In their last three games, the Hoyas managed 12 shots combined. On Wednesday, the team posted 11. In the same three games, the Hoyas garnered four corner opportunities. But Wednesday, the team racked up eight offensive corners.
The opportunities on Kehoe Field were ripe for the taking, and there were several wide open chances for Georgetown to pull out of a five-game slump. But the Hoyas could not convert and fell to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County 2-1, continuing their slide to a sixth game and dropping their season record to 3-12.
Though the Retrievers created fewer chances on the field, they were able to finish, and the team found its first win in four games to raise its record to 3-12.
“We definitely had a lot of opportunities to win this game,” Georgetown Head Coach Laurie Carroll said. “We didn’t execute.”
Headed into Wednesday’s match, both teams were searching for a win to break their losing streaks, and it showed early on. Within three minutes, Georgetown had won its first offensive corner of the game, a feat not accomplished until the first overtime period in Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Maine.
The Hoyas could not convert the shot but kept the attack in their offensive end. The effort paid off in the eighth minute when freshman midfielder Colleen Fredericks deflected freshman forward aggie Farrand’s cross into the goal. It was Fredericks’ first goal of the season, and Farrand’s fifth assist in her rookie year.
“First eight minutes, I thought we attacked well,” Carroll said. “We really came out strong.”
But Georgetown did not keep up the momentum, and the offensive action soon switched to UMBC’s end of the field. The Retrievers ended up outshooting the Hoyas 7-6 in the first half.
“Georgetown came out stronger than us,” UMBC Head Coach Kristy Mumma said. “Once that tide turned, it was all heart from the UMBC side.”
Georgetown retaliated aggressively at the end of the first half, pushing play back to its offensive half in the last 10 minutes. In the final moments of the first half it looked as if the Hoyas would take a two-goal lead for only the second time all season. The shot from junior forward Bridie McCulla, however, slid just wide of the goal, and Georgetown headed into the half barely hanging to a 1-0 score.
The second half saw the two teams exchange action evenly on both ends of the field, while Georgetown pushed just a little more – but not enough.
The Hoyas outshot their opponents 5-4 this time around, evening the final shot tally to 11-11. Georgetown also had the advantage on corners, posting five in the second half versus UMBC’s one. But the offense stopped there.
“We didn’t have that scoring mentality,” Carroll said. “We weren’t able to finish.”
The Retrievers, on the other hand, needed less than five minutes to change a scoreless afternoon into a 2-1 lead. In the 49th minute, freshman forward Paige Hartman found the net for UMBC and evened the game up. Hartman was followed by senior midfielder Amanda Heinz in the 53rd minute, who secured the Retrievers a lead that they would not relinquish.
There was a frenzy of play in the final 60 seconds as both teams got off last-minute shots, but neither effort succeeded and UMBC held onto its one-goal lead.
“We just didn’t come out with what we needed to come out with,” senior captain and defender Caitlin Bump said of Georgetown’s performance. “We have a tendency to play to the other team’s level.”
Carroll also said there was a difference in the level of play. “I would have taken the effort in last game [a 1-0 loss to aine] over today’s,” she said.
The Hoyas have two remaining games, both at home on Kehoe Field. They will next face Cornell Sunday at noon. At the game, the team will honor its seniors: captain Bump, forward Erica Chan, defender Tara Mead and defender Casey Rock.
