Georgetown learned on Friday that there’s a reason that offensive players get so much credit for victory: Offensive output is critical. In their tough 8-6 loss to No. 2 North Carolina, the Hoyas simply did not capitalize on enough shooting opportunities.

During a strong start that gave Georgetown a 5-1 lead with 11:27 left in the first half, senior attackers Coco Stanwick and Brittany Baschuk each posted a goal and an assist for the Blue and Gray. Stanwick was marked closely by the North Carolina defense, but still managed a game-high 11 shots on the day. Senior attacker Schuyler Sutton, sophomore attacker Bunny O’Reilly and freshman midfielder Ashby Kaestner contributed to create a 5-1 Hoya advantage with one goal apiece.

As has become a refrain this season, Georgetown found itself inexplicably unable to score. “We continued to play hard with a high level of energy consistently for the game, we just came up a little bit short at the end on our execution.”

In the second half, junior attacker Zan Morley broke the Hoyas’ scoring drought of nearly 30 minutes with a speedy shot from the 12-meter line to give the Hoyas a one-point advantage over the Tar Heels, who answered within four minutes to knot the game at six.

North Carolina scored two unanswered goals before the end of the game, and Georgetown closed with six goals – its lowest offensive output of the season, despite the 34 shots taken.

“The goalie – we have to give her some credit,” Fried said. “We made her look good at times, but she also made some big saves at other times. . The opportunities remained [in the second half], and we continued to ride hard, so we were able to get possession. So nothing really changed except that our shooting wasn’t as consistent as we needed it to be.”

Although the offense wasn’t enough to save the game, the Hoyas’ performance on the defensive end was another story.

“They really weren’t able to maintain possession for very long,” Fried said. “We were able to get draw controls and were able to possess the ball for periods of time. . We were able to ride them hard and come up with some turnovers in the midfield as well.”

Junior midfielder Patty Piotrowicz came up with a season-high four ground balls.

Senior goalie Maggie Koch made seven saves in the game, and the defense held the Tar Heels – who had been averaging 30 or more shots per game – to only 20 shots.

“It was just really a matter of we had some turnovers, we had some missed opportunities, and if we capitalized on some of those earlier it could have been a different game,” Fried said. “But to their credit, they played hard and they played away and they were able to execute at the end of the game when they needed to.”

The Hoyas return to the Multi-Sport Facility today at 3:30 p.m. when they play host to No. 2 Maryland.

“The big thing for us against Maryland is making sure that they don’t get the tempo very fast and get a lot of transition opportunities. That’s when they thrive on offense, on running and gunning. We want to make sure that we force them to play a 7-7 game on their offensive end on the field.”

Maryland junior goalie Allie Buote has recorded 10 saves in three straight games, the best three-game streak of her career.

The Terrapins lead 14-3 in the all-time series, but the Hoyas have won the last three meetings. Baschuk scored the final three goals for Georgetown in last year’s game, including the game-winner with 16 seconds remaining on the clock in overtime to give the Hoyas an 11-10 victory.