Despite erasing a four-goal deficit midway through the second half, the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team suffered its first Big East loss, falling 11-9 to the Temple University Owls last Saturday.
Georgetown (4-7, 2-1 Big East) Head Coach Ricky Fried blamed the loss on his team’s failure to play for the complete 60 minutes against Temple (9-2, 2-1 Big East).
“You have to give Temple credit. They played harder than we did for a longer period of time. You get tired if you have to sustain all that energy for a short burst of time, so, really, we didn’t play 60 minutes at the end of it. We gave ourselves a chance to win by coming back and fighting hard, but we need to make sure we are playing the same way regardless of the score, regardless of the time left on the clock, regardless of the opponent and not decide when it’s important for us to play,” Fried said.
The game got off to a quick start, as the teams scored a combined three goals in the first three minutes, and the Owls held a 2-1 lead. With the Hoyas down 3-2 with 12:46 left in the first half, freshman midfielder Natalia Lynch ran the ball across the field and tied the game.
In the beginning of the second half, back-to-back Temple goals prompted Fried to replace senior goalie Maddy Fisher — who is the reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Week — with sophomore goalie Haelle Chomo.
“We were getting some shots right on top of the goal. It’s not so much her, but she didn’t look like she was seeing the ball particularly well,” Fried said. “We needed to make a little bit of a change, and Chomo came in and made some saves. It looked like we needed something to change because they went on a little bit of a run.”
Temple would increase its lead to 9-5 with 20:16 left in the game after the Georgetown goalie change. Sophomore attack Morgan Ryan led the Hoyas’ 4-0 comeback run with two straight goals, including one where she hit the ball into the net with her stick with 12:37 left. However, several second-half saves by Temple’s freshman goalie Maryn Lowell prevented the Hoyas from gaining the lead. After another Ryan goal tied the game with 3:21 left, the Owls re-established their lead two minutes later thanks to freshman midfielder Amber Lambeth.
Despite the loss, Fried saw some positives in his squad’s defensive mindset Saturday.
“The defense played well. We were aggressive. We showed resilience in coming back and fighting hard. I would say those are the two positives across the board. We had some go-to players that stepped up and really played strong, but we need everybody to play at that high level all the time,” Fried said.
Sophomore midfielder Francesca Whitehurst finished with a team-high four goals, and Ryan followed closely behind with three goals of her own in the final 18 minutes. Defensively, Fisher had
three saves and allowed six goals, while Chomo stopped two shots.
Temple’s offense spread the goals around as seven players scored for the Owls. Sophomore attacker Brenda McDermott led the Owls with three goals and three assists, followed by Lambeth and senior attack Anna Frederick with two goals each.
Next, Georgetown will face the Villanova Wildcats (3-7, 1-2 Big East). Freshman attack Katie Comerford leads the Wildcats’ offense with 23 goals so far this season. The Wildcats have been outscored 135-95 and have struggled defending their home turf with a 1-4 record at home.
Georgetown’s game against Villanova is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Philadelphia.
