The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team extended its unmarred record with victories over No. 13 Syracuse and William & Mary this week. The Hoyas overpowered the Orange at home 13-6 on Saturday and followed up by shutting down the Tribe 15-7 on Wednesday.

With four games now in the books for the so-far undefeated No. 3 Hoyas (4-0, 1-0 Big East), Head Coach Ricky Fried said he has seen his team’s play constantly improving.

“The two positive trends that we’re seeing are that the defense is very consistent and continuing to get better each game and that on offense we continue to share the ball,” Fried said.

Against Syracuse (3-2, 0-1 Big East) – the Hoyas’ first Big East conference game of the season – sophomore attack Coco Stanwick paced all scorers with six tallies and added two assists. Seniors Allison Chambers and Hollis Pica added two apiece.

The Hoyas opened scoring early, with Pica taking a feed from senior attack Catherine Elbe, who racked up four assists on the day. The Georgetown offense faltered, though, allowing Syracuse to tally two quick goals while the Orange defense held the Hoyas scoreless for 10 minutes. But Stanwick found the goal twice late in the period, giving the Hoyas a 4-2 edge at the half.

The second half witnessed the Hoya offense surge for four straight. The Orange answered once before a goal from Chambers and two from Stanwick all but put the game out of reach. Syracuse’s Monica Jones tallied her team’s last two, while two more Georgetown goals in the final eight minutes left the Orange on the short end of a 7-goal deficit.

Fried called his team’s slow start on Saturday a “feeling out process,” adding that his team gained confidence once it got comfortable.

“It wasn’t anything that they were doing necessarily, it was just some mistakes that we were making, and in the second half we made some adjustments,” he said.

Georgetown continued its winning streak at William & Mary (2-3, 0-0 CAA), but bucked the developing trend of a slow offensive start. Right out of the gate, The Hoyas powered to a 10-1 advantage, capitalizing on Tribe turnovers and backing up the offense with a stifling defense.

“We thought we had a trend of starting out slow and answering in the second half, but we changed that at William & ary,” Fried said. “That was a negative trend that we were happy to replace.”

Georgetown’s scoring was as diverse as it was prolific. Six Hoyas scored, with Chambers, Stanwick and senior midfielder Lauryn Bernier tacking up three goals each.

“It’s going to be tough to focus on one or two players because we have a number of people scoring every day,” Fried said.

Riding the pair of victories, the Hoyas slipped into third place in the polls. Stanwick, on the strength of nine goals and two assists over the pair of games, picked up Big East Player of the Week honors for the second consecutive week.

“A lot of her goals were assisted by other people,” Fried said, touting the team’s balanced offense. “Everybody’s tending to create something, and she’s just happened to be the beneficiary lately. She puts herself in good position and she’s a very good finisher. I see her continuing to score, but I also see that we’re having seven people score points on a regular basis.”

Georgetown will look to keep its streak intact this weekend when the Duke Blue Devils come to town. Ranked fourth in the nation, Duke opened its season with five straight wins but has since fallen in two heartbreakers to North Carolina and Princeton.

Still, Fried said he sees Duke as more dangerous after the pair of losses. “They’re going to be fighting for a win. You hate to play a team that’s backed into a corner and a little desperate in the sense that they need a win. We expect them to come out raring to go, needing a win and so fighting even harder,” he said.

The Hoya offense is averaging 14 goals per game while allowing only five and a half, but Duke is averaging just less than 14 per, even with two losses factored in. The Georgetown defense will be tested by a Duke offense predicated on time of possession.

“They tend to possess the ball for long periods of time. If we can take them out of that, it could be [high-scoring], but we don’t want to do anything that’s going to jeopardize or compromise our defensive end. We’re going to be patient and take what they give us,” Fried said.

What the Hoyas hope to get from Duke is another win to continue the trend. Game time is Saturday at 1 p.m. on Kehoe Field.