The Hoyas came into this weekend with a 2-0 record in the Big East and a confident, excited attitude. On Friday, the Hoyas handed Syracuse their second Big East loss and improved their own record to 6-4 overall and 3-0 in the Big East. On Sunday, however, the Hoyas faced a nationally-ranked rival, Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and dropped the match in four games, despite hanging close to the powerhouse Irish.

Georgetown emerged from the weekend 3-1 in the Big East and 6-4 overall.

At Manley Field House in Syracuse Friday night, the Hoyas simply outplayed the Orangewomen in four games (30-27, 26-30, 30-22, 30-22). Senior Yulia Vtyurina scored a double-double posting 23 kills, 10 digs and adding three aces. Junior co-captain Lauren Warner also put up high numbers, including 21 kills and sophomore Jen Ward contributed 46 assists and two aces. Junior Anna Kleinsorge showed defensive and offensive strength posting five total blocks, two solos, eight kills and two digs. Three freshmen, Sara Albert, Lara Bursch and Julie Grauert added 12 digs, eight kills and three blocks while junior Anna Sones posted five digs. The Hoyas out-hit the Orangewomen .227 to .138 and had more team blocks with 10 over Syracuse’s eight.

The same strength did not prevail Sunday when the Hoyas traveled to South Bend to take on Notre Dame.

A few weeks ago, Head Coach Li Liu had said she hoped her team would “continue fighting hard; we can put up great competition with any team if we fight hard. We have to continue to push to gain points and not lose a few points in a row.”

Unfortunately, that is what happened to her team Sunday – they could not hold onto the leads they started to gain and fell to the Fighting Irish in three out of four games (28-30, 30-27, 30-25, 30-22). Georgetown’s duo of Warner and Vtyurina dominated the game from the Hoyas’ side. Together they scored six kills over a nine-point streak in game one and Warner put her team over the edge with a game-winning kill.

Despite the added efforts of Ward and Albert, who both had strong games, the team could not hold on, giving up leads in each of the next three games and suffering their first Big East loss of the season to the No. 24 Fighting Irish.

Next up for the Hoyas are two home games over Homecoming weekend against two Big East teams. Georgetown will play Pittsburgh Friday at 7 p.m. and West Virginia Sunday at 2 p.m.