Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya Princeton senior attack Theresa Sherry picks up the ball while Georgetown junior midfielder Lauryn Bernier and senior midfielder Anouk Peters chase her. Sherry led her team with three goals.

The moment the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team secured a 1-0 lead over top-ranked Princeton, cheers of “overrated” went up from the Hoya fans. And for at least the first half of Friday’s contest, it looked like those fans might have been right.

In the end, however, the Tigers proved just why they are ranked as the nation’s best, handing Georgetown its first loss of the season, 9-7.

“It was another classic Georgetown-Princeton game, where it’s back and forth, up and down, different teams have momentum,” Georgetown Head Coach Kim Simons said. “But we really only played about 35 minutes today, and you can’t beat Princeton if you only play 35 minutes.”

The Hoyas looked poised to score early, maintaining possession and staying on the offensive. Senior midfielder Anouk Peters put Georgetown’s first shot off the crossbar, however, and it took the team more than seven minutes to find its first goal – the longest scoreless period to open a game for the Hoyas this season.

Junior attack Sarah Oliphant took the assist from Peters for the opener, and classmate Catherine Elbe followed up less than six minutes later with a goal of her own, giving Georgetown a 2-0 lead over Princeton. Oliphant tallied a hat-trick in the game while Elbe added two in the effort.

Princeton answered midway through the first half as junior midfielder Ingrid Goldberg scored on a free position shot. Georgetown took back the two-goal lead as freshman attack Coco Stanwick found senior midfielder Gloria Lozano with an open shot. Goldberg finished off the half for the Tigers, adding her second goal and cutting the Georgetown lead to 3-2 going into the break.

Even early in the second half, the pressure of playing the No. 1 team began to frustrate the Hoyas. Peters received a yellow card for a rough play just over a minute into second-half action. The Hoyas stuck with it, however, and put up two goals in the first five minutes, taking a 5-2 advantage.

That marked the 35-minute turning point for Georgetown, however, as the tide seemed immediately to turn in favor of Princeton.

“We got the lead and then we tried to sit on the lead instead of doing the things that got us the lead to begin with. We started to play more as individuals than as a team. Everyone was playing hard,” Simons said, adding, “We were almost trying too hard and we weren’t playing together – especially offensively.”

Princeton scored two consecutive goals, between which Georgetown junior midfielder Lauryn Bernier was carded. Holding a tenuous 5-4 edge, Georgetown then had several shots including a free position, but was unable to convert any of them.

Princeton was able to convert on opportunities – especially senior attack Theresa Sherry. Sherry scored three consecutive goals in under two minutes, taking a 7-5 lead and putting the Hoyas on the losing end of a score for the first time this season. During the run, Bernier also received her second yellow card and was ejected from the game.

“That definitely gave them the tempo,” Hoya senior attack Michi Ellers said of Sherry’s run, “and the flow of the game went toward them after that. We didn’t play them very well and she hit the shots when they counted.”

Simons called a timeout to regroup her team, and it seemed to work at first. The Hoyas put in a goal just a minute later as Oliphant connected with Ellers near the net, but Princeton scored three minutes later and again three minutes after that.

Finally, with just three minutes remaining in the game, the Hoyas put up another goal, pulling themselves to within two, but still trailing 7-9.

The final minutes were intense, but factors seemed to conspire against the Georgetown offense – not the least of which was the Princeton defense.

“They were playing very good defense. They’ve got a great defensive unit,” Simons said. But the Hoyas also hurt themselves. “We had some players that got a little tentative and when they needed to really initiate and be aggressive, they had trouble getting themselves ready to go. We just weren’t crisp at the end of this game.”

“We wanted the goal but we were all over-anxious and got in the way of each other,” Ellers added.

Junior goaltender Sarah Robinson held down the net for the Hoyas, making 12 saves and allowing nine goals while Tigers goalie Sarah Kolodner made only five saves but allowed only seven goals. Princeton edged Georgetown in every statistical category except draw controls.

“At this point in the season I’m obviously disappointed to lose to the No. 1 team in the country, but on the flip side I certainly know that we’re going to learn a great deal from it,” Simons said. “We’ve got players that are not only young in terms of their year, but who haven’t even played in these types of games. They’re just going to keep getting better.”