After conceding four goals in the opening 25 minutes of play, Georgetown field hockey (2-4) was unable to recover, dropping Friday’s match 6-2 to the visiting William and Mary Tribe (1-4).

William and Mary’s squad came out firing, with four different players tallying goals in the first half. Georgetown answered back when sophomore fullback Katie Maransky scored her first career goal with 6:03 to go in the opening half, cutting the Tribe’s lead to three.

Although it controlled the final minutes of the opening half with four shots and a penalty corner while holding William and Mary to none, Georgetown was unable to capitalize on opportunities, ending the half down 4-1.

Despite the offensive pressure, the Hoyas struggled to keep the momentum going into the second half, as the Tribe’s forward Annie Snead scored just 1:17 in, extending the lead back to four.

The Hoyas found the net for the second and final time when senior fullback and co-captain Molly Thompson redirected a shot from senior fullback and co-captain Devin Holmes on a penalty corner with less than 23 minutes left in the match. The Tribe tallied the last goal of the game when Cammie Lloyd scored her second goal with 4:37 to go.

Since Georgetown had such a quick turnaround between this past weekend’s matches, the Hoyas did not have much time to dwell on the loss.

“There’s always going to be a huge focus on the next game on our horizon, on our schedule. For us today, that’s now St. Francis,” Head Coach Shannon Soares said. “But I will tell you I’m very disappointed in the result and the product that we put on the field against a tough William and Mary squad today.”

Although the Hoyas have been focusing on outlet passes to attacking players as well as executing on the offensive end of the field, it was their defensive efforts that tested them against the Tribe.

“To be honest with you, today our issue was allowing defensive circle penetrations, and in the second phase of that, committing fouls in our defensive circle that ultimately resulted in us giving up a defensive penalty corners,” Soares said.

“We prepared for them to be very aggressive off the pads, and we did not counter that aggression. That’s on us. That’s an adjustment that we clearly need to make and be aware of moving into future matches.”

The Hoyas then travelled to Loretto, Pa., to face St. Francis on Sunday, where they rallied to even the match at 1-1 off a goal from senior forward Aliyah Graves-Brown with less than three minutes left in the match.

Despite dominating the overtime period with three shots and three penalty corners within the first 10 minutes, the Hoyas eventually fell when the Red Flash scored in transition after a save from goalkeeper Elizabeth Dyer.

As Georgetown prepares to bounce back after another tough weekend in its first Big East match of the year, the Hoyas are looking to Holmes and Thompson to lead the way.

“We have a new group this year, and we spent a lot of time in preseason developing our new identity with last year’s super influential class gone, and our class has to step up into this super important leadership role,” Holmes said.

Regarding her specific role on the team, Holmes discussed the importance of serving as a bridge between her teammates and the coaching staff, in hopes of achieving the kind of success this program has been working toward over the past three years.

“It’s a matter of getting together, making sure everyone has their voice heard in what they want our program to be,” Holmes said. “That’s one thing we’re continuing to work on because our coaches prepare us for every game, and now it’s on us to build everyone up and give them the confidence to execute that plan when we’re on the field.”

When it comes to prepping for the Big East opener, Holmes said the biggest factor is execution.

“Our coaches work so hard to scout our opponents and really break down the film and give us the key to beat teams,” Holmes said. “Our big focus has just been on executing ourselves, building up our goalkeepers, our center middies and our forwards, and executing all across the field, especially in our defensive and offensive circles.”

Georgetown will begin Big East conference play Friday, Sept. 16 against Quinnipiac (0-6) at 3 p.m. in New Haven, Conn.