Just 28 minutes into its season opener, the No. 19 Georgetown women’s lacrosse team had posted 15 goals over the St. Joseph’s University Hawks behind two Blue and Gray hat tricks to enter halftime with a 15-2 lead, a first-half advantage larger than any of the 2018-19 season. In front of 344 hometown fans, the Blue and Gray emerged victorious with an offensively dominant performance from the opening whistle, besting the Hawks 19-5. 

Last season, Georgetown (1-0, 0-0 Big East) also opened up against St. Joseph’s (0-1, 0-0 Atlantic 10), that time on the road in a much closer affair. The Hoyas came away with the win against the Hawks by a much smaller margin of three goals in a 12-9 victory. 

The Hoyas finished their 2018-19 season at 12-9, with a 3-2 record in Big East play. Georgetown won the Big East Championship after beating Denver University (1-0, 0-0 Big East) 9-8 in a thrilling double overtime finals. The Hoyas would go on to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in their postseason. 

Georgetown’s season last year earned the team the No. 19 ranking going into the 2019-20 season, the second-best ranking in the Big East behind No. 10 Denver. The Blue and Gray played up to their ranking as 10 Hoyas contributed goals in the 14-goal victory this weekend. The team’s strong opening performance points toward the potential for another Big East Championship title this season.

From the opening whistle at Cooper Field on Feb. 8, Georgetown began with intensity and did not hesitate in scoring, as senior attacker Michaela Bruno tallied an unassisted goal after just over a minute and a half of play. This goal was the first of four for Bruno, who finished the first half with a hat trick. Sophomore attacker Ali Diamond and senior midfielder Nathalia Lynch then scored two more unassisted goals for the Hoyas. After just three minutes of play, the Hoyas sat up 3-0 over the Hawks. 

St. Joseph’s responded to the deficit with a goal of its own, but the Hoyas’ offense proved to be too much for the Hawks’ defense to contain. Georgetown scored five more goals in the following 10 minutes before St. Joseph’s was able to score again, leaving the score at 8-2. 

With an already commanding lead, Georgetown practically ended the game in the first half, scoring seven more goals in the final 15 minutes of the opening half without surrendering any more goals to St. Joseph’s. Two of these goals came from junior attacker Cameron McGee who, along with Bruno, finished the first half with a hat trick. Georgetown went into halftime with an insurmountable 15-2 lead.

The Hoyas did not miss a beat coming out of halftime as Lynch was able to clinch a hat trick of her own, scoring her third goal in the first minute of the second half. In what was a much lower-scoring second half, Georgetown and St. Joseph’s went on to score three more goals each, with the game ending 19-5. 

Georgetown fittingly outshot St. Joseph’s with 29 shots to the Hawk’s 14. The Hoyas also won the turnover battle, forcing 19 turnovers from their opponent. Junior defender Wynne Whitley led the team by forcing four turnovers. In goal, senior Micheline DiNardo had two saves to earn her first win of the season. 

The stellar performance by the Hoyas earned the praise of Head Coach Ricky Fried, who knows his team’s capability for success. 

“This team has worked hard and has improved each week, and today was the same. We started strong and played with a lot of energy and enthusiasm,” Fried said in an interview with GUHoyas. 

Georgetown will be playing at home again next weekend against No. 14 University of Pennsylvania. Last season, the Hoyas lost to the Quakers on the road by just one goal in the regular season, falling 7-8. Georgetown, however, came out on top in its rematch against Penn by beating the Quakers in a double overtime victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament 13-12. 

The start time for the game is slated for 1 p.m. at Cooper Field on Saturday, Feb. 15.