A rainy evening and a wet field were not ideal conditions for a game under the lights on Wednesday night, but the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team (1-2) blocked out the weather and fought to earn its first victory of the season in an 11-9 contest against George Mason (2-2). The victory improves the Hoyas’ all-time record against the Patriots to 12-0, and now five of those victories have come at home.
Although Georgetown emerged from Wednesday’s contest with the win, Head Coach Ricky Fried noted that additional changes must be made during practice before the team heads into Saturday’s game against Towson University.
“The win wasn’t great,” Fried said. “In the first half we played smarter, faster and with more confidence. In the second half, we looked like [George Mason] wasn’t going to show up and didn’t play very hard, very fast or very tough. They outhustled us across the board and we made mistakes, but fortunately, they made plenty of mistakes on their own.”
Despite the mistakes and slow pace during the second half, an early lead helped the Hoyas hold on for their first win. The Hoyas had a 7-3 lead after the first half, with senior attack Caroline Tarzian putting the Hoyas on the board with a goal in the first four minutes.
In addition, Georgetown edged George Mason in several important statistical categories to build a lead. Georgetown had 27 shots on goal compared with George Mason’s 16, and the Hoyas had 22 ground balls compared with the Patriots’ 13.
The Hoyas hit their stride through the first 22 minutes of the game, notching seven unanswered goals to build a sizeable lead. However, two unassisted George Mason goals closed the Hoyas’ lead to five and gave the Patriots momentum going into the second half.
Two more George Mason goals early in the second half further encroached on Georgetown’s lead, and draw controls were leaning in the Patriots’ favor. However, a second-half draw control and goal from senior captain and defender Adrianne Devine reversed the trend.
“It felt good,” Devine said about her goal. “It was confusing at first because it dribbled in and everyone stopped and said, ‘Drop your stick!’ It was nice to get support from the attackers as a defender.”
Junior midfielder Kristen Bandos and junior attack Corinne Etchison each had hat tricks and helped the Blue and Gray maintain possession for the majority of the last 10 minutes of the game. Last weekend, Georgetown fell 11-7 to No. 11 Princeton University (3-0) in the home opener at MultiSport Facility. The Tigers had a late 7-1 first-half run, which was too much for the Hoyas to overcome.
Though Georgetown was able to build a first-half lead against George Mason, Fried felt that the team had room to improve.
“The biggest thing we have to do in the game every day is show up and compete,” Fried said. “We have to hold ourselves accountable and to a certain standard. Right now, we don’t do that consistently and if we continue, we are going to be in a close game every single game. We’re capable of playing very well but we pick and choose when we want to do that.”
Devine agreed with Fried.
“The win feels good, but we know we have a lot to work on,” Devine said. “We played well together when we did, but the most challenging part was the draws. We need to stay consistent throughout the whole game and keep up the momentum. For Saturday, we need to work on playing with a lot of heart.”
Georgetown’s upcoming game against Towson (1-0) is an important step in building that momentum. Towson is coming off of a 4-3 win over Monmouth University in its first game of the season.
The match is slated for 3 p.m. at the MultiSport Facility.
