On Friday night under the lights of Ludwig Field at the University of Maryland, the Georgetown women’s soccer team (14-6-1) won its first NCAA tournament game in program history by thoroughly dominating the Siena Saints (17-4-0) in a 5-1 win.

The Hoyas came out of the gates flying, dominating possession in the early going and taking advantage of their time on the ball to pump cross after cross into the box. Those early opportunities did not translate into goals, however, as Georgetown attackers were not in the right place to convert those tantalizing chances.

The Blue and Gray looked by far the more likely side to break the deadlock and had their best chance of the beginning stages in the 13th minute when redshirt junior midfielder Ingrid Wells picked out junior forward Camille Trujillo at the top of the box. Trujillo turned by her defender quickly, but her shot was well saved by Siena senior goalkeeper Elizabeth Barna.

Minutes later, the Saints got their first chance of the half after a foul gave them a free kick in a dangerous position, but Siena was unable to turn that chance into anything. Georgetown quickly returned to the attack, and the Saints’ defense finally began to show signs of cracking under constant pressure from the Hoyas.

The long-awaited breakthrough finally came in the 27th minute when substitute Sam Baker launched a long throw into the penalty box, which was knocked around for several tense seconds until Trujillo was able to get her foot to it and open the scoring.

“Someone flicked it, [and] I just volleyed [the ball] in,” Trujillo said of her goal.

The Blue and Gray kept pressing forward and attacking with numbers, but desperate defending by the Saints kept the Hoyas from doubling their advantage until a Robert Green-esque gaffe by Barna gifted freshman forward Kaitlin Brenn a goal. Barna came out to gather a Wells cross only to fumble it directly into the path of the onrushing Brenn, who gratefully rifled the ball into the open net from close range.

The Hoyas enjoyed their two-goal lead for less than two minutes, though, as Siena’s Tabitha Tice managed to loft a ball over the head of senior goalie Jackie DesJardin and into the left corner of the goal from a narrow angle on the right side of the penalty area.

“I give [Tice] credit for their goal,” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “She scored it out of the blue, and it shook us a little bit. … They’ve done it all year. They score goals from nowhere.”

The goal, while definitely against the run of play, gave the Saints the confidence to press forward that they had been lacking for much of the first half.

But the Hoyas came right back at them and restored their two-goal lead with 2.4 seconds left in the half when freshman forward Colleen Dinn headed the ball home on a rebound from sophomore defender Christina O’Tousa’s header off the post.

“Getting the third goal just before the break stopped [Siena’s] momentum,” Nolan said. “If we had gone in at halftime [at] 2-1 after dominating, [Siena] would have been fired up. To come right back and score with [two] seconds to go . was a dagger in the heart for them.”

The Blue and Gray kept pressing their advantage after the break as Trujillo waited less than five minutes to notch her second goal. The junior screened Barna at the near post and deflected a low shot from Georgetown senior midfielder Amy Speck past the helpless Siena goalkeeper.

“I just wanted to get in front of the keeper and hopefully get a touch [on] it,” Trujillo said of her second goal, which was her team-leading 12th of the season.

“She deserves it. Camille’s a hard-working kid,” Nolan said. “She works her socks off every single game. … I thought she was excellent.”

At that point the Saints were reeling, and it was Wells who delivered the knockout blow when she scored the Hoyas’ fifth and final goal directly from a corner kick. The goal was Wells’ ninth of the year and gave her a Georgetown-single-season-record 28 points.

“It’s about delivery, and Ingrid’s delivery tonight was very good,” Nolan said. “Every one of her corner kicks was right in where we needed it to be, and that was fantastic.”

Even with a four-goal lead, the Blue and Gray remained in high gear. Trujillo nearly completed a hat-trick one minute after Wells’ goal and Baker, Brenn and sophomore defender Claire Fuselier all came close to adding to the Hoyas’ sizeable lead over the last 30 minutes of the game. The Georgetown defense also remained firm when the Saints were able to launch late attacks.

“We felt it was going to be a tough game going in because Siena’s a good team. They [won] 17 games this year,” Nolan said. “They’re an explosive team that can score a lot of goals, and I thought we did a good job at the back of really not giving them anything.”

Awaiting Georgetown in the second round is local rival and nationally fourth-ranked Maryland (18-2-2), who defeated High Point 4-1 earlier on Friday. The Terps are the top seed in the Hoyas’ bracket.

Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday in College Park, Md.