Since winning their first 37 Big East games after the league was founded in 2001, the Hoyas have always been a step ahead of the rest of the league. Just yesterday, Georgetown’s Coco Stanwick and Maggie Koch won Big East attacker and defensive player of the year honors, respectively.

Now, the Hoyas will look to stay the class of the conference and win the inaugural Big East tournament. But they will not enter the tournament with the unblemished record and aura of invincibility that they’ve become so used to having.

The Hoyas received the top seed after tying for the league’s regular-season title, but for the first time ever, they lost a regular-season league game this year. And with five other losses on their docket, the days when the Big East title could just be conceded to the Georgetown are over.

Last year’s quarterfinals match against today’s foe, Notre Dame, may have brought about a new era for Big East women’s lacrosse – or at the very least, for the Hoyas. For the first time ever, Georgetown fell to a league foe. The Hoyas were knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the quarterfinals, a win short of the Final Four and three wins short of a national title.

Ever since, the team has suddenly looked human. It fell to Notre Dame yet again on April 14. The Hoyas have also lost to James adison, Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia this season. Those six teams have a combined .895 winning percentage and 77-16 overall record, while the teams Georgetown has beaten have tallied just a 70-67 record. The Hoyas are just 6-6 this year against teams with winning records.

So a revenge victory against No. 12 Notre Dame (11-5, 3-2 Big East) today is no certainty.

Despite having lost their last two games at No. 9 Vanderbilt (10-4) and against No. 16 Rutgers (12-4, 3-2 Big East), the fourth-seeded Fighting Irish boast a balanced attack, with five different players recording over 30 points this season.

A loss would deal a serious blow to the Hoyas’ playoff chances. A No. 3 seed last year with a 13-3 record, Georgetown’s injury-ravaged team is a far cry from that squad.

Securing an NCAA berth for Head Coach Ricky Fried is the real emphasis of this tournament, and not retribution from Notre Dame.

“I really don’t think there is much of a revenge factor considering Notre Dame beat us the last two times we played,” he said. “I think both teams need a victory to help our standings getting into the NCAA Tournament. We’ve got a bit of momentum coming off two wins, but Notre Dame has lost their last two, so they’ll be itching to get back on the field.”

But while Fried may be losing sleep over tournament considerations, he has tried to simplify things for his players.

“I think the coaching staff knows how important this game is for us, but we’ve haven’t stressed that to the girls,” Fried said. “We’ve stressed just worrying about ourselves and doing what we need to do execution-wise to be successful this weekend.”

If the Hoyas post a victory today, they will play the winner of Syracuse-Rutgers on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. They would secure an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament by winning Sunday.

An early exit, however, would make for a long five-hour bus ride home from upstate New York and, no matter what the Hoyas do in their season finale against Princeton on May 6, ensure a nerve-wracking wait for the field to be announced on May 7.

– HOYA Staff Writer Bailey Heaps contributed to this report.