The Georgetown women’s lacrosse season began amid expectations of playing once again for a national championship. It ended Sunday with a 13-3 loss to Dartmouth in the NCAA quarterfinals.

“With high expectations come a high level of disappointment if you don’t meet those expectations,” Georgetown Head Coach Ricky Fried said. “We’re not feeling too good at this point, but hopefully we’ll get over that and look to the season as a whole and how productive it was and how successful it was.”

In his first season as head coach, Fried built on the tradition of winning established by his predecessor, Kim Simons. Under his direction, Georgetown compiled a record of 13-5, in the process beating Virginia for the first time ever and Maryland for only the third time in the program’s history. The Hoyas completed their fifth consecutive undefeated season in the Big East, receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the team’s eighth consecutive appearance.

Fried also counts among his team’s successes this season the many individual accolades Hoyas received. Sophomore attack Coco Stanwick was named Big East Offensive Player of the Year after earning Offensive Player of the Week four times, and she was tapped as one of 15 nominees for the prestigious Tewaaraton Trophy – the game’s highest honor.

After walking on to the team last year, sophomore defender Chloe Asselin was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year after being tapped twice for the honor of Defensive Player of the Week. Two other Hoyas – senior goaltender Sarah Robinson and junior Kristen Smith – received the weekly honor once each.

“I think some of the other high points for me personally were to see some people be able to contribute this year. For example, [senior attack] Hollis Pica’s stats this season were more than what she had her previous three,” Fried said. “It was exciting to see some seniors get an opportunity to contribute and do well.”

Throughout the season, the leadership of the team’s seven seniors played a vital role in the success of the Hoyas. Fried said their leadership both on and off the field was a boon to him in his first season as head coach.

“Not only do we lose seven seniors, but we lose seven starters, so we’re losing more than half of the people that start on the field for us. It’s tough to replace their experience, their leadership and all of the other intangibles that they bring,” he said. “The other thing you lose are seven personalities. They’re all different kids, they all bring different things to the table and they’ve all been a lot of fun for me to work with this year.”

Despite the leadership of the seniors and the success of individual players, the Hoyas suffered inconsistencies throughout the season. After beating No. 8 Maryland, Georgetown, currently No. 4, struggled against Boston College and lost to No. 3 Boston University. They closed out the season with wins over No. 6 Virginia, No. 16 Connecticut and James Madison only to fall to No. 10 Johns Hopkins and narrowly escape No. 13 Towson 15-14 in the tournament’s first round.

“Our M.O. was to start out slow, and you do that enough times and it comes back to bite you in the end at some point. Losing to Dartmouth in the fashion that we did was discouraging to the degree that it’s disappointing to lose your last game,” Fried said.

Yet he expressed hope that, despite a disappointing finish and the graduation of seven seniors, he and the returning Hoyas will reload and return as hungry next season. “After looking back on it, hopefully everyone focuses on the positive year that we’ve had as opposed to the end result.”

Georgetown will add eight freshmen to next year’s squad, but will return a number of key players including Stanwick, Asselin and Smith. Sophomore attack Brittany Baschuk and junior midfielder Lucy Poole had breakout seasons, scoring eight and nine goals respectively. Fried said he expects all of his returning players to challenge each other for a starting spot.

“On the defensive end, we have our four starters back, but we have Alison Rogers and Megan Ellis also coming back to give us great depth at that position,” Fried said. “The ability to have people come back that have contributed and have been on the field will make my job a bit easier, and they’ll be able to help teach the underclassmen what to expect.”

Fried said that, overall, he is pleased with the way his team played this year, but will take lessons – both for himself and for his team – from this season into next season.

“I learned a lot throughout the year on how to manage the team. I learned that lacrosse is a big part of what we’re doing, but there are a lot of other things that go into it – things that you don’t always recognize as an assistant coach that head coaches have to deal with,” he said. “I had to learn to deal with those aspects as far as the academic community and more individual communication with the players, and not just about lacrosse.”

Regardless of the lessons learned, next season’s goal will be the same as this season’s – winning a national championship.

“We have to take care of ourselves and look within. Make a few changes based on where we fell short this year,” Fried said. “We have the schedule to do it; we have the talent to do it. Now we just have to put it all together.”