One half played, one goal short.

After trailing in stats for the first half of play, Georgetown field hockey could not recover enough lost ground, and dropped its fifth game of the season to Bucknell Saturday 3-2, leaving the Hoyas with a 1-6 record for the season.

“The first half was unacceptable,” Head Coach Laurie Carroll said. “There were no adjustments made [at halftime]. It was just a matter of being willing to play hard or not.”

Georgetown could not get anything going early, posting only two shots and one save for the duration of the first half. Bucknell, meanwhile, scored two goals, one off a penalty corner in the 29th minute.

The Hoyas came back from the break down 2-0 and pushing up the field, attacking more aggressively than in the first half. They saw results 13 minutes in, when sophomore midfielder Deirdre McShea scored an unassisted goal on a break up the field. It was cShea’s second goal of the season.

The Bison retaliated less than two minutes later with its third goal of the game, widening the gap to two once again.

Georgetown marked the last goal of the game in the 56th minute, when sophomores Lauren Sheets, a defender, and Lauren Gallagher, a midfielder, teamed up on a penalty corner to find the net. But the offensive effort wasn’t enough, and Bucknell stood atop the final tally, 3-2.

Georgetown saw considerable improvement in shots taken between the first and second halves, jumping from two in the first half to 12 in the second. Nine of the 14 total shots were on goal.

“It’s tough to win a game when you only play half the game with that type of energy,” Carroll said. “The second half they were willing to do the things we’ve been coaching them to do every day.”

The defenders were at the top of the stats Saturday. Sheets led Georgetown with 4 shots, and senior captain Caitlin Bump posted three. Freshman forward Maggie Farrand also recorded two shots on goal.

The team has struggled in its first seven games, with three of six losses coming from a one-goal deficit. At this point last season, the Hoyas had a 2-5 record, to which they would only add one win to reach 3-15 for the 2004-05 season.

Though the stats do not reflect it, Carroll insists that this year’s team is completely different. “We’re 100 percent better than we were last year.”

Georgetown has had health problems so far this fall, playing without two starters. Junior defender Megan Cellucci and junior forward Jen Kosloski have both been sidelined with injuries.

“Maybe that’s the edge we need,” Carroll said of the team’s three close losses. “We’re close. Hopefully if we can get healthy and put together 70 minutes of hockey, we can get a `W.'”

The Hoyas are on the road for their next two games, facing off against Towson on Wednesday and Lafayette on Saturday.

“Hopefully our best game of the season is ahead of us,” Carroll said.