WOMEN’S LAX Sweet Revenge No. 1 Hoyas Rally To Take Rematch By Derek Richmond Special to The Hoya

Charles Nailen/The Hoya Junior attack Tracy Weickel keeps the ball away from Maryland. She had one goal in the victory.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Not only is the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team ranked number one for the third week in a row, they are off to their best start in the history of the program. This past week, the Hoyas added two victories to their season, extending their undefeated streak to eight games, including a big 10-6 victory over last season’s nemesis the University of Maryland Terrapins.

Wednesday night the Hoyas traveled to College Park, Md., to take on the No.9 Terrapins. The Hoyas history with the Terrapins is a long and painful one. Maryland won the most recent of their seven consecutive NCAA women’s lacrosse national titles with a 14-13 double overtime defeat of the Hoyas in last year’s championship game. Overall, Georgetown was 0-12 against Maryland in a series that dates back to 1977.

However, this season would be as good a chance as any for the Hoyas to break the Terrapin’s dominance. Maryland had already dropped four games this year going into Wednesday’s game, the most losses for the program in 13 years.

In spite of the history between these two teams, Georgetown Head Coach Kim Simons said the team’s focus was squarely on the present.

“We didn’t really talk a whole lot about the revenge,” Simons said. “We talked about the fact that we thought we were ready for this game; we really felt like if we came out and played our game and went hard that we would be successful. We didn’t want to settle for anything less than a win.”

Senior attack Erin Elbe, who tallied six goals for the Hoyas in last year’s championship loss to Maryland, held different sentiments about Wednesday’s game and the rivalry with the Terps.

“[Last year’s game] was always in the back of my head. Everybody that was on the team last year has a desire for revenge,” she said, “but it was a full team effort from freshmen to seniors and we just went out and played hard.”

Play hard they did and the results were different this time around. Elbe chipped in four goals and junior attacker Stanwick put three in the cage; sophomore midfielder Gloria Lozano added two and junior attacker Tracy Weickel had one tally and one assist. Despite aryland’s advantage in shots, draw controls, and groundballs, Georgetown prevailed by capitalizing on its scoring opportunities and turning the ball over only two times, compared to seven by Maryland.

Maryland scored first but the 1-0 edge would be its only lead of the night. From then on, the Hoyas dominated, with Elbe and Weickel scoring one apiece to lead 2-1. The remainder of the first half consisted of ties and one-goal leads until a goal from Lozano put Georgetown up 5-3 with 16 seconds left in the half. Maryland would answer in the waning seconds to close the Georgetown lead to one.

The Terps scored first in the second half before Georgetown reeled off three consecutive goals to take control of the game. The Terps scored once more but the Hoyas responded with two more goals to seal the historic victory.

“I’m really proud of how our team played, especially in the second half. I thought we really took the game over in the second half, and that’s exactly what we needed to do to win it,” Simons said.

Indicative of the dedication to the rivalry, fans endured near-freezing temperatures and strong winds to watch Georgetown earn a bit of redemption from last season’s heartbreaking title game defeat. There to cheer on the Hoyas’ were two of last year’s captains, Sheehan Stanwick and Sarah Oglesby.

“We knew we were facing a really good Georgetown team, and to their credit they played awesome, very poised and controlled, and we’re just not there yet,” Maryland Head Coach Cindy Timchal said. “We had scoring opportunities and didn’t capitalize on them, and they definitely capitalized on their scoring opportunities.”

Earlier in the week the Hoyas took on Big East conference foe Rutgers (3-6, 0-2 Big East). The Scarlet Knights took a 2-0 advantage early, but the contest quickly became lopsided. Georgetown scored four straight before Rutgers pulled to within two, 6-4. From there, the Hoyas tallied three straight to lead 9-4 at the break.

Georgetown came out shooting in the second half, scoring another three straight in the first three minutes. Rutgers scored five times in the second half, but could not hold off the Hoya assault. Weickel scored four times for Georgetown and Elbe added three goals and an assist.

The rest of the Georgetown scoring was well-balanced as Georgetown outshot Rutgers 39-18. Wick Stanwick netted two for the Hoyas and eight other players had one apiece in the 17-9 defeat of Rutgers on Kehoe Field.

The Hoyas play No. 5 North Carolina at noon on Sunday on Kehoe Field.