In a low-scoring affair, the No. 12 Georgetown University men’s lacrosse team clinched the Big East regular season championship and the top seed in the conference tournament with a 9-6 victory over the Villanova University Wildcats on April 24.
This marks the Hoyas’ (8-4, 5-0 Big East) 14th straight win against the Wildcats (6-7, 3-2 Big East). Georgetown beat Villanova twice in 2025 — once in the regular season and once in the final of the Big East Tournament (BET), when the Hoyas claimed their seventh straight BET championship.
Junior attacker Liam Connor wasted no time putting Georgetown ahead, recovering a turnover and catching the Villanova goalkeeper off-guard to score just 7 seconds into the game.
After back-and-forth possessions, graduate attacker Rory Connor scored on a wide-open net after catching a pass from his brother at 10:16. Just around two minutes later, Villanova attacker Dan Martin scored on a long-range shot to put the Wildcats on the board.
At 5:38, sophomore attacker Jack Ransom avoided a defender and found sophomore midfielder Kevin Miller, who whipped a shot past the Villanova goalkeeper. Late in the period, Rory Connor scored back-to-back goals less than a minute apart — off passes from Ransom and Liam Connor — to give the Hoyas a 5-1 advantage. The Wildcats managed to get the last goal of the period, with attacker Kessy Cox spinning around a defender to find the back of the net with 1:38 left in the period.
The second period again began with 2 goals from Georgetown. At 13:22, Ransom took a feed from first-year midfielder Jake Bickel and scored from the left side. Less than a minute later, Liam Connor passed the ball from behind the net to his brother, giving the Hoyas a 7-2 lead.
Georgetown’s offensive production quieted down for the remainder of the period. Villanova scored 2 late goals to cut their deficit to just 3 going into halftime. Wildcats midfielder Nick Lucchesi barely avoided Hoya defenders and snuck a shot through a crowded crease at 4:58. Moments later, junior goalkeeper Anderson Moore made a tough save, but Villanova regained possession and scored top-shelf at 3:39.
Georgetown pushed late, including a shot that barely went wide of the net from Ransom at 2:34, but the score remained 7-4 Hoyas at the end of the first half.
Miller’s second goal of the night came almost five minutes into the third period. Bickel passed to Miller in front of the net, reaching over the goalkeeper to put the shot away. Roughly midway through the period, the Wildcats scored their first of the half, when Villanova’s Lucchesi shot through an opening in Georgetown’s defense.
The two teams settled in for the rest of the period, focusing on possession as they attempted to find key scoring opportunities. One nearly came for Bickel at 3:14 when he dodged a defender and took a close shot from the left side, but the Wildcats’ goalkeeper denied him to keep the score 8-5 Hoyas.
Villanova attacker Luke Raymond almost brought the Wildcats within 2 early in the fourth period. Finding himself in a good position with a clear opening to the net, Raymond tried to sneak a low shot past Moore, whose quick reaction time blocked the goal.
With just over nine minutes remaining in the period, Miller spun around a defender and found himself alone in front of the net. Seizing the opportunity, he shot the ball on the ground, bouncing it through the goalkeeper’s legs to put Georgetown up 9-5.
One goal at 7:59 was all Villanova could muster. The Hoyas’ defense and goalkeeping got them across the finish line as they won 9-6. Moore posted a .625 save percentage, stopping 10 of 16 shots faced, earning him the team’s vote as player of the game.
With this win, Georgetown secured its second-straight No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament as it searches for its eighth straight conference tournament championship victory under Head Coach Kevin Warne. This streak of Hoya dominance in the Big East dates back to 2018; the 2020 season did not feature a conference tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Georgetown will travel to Providence, R.I., for the Big East tournament. The Hoyas will face the University of Denver Pioneers (6-7, 2-3 Big East), the No. 4 seed, in the semifinals April 30. Georgetown routed the Pioneers 17-5 in the regular season March 28.
