Lucye Rafferty/The Hoya Despite being pursued by the Lions, junior midfielder Gloria Lozano races downfield with the ball. She had four goals in Georgetown’s 19-9 victory over Penn State Wednesday afternoon.

The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team has rarely been dominated by the play of a single team member this season. When the No. 5 Hoyas faced No. 9 Penn State on Wednesday, they showed just how balanced their attack can be. Ten players contributed goals, and half of those scored more than once, as the Hoyas destroyed the Nittany Lions, 19-9.

With the season quickly winding to a close, balance on both ends of the field will likely determine their postseason success. “It’s going to be a long road,” senior attack Wick Stanwick said. “We all know it’s going to be tough, and we just need as a team to take every game one at a time and play that game like we played today. We played as a team, we played smart, and we did what we needed to do.”

Freshman goaltender Dosha Stright started in the cage for Georgetown after sophomore goalie Sarah Robinson gave up 11 goals against Notre Dame over the weekend while only garnering five saves. Stright played 28 minutes, allowing five goals, while Robinson made nine saves in her 32 minutes.

Penn State opened up scoring, tallying a goal three and a half minutes into the contest. Sophomore midfielder Allison Chambers received an assist from Stanwick to put one in for the Hoyas, knotting the score just 19 seconds later. Penn State rebounded, however, scoring again only 16 seconds after that.

Georgetown responded, stringing together four goals over the next nine minutes, and taking a 5-2 lead. Senior midfielder Liz Ryan and senior attack Tracy Weickel capitalized on free position shots, while Stanwick and sophomore attack Sarah Oliphant each contributed one.

The teams traded goals for the remainder of the period, Georgetown taking four and Penn State netting three. The Hoyas took a 9-5 lead into the break, despite draw control troubles in the first half. Junior midfielder Gloria Lozano, who normally takes the draws for Georgetown was replaced midway through the half by junior midfielder Anouk Peters.

“[Lozano] has a chronic injury and she looked a little tired. We’re doing a lot more subbing just for the sake of keeping legs fresh. Penn State is a fast team,” Simons said. “They were about as fast as any team we’ve played, so we knew we had to have fresh legs and if it came down to a close game at the end we wanted to make sure we still had the juice to be able to run.”

The beginning of the second half mirrored that of the first as Penn State snuck in two goals at the 25:40 and 24:26 marks, interrupted by a Georgetown goal at 24:48. After the volley, the game was all Georgetown. The Hoyas put together three three-goal strings down the stretch, each separated by only one Penn State goal.

Lozano tallied four goals in the second half to lead the Hoyas in scoring. Stanwick, who put up three in the first was scoreless in the second, but added two assists to the effort. Sophomore attack Hollis Pica tallied her first goal of the season to give Georgetown a 14-8 lead midway through the period. For her teammates, the goal represented the offensive balance and the team’s relentless pursuit of victory.

“Hollis has been working hard and the reason she got in there today at what was a key point was because she has played very well in practice recently,” Simons said. “It would be very easy at this point to say, `well I haven’t gotten a whole lot of playing time. I’ll just wait till next year.’ But she just continues to push herself.”

Georgetown next faces Big East foe Connecticut on Sunday. The Hoyas look to remain undefeated in the conference, while the Huskies come into the game with a 1-3 conference record.

“I just sat down with our team and told them we’ve got some unfinished business. We need to take the decision-making out of the hands of the tournament committee by winning the Big East, but we need more than just a win; we need another great team effort,” Simons said. “That’s how you have to play if you want to be successful in the tournament.”

The team will also honor its six seniors during its last game of the season. Opening draw is at 1 p.m. on North Kehoe Field.