FIELD HOCKEY Georgetown Tops St. Joseph’s Hoyas Win Second Straight, Move to .500 By Julie Wood Hoya Staff Writer

Charles Nailen/The Hoya Sophomore defender Elena Elster and the Hoyas reached .500.

Using the momentum from their Thursday victory over LaSalle, the Georgetown women’s field hockey team brought their record to .500 Friday with a 2-1 victory over St. Joseph’s.

Head Coach Laurie Carroll felt the game was almost a continuation of the Thursday win. “We thought about how [we felt] before yesterday’s game, when we had a quick start, and we tried to take ourselves back to that time and do the same routine,” she said.

Although the Georgetown offense played well from the start of the game, they did not score until five seconds remained in the first half, when sophomore forward Beth Gagnon found the back of the cage. The Hoyas faced St. Joseph’s senior goalkeeper Lauren Bradley, who had a 2.22 GAA in 2000.

“St. Joseph’s has one of the best goalies that we’ll ever face . She’s exceptional. We knew today that we might not score on the initial try, but we would have to focus on the rebounds because she was that good,” Carroll said.

It was a rebound that would give the Hoyas the game-winning goal early in the second half. Sophomore defender Leeanne Rizzo managed to redirect an errant penalty corner shot past Bradley to put the Hoyas up 2-0.

The Georgetown defense, anchored by senior co-captain Bridget cConnell, didn’t allow the Hawks many scoring opportunities in the second half. St. Joseph’s took only two shots on goal. any of St. Joseph’s penalty corners were stopped or broken up by senior midfielder Aubrey Bruggeman.

The Hoyas did have a defensive lapse in the middle of the second half, allowing the Hawks to score on a breakaway by junior forward Brett Dymarczyk.

“We were allowing them to finish the pass and then go out and play defense. We just reminded them that we need to deny that pass and we need to step up to the ball and we need to take more risks,” Carroll said.

The Hoyas’ momentum was stalled somewhat yesterday when their game against Catholic was canceled due to thunder and lightning. The Hoyas were up 5-0 with 16 minutes remaining when the referees ended the match. Because Georgetown had three games canceled last week after the events of Sept. 11, every effort will be made to reschedule the game.

The Hoyas are set to go against Virginia Commonwealth Saturday at 1p.m. on Kehoe Field. The Rams are 1-6 on the season so far.

“Since we have raised our level of play, it’s our responsibility to keep that up, no matter who our opponent is,” Carroll said.