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Freshman midfielder Kelly D’Ambrisi
After an exceptionally successful season, the NCAA fate of the Georgetown women’s soccer team was decided Monday night during the tournament selection show. After compiling one of the winningest seasons in program history with a record of 13-4-2 the Hoyas were denied a berth to the NCAA tournament. Georgetown’s final postseason contest was last weekend against Connecticut in the quarterfinal round of the Big East tournament, when the Hoyas went down 2-1.
“It’s always disappointing when it doesn’t work out the way you had hoped,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “I had felt, coming off the UConn game, we were kind of on the bubble and we needed a bunch of things to go our way to make our case stronger.”
Georgetown started off its season with a pair of draws in exhibition games against Maryland and Virginia before kicking off a winning streak that lasted well into conference play with a win against American. The Hoyas’ first big win of the season came with a 3-0 victory against archrival Villanova in September, a contest in which junior forward Toni Marie Hudson scored two goals, well on her way to the 10-goal total she reached by season’s end.
The Hoyas suffered their first loss of the season against national powerhouse Notre Dame, going down to the Fighting Irish 3-1 at home. Georgetown bounced back from that loss with a pair of wins against DePaul and Syracuse. The Hoyas weathered a disappointing two-loss weekend against a tough West Virginia team and a Pittsburgh squad that was fighting to salvage its season. Despite that setback, Georgetown finished out the season with a vengeance, posting three shut-outs in their final three contests against St. John’s, Louisville and Cincinnati.
The Hoyas’ impressive conference record earned them a second-place finish in the National Division of the Big East Conference, and a first-round bye to the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament against Connecticut. The Hoyas’ loss to the Huskies in that contest meant that the continuation of their postseason would be left up to NCAA officials during the bracket selection.
“It was disappointing, but when we lost against UConn we knew it was out of our hands . we lost to a very good team,” Nolan said. “I don’t think our kids will have any regret, I think they’ll be disappointed, but I think they can honestly say we went down fighting. There will be some sadness, particularly for our seniors, but I think once they get over that disappointment in a day or two and look back at our season overall, they’ll see it for what it really was – and it was a fantastic season.”
While the Hoyas didn’t make it into the NCAA bracket, the squad’s impressive performances this season have not gone unnoticed. Five of the Hoyas were named to the Big East’s postseason awards list. Hudson made the all-Big East second team, freshman midfielder Kelly D’Ambrisi and sophomore goalkeeper Jackie DesJardin were named as third team members, and sophomore midfielder Caitlin Durkee and senior co-captain, midfielder Stephanie Zare received honorable mentions.
Georgetown’s stellar team and individual play have made the program a force to be reckoned with in the Big East. “Here we are as a program, disappointed that we didn’t make the semi-finals of the Big East, and disappointed that we didn’t make the NCAA’s, but only two or three years ago, these were things that we would wildly dream about,” Nolan said. “I think that shows where we have come as a program.”
The squad proved itself this year, overcoming numerous injuries and the unexpected loss of star player Ingrid Wells, a sophomore midfielder, to the under-21 national team at the start of the season to post one of the best seasons in Georgetown soccer history.
“This is the best team I’ve had because this team has absolutely lived up to its potential. I don’t think making the NCAA’s is a true barometer of success,” Nolan said. “It’s not necessarily about getting to the destination; it’s about enjoying the journey, and I think we had a great journey this year.”
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