CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but on an unseasonably warm spring night, the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team avenged years of frustrations upon the University of Virginia. For the first time in seven attempts, the Hoyas brought home a victory, 13-11.

Last season, the Cavaliers frustrated the Hoyas’ national championship aspirations by beating them 12-9 in the NCAA tournament semifinals. The year before, Virginia defeated Georgetown 16-9 in the quarterfinals.

“It’s a different team every year – who you’re playing and who you are,” Georgetown Head Coach Ricky Fried said. “I’ve only been here three years, so it’s not that big of a monkey for me. It’s probably a gorilla for a lot of other people. Regardless, it’s nice to get it out of the way. It’s nice to beat a quality opponent and play well doing it.”

No. 8 Georgetown (10-3, 4-0 Big East) opened scoring when senior attack Sarah Oliphant took an assist from senior mid Allison Chambers. No. 4 Virginia (11-3, 3-1 ACC) answered back quickly, tallying three goals in less than four minutes to take a 3-1 lead.

“They’re a very fast-strike team,” Fried said. “They’re very athletic, very skilled and they have a lot of dangerous players.”

Virginia senior attacker Amy Appelt is one of those dangerous players. She had five goals, including her team’s first two. Four of Appelt’s goals and her lone assist came in the first half.

“Amy’s obviously a great player,” Fried said, “and when she gets the ball she’s very dangerous. Our goal was to keep her to the left side. It didn’t work too well early.”

Sophomore attack Coco Stanwick led the Hoyas in scoring as she put up five goals and an assist, three in the first half of play. Including the opening goal, Oliphant scored twice in the half while Stanwick’s third goal knotted the score at five. Again, the Cavaliers responded, scoring twice in the final three minutes, and Georgetown faced a 7-5 deficit at the break.

The Hoyas made some changes coming into the second half. Sophomore goaltender Maggie Koch took the cage, replacing senior Sarah Robinson, who made five saves and allowed seven goals. On the defensive end, Fried found an answer to Appelt in the form of sophomore midfielder Chloe Asselin.

“She matches up pretty well with Appelt both size-wise and speed-wise, which is a tough thing to do,” Fried said of Asselin. “She was able to keep her going one way, got a couple of charge calls on her, frustrated them a bit. That helped spark our offense and general enthusiasm.”

The Hoyas fought back to tie the score at seven with 24 minutes to play, but couldn’t catch a break. Virginia scored on the ensuing draw, and it took Georgetown five minutes to knot the score again. The Hoyas looked to be taking control as Stanwick scored her fourth and sophomore midfielder Sara Zorzi found the back of the net on a free-position shot midway through the half.

The Hoyas’ 10-8 lead proved short-lived when Cavalier senior mid Cary Chasney scored on the draw following Zorzi’s goal and sophomore attack Kate Breslin followed with a goal on that draw. In less than a minute, the score was again tied, this time at 10.

“They were backed in to a corner and needed possession. They went out and wanted it more than we did and got it,” Fried said. “The draws were nuts because they were bouncing all over the place. Whoever was going to run through the ball was going to get it.”

Fried credits his team for responding well, fighting for the ball and not getting down. Over the final 14 minutes, sophomore attack Hollis Pica and senior attack Catherine Elbe put up one apiece and Stanwick fired in her fifth. Asselin held Appelt to only one goal in the second half – the Cavaliers’ final score, at the 4:43 mark – but the Hoyas preserved the win.

After more than two weeks without a home game, Georgetown returns to Kehoe Field on Saturday for its final Big East game against Connecticut at 1 p.m. A win over the Huskies (10-3, 3-1) would give the Hoyas their fifth consecutive Big East championship and a guaranteed spot in the NCAA tournament. It would mark Georgetown’s 29th consecutive conference victory over five perfect seasons in Big East play.

“It’s a huge game for us,” Fried said, “but we can’t get caught up. We try not to focus on our mistakes, but we also don’t want to focus too much on our successes – just look to the next game.”

The Hoyas’ success on the field sweetened the week for Fried, whose wife Halyna gave birth to their second child, a daughter named Paige, Tuesday morning at 8:45 a.m.