Charles Nailen/The Hoya Sophomore midfielder Paige Andrews chases down a groundball. She had one goal in the Georgetown’s 12-3 win over Stanford on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Hoyas’ improved to 11-4 on the year.

The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team played its most solid and complete game of the season on Saturday afternoon – exactly what it needed with the NCAA Tournament in less than two weeks. The No. 7 Hoyas closed out their regular season schedule with a 12-3 thrashing of the Stanford Cardinal.

The season-closer brought many of the team’s alumnae back to campus and also recognized the team’s current senior captains – midfielders Gloria Lozano, Michi Ellers and Anouk Peters. Head Coach Kim Simons has looked to her three seniors to provide the team’s leadership all season and they did just that on Saturday.

Lozano tallied three goals on 10 shots and added six groundballs and two draw controls. Ellers contributed a goal and an assist. Junior attack Sarah Oliphant also stepped up with a hat trick and midfielder Alison Chambers added two goals of her own.

The Hoyas opened scoring just under six minutes into the contest when Oliphant found the back of the net. Minutes later, Chambers added a second goal as Ellers took the ball at midfield and ran it deep into Stanford territory before dropping it to Chambers in front of the net for the tally.

Georgetown then converted on two free position shots a minute apart to take a 4-0 advantage with 12 minutes remaining in the first half. Junior attack Catherine Elbe converted the first after a shooting space violation, and Ellers capitalized on the second opportunity.

Just over a minute after Ellers’ goal, Elbe fed a pass to Oliphant who scored her second of the afternoon. Lozano contributed her first tally, making a run from midfield that ended with a shot past Stanford senior goaltender Christina Saikus. With eight and a half minutes remaining on the clock, Lozano gave Georgetown a 6-0 lead.

The Hoya offense stalled for the remainder of the half, however. Neither team was able to do much with the ball for more than five minutes until the Cardinal put itself on the board. Georgetown junior goaltender Sarah Robinson stepped out of the goal to retrieve a groundball but her upfield pass was picked off and Stanford junior attack Claire Calzonetti fired one in before Robinson could get back into position.

The final two and a half minutes ran off the clock without incident and the Hoyas took a 6-1 lead into the break.

“We played great in the first half except for maybe the last six or seven minutes,” Simons said. “We really focused on coming out strong; the last few games we haven’t been coming out as strong as we’d like.”

As play resumed in the second half, the Cardinal continued its scoring attack. Three and a half minutes into the period, sophomore attack Megan Burker took a pass from senior midfielder Abbi Hillis for a tally. Hillis added one of her own just three minutes later, cutting the deficit in half, 6-3.

“They brought it within three and I thought it was really important for our team to be able to pull themselves out of it versus me calling a timeout,” Simons said. “They did that.”

The Hoya defense shut down any Cardinal scoring opportunity for the remaining 23 minutes, holding Stanford to just three goals. eanwhile, the Georgetown offense kicked in again, reeling off six goals in the half.

Lozano scored on a pass from freshman attack Coco Stanwick to make the lead four goals. Only when Lozano was bowled over on the play did Simons call a timeout. A dirt-covered Lozano stood up, however, and played the rest of the game.

The Hoyas were unable to capitalize on several free position opportunities over the next five minutes, but eventually Oliphant put one in with 16 minutes of play to go. Sophomore attack Paige Andrews followed up less than two minutes later taking a pass from junior attack Hollis Pica for the score. Another sophomore attack, Lucy Poole, fed a pass to Chambers to give Georgetown a 10-3 lead with five minutes left.

Just 30 seconds later, Lozano picked up a groundball in front of the Stanford net and flicked it past Saikus for the goal. Freshman midfielder Schuyler Sutton tallied the Hoyas’ final goal with just 44 ticks remaining when she found herself wide open in front of the goal.

“I think we played well from the first second to the last and we’ve had trouble doing that in some games this year. I think it was good that we were able to play through the whole way,” Lozano said.

Her 10 shots on goal accounted for more than a third of the team’s 29. The Hoyas held Stanford to just 12 shots and led in every statistical category. Georgetown picked up 46 groundballs to Stanford’s 19 and caused twice as many turnovers as the Cardinal.

Robinson made five saves for the Hoyas while Saikus was forced to make 16 saves for the Cardinal and allowed all 12 Hoya goals.

The win caps off an 11-4 season for the Hoyas while Stanford closes with an 8-8 record. With a tournament berth locked up for them, the Hoyas will await selection Sunday to determine whom they will face in the first round of the tournament.

For Simons, the focus over the next two weeks will be assuring that the Hoyas can win consecutive games – a feat they have accomplished only twice in their last 10 games.

“This team is a great team regardless of the last couple of weeks. We’re feeling really good about ourselves and we’ve got as good a shot as anybody,” Simons said. “We play one of the toughest schedules in the country and we do that so that when we get in the tournament we can play four tough games in a row and be able to handle that. We’ve had some problems with that this year but that’s why those games aren’t the NCAA..”

She added that her team would spend the next few days resting before getting refocused and working hard toward their goal of a national championship. The selection bracket will be announced Sunday on CSTV at 6:30 p.m.