The No. 7/2 Georgetown women’s soccer team (12-1-2, 4-0-2 Big East) beat Marquette (8-6-2, 4-2-0 Big East) 2-0 in Milwaukee on Sunday, propelled by a pair of goals from sophomore forward Amanda Carolan, who won the Big East Offensive Player of the Week for her efforts.
The win extends the team’s unbeaten run to 13 consecutive matches. In winning their last three matches, the Hoyas have outscored opponents 12-1 and appear to be gaining momentum heading into the home stretch of the conference schedule; Georgetown remains sixth in national RPI.
Despite the challenge of a long road trip, the Hoyas maintained focus and took care of a Marquette team that also had been making some noise in the Big East. Earlier in the season, Marquette lost a game to No. 1 Stanford (12-1-1, 5-1 PAC 12) by a scoreline of just 3-0, the same as Georgetown’s result.
“It was a really big game, for a couple of reasons,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “Marquette were ahead of us in the standings going into the game, and we knew if we lost to them, we’d be four points behind them with three games to go, nine points to play … So losing that game meant it would [have been] very difficult to catch them.”
Carolan played an important role on the defensive end as well as the offensive, man-marking the Golden Eagles’ star senior midfielder Morgan Proffitt on set pieces.
“Their style of play is such that they are extremely effective off set pieces,” Nolan said. “And corner kicks and free kicks really is a big part of their bread and butter. I thought we did a really good job defending that, and Amanda was part of that. … That was a big reason why we didn’t give up any goals.”
In central defense, graduate student Marina Paul and freshman Sarah Trissel remained strong in front of sophomore goalkeeper Arielle Schechtman, who posted her seventh shutout in eight matches.
Despite the mundane 2-0 scoreline and the appearance of a simple, comfortable win, Carolan maintained this was not the case.
“I don’t think any game is routine,” Carolan said. “Every game presents us with a challenge, whether it’s our opponent or ourselves. As Big East play started, our challenge was maintaining the quality of play that we had going into the Big East, and now one of our challenges is finishing in the top two, and hopefully first and being the regular season champions.”
Carolan’s sixth and seventh goals of the season, putting her fourth on the team, showcased her continued progression into a different version of the striker role, one where she plays with her back to the net rather than using pace to get behind defenders.
“It’s always good to score goals in that position,” Carolan said. “The game on Sunday was the first game where I really started turning more, and not just instantly playing the ball backwards. So as I’m playing more games, I’m getting more comfortable in the position and finding a niche.”
Though Carolan has dominated the points as of late, Georgetown’s offense can score in a variety of ways and currently ranks tied for fourth in the country with 2.6 goals per game. Senior forward Grace Damaska leads the team with 10 goals on the season, while junior midfielder Rachel Corboz and graduate student forward Crystal Thomas each have eight.
“When you play against teams and they have one particular threat, and you can come up with a way to possibly defend that threat, it makes you a little bit predictable,” Nolan said. “Having the ability to get goals from different places means that teams can’t just focus on stopping one particular threat, so I definitely feel it’s a huge plus.”
Corboz leads the team with eight assists and is followed by sophomore forward Caitlin Farrell with five and Damaska with four.
Georgetown travels next to Seton Hall (5-8-1, 1-5 Big East) Thursday at 7 p.m. before returning home Sunday at 1 p.m. to take on conference-leading Depaul (8-5-2, 5-1 Big East) at Shaw Field for Senior Day.
