Georgetown Effortlessly Defeats Connecticut

Charles Nailen/The Hoya Erin Elbe and the Hoyas cruised to victory Tuesday.

It was a battle of the haves and the have nots, and Georgetown simply had too much for Connecticut to handle.

Tuesday’s victory clinched the inaugural Big East women’s lacrosse championship for the Hoyas and set a Georgetown record for wins in a season (13). The Hoyas came out firing on all cylinders and by the time the Huskies (3-12, 0-6 Big East) knew what hit them, it was too late.

Georgetown scored the first seven goals of the contest and easily cruised to a 19-4 win at Kehoe Field Tuesday, running around, over and through Connecticut. Sophomore attack Wick Stanwick found the back of the net five times to lead the offense, while her All-American sister Sheehan scored twice and dished out four assists.

Unlike the Hoyas’ previous matchup, Georgetown (13-2, 6-0 Big East) jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back, scoring five goals in the first nine minutes of the game. The opening barrage came from the sticks of five different Hoyas, typical of a day in which only Wick Stanwick scored more than twice and 11 different players found the back of the net.

The floodgates opened quickly with senior attack Sarah Oglesby scoring just 38 seconds in, while Wick Stanwick followed up with another score just 24 seconds later. Sophomore Melissa Biles, Sheehan Stanwick and junior All-American Erin Elbe followed with back-to-back-to-back goals, and the rout was on.

Connecticut’s first score came at the 9:34 mark of the first half to end the Georgetown run at seven goals, however the Hoyas just kept on going. By six minutes into the second half, Georgetown sported a 16-1 lead and Head Coach Kim Simons began resting her starters in the 90-degree heat.

Unfortunately for Connecticut goalie April Pollack, the Huskies coaching staff was not as generous and left her out to wilt against the furious Hoya attack for a full 60 minutes.

The final tally on the scoreboard was 19-4 for the Hoyas, but the uneven matchup was not even that close. Georgetown completely dominated every aspect of the game, taking more than twice as many shots, winning twice as many draws and causing three times as many turnovers.

In the process, Sheehan Stanwick set yet another Georgetown record, breaking Chrissy Flynn’s (COL ’96) mark for career assists with 86. Remarkably, Stanwick now holds all Georgetown records for points, goals and assists for both a single season and career.

After the easy win that guaranteed Georgetown a trip to the NCAA tournament via the Big East champion’s automatic berth, the Hoyas play host to the No. 5 Princeton Tigers tomorrow at 12 p.m.

Tomorrow’s game is an important one for a number of reasons: A win should wrap up one of the top seeds in the NCAA tournament (which would mean two home games), it is senior day for seven Hoyas, and Princeton and Georgetown are developing quite a women’s lacrosse rivalry. Four of the five games the teams have played have been decided by one goal (including a 12-11 overtime loss to the Tigers in the 1998 NCAA tournament), while Simons’ is a Princeton graduate and won a championship as the captain of the Tigers in 1994.

Georgetown is ranked No. 3 in the country, and the team’s only two losses have come against the two teams ranked ahead of the Hoyas, Maryland and Duke. A win against Princeton will all but guarantee that Georgetown will be able to have two games at home in the tournament. This is a definite advantage, however the Hoyas have worked hard to overcome their reputation as a weak road team by going undefeated away from Kehoe Field this spring.

Tomorrow will also mark the final home game for the seven seniors who have had the most successful run of any team in Georgetown women’s lacrosse history, amassing a 45-20 record with three NCAA tournament appearances. The seven seniors on Georgetown’s squad are Gussie Haybeck, Bowen Holden, Sheehan Stanwick, Caitlin McLean, Sarah Oglesby, Reagan Raneri and Jessica Walls.