetown had a 1-0 lead only 50 seconds into the match.
But the Hoyas did not stop there. On the counterattack less than nine minutes later, Ayotte took the ball up the field stride for stride with junior midfielder Daphne Corboz. Ayotte finished her lengthy run by playing a through ball to Corboz as she streaked into the box. Corboz poked the ball past her defender and finessed the ball into the lower left corner of the net to put the Blue and Gray ahead 2-0.
In less than 10 minutes, Georgetown had scored two goals on a Seton Hall defense that had let up an average of less than one goal per game in conference play. Head Coach Dave Nolan credited the experience of his team for their ability to finish early chances.
“This is a veteran team,” Nolan said. “They know how much every play means and how much each goal means.”
The rest of the first half was a back-and-forth affair. Seton Hall was able to generate possession on the Hoyas’ side of the pitch but struggled to break down the Georgetown defensive line.
“I was kind of marking [Seton Hall senior forward Katie Ritter] and Mary would kind of follow behind or mark [senior midfielder Ashley Clarke] when she came forward. We weren’t staying on our normal sides,” Menges said. “We communicated well and we did what we had to do.”
Trailing 2-0 at the start of the second half and needing three goals to qualify for the Big East tournament, Seton Hall began to push numbers forward to open up the game. As a result, both sides saw multiple scoring chances in the second half.
“I give [Seton Hall] credit,” Nolan said. “They kept at it, they worked at it, they changed what they were doing in the second half and they battled hard. We couldn’t land that killer punch to get the third goal. We came close on a number of times, but we never really got what we wanted.”
Fortunately for the Hoyas, neither did the Pirates. The 2-0 score line held and Georgetown secured a bye through to Saturday’s semifinals where they will play the winner of the quarterfinal match between DePaul (11-4-2, 5-3-1 Big East) and Villanova (6-9-3, 3-5-1 Big East).
After the game, there was finally time for celebration. Seniors Kailey Blain, Katilin Brenn, Colleen Dinn, Mary Kroening, Emily Menges and Alexa St. Martin were honored in a ceremony attended by Georgetown President John DeGioia and Athletic Director Lee Reed.
The class produced the most wins in program history, with a combined record of 59-16-7, and after the ceremony, Nolan had only positive things to say.
“I don’t know how I’m going to replace them,” he said. “Each and every one of them has been fantastic for us on the field and off the field. You couldn’t wish for a better bunch of kids. Just an exceptional bunch of young people.”
