The No. 15 Georgetown women’s soccer team travelled to Milwaukee late last week to compete in the Big East Tournament. Unfortunately for the Hoyas, the weekend in Wisconsin came to a surprisingly early end when they fell to DePaul 1-0 in the semifinals.
Heading into the tournament, Georgetown had its sights set on enacting revenge against the Big East regular-season champion Marquette. Last year, the No. 13 Golden Eagles defeated the Hoyas 1-0 in the final match to deny them their first ever Big East Tournament Championship, and this year, they dealt the Blue and Gray their sole loss of the regular season, a 4-0 drubbing last month.
But to set up a potential championship rematch, Georgetown (15-2-2, 7-1-1 Big East) had to first get past third-seed DePaul (13-4-2, 5-3-1 Big East) who had earned a place in the semifinals after defeating Villanova 1-0 last Tuesday.
Georgetown and DePaul had met in the quarterfinals of last year’s Big East Tournament, a tough fought match that the Hoyas won 1-0. This year, the regular season matchup between the two teams ended in a 1-1 draw. After that match, Head Coach Dave Nolan had high praise for the Blue Demons.
“They were a well-coached team, a good bunch of hardworking kids willing to sacrifice for their team’s cause,” he said.
In Friday night’s semifinal, the Hoyas generated plenty of scoring chances at the beginning of the match. Unlike recent games, however, Georgetown was unable to finish any of its opportunities. The first half ended without a goal despite Georgetown having outshot DePaul 15 to 1.
“We couldn’t put them away when we had good opportunities, especially in the first half,” Nolan said. “We hit the crossbar, [DePaul sophomore goalkeeper Alejandria Godinez] made some saves, and we even had one cleared off the line.”
Godinez, who was named Big East goalkeeper of the year last week, was unbeatable all night and finished the match with seven saves.
The second half was more of the same. The Hoyas dominated in possession and controlled the pace of play but could not find the elusive go-ahead goal. In the 68th minute, on only their second shot of the match, DePaul broke through.
Senior forward Erin Pekovitch received a throw-in, beat her Georgetown defender and curled a shot past the outstretched arms of redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Emma Newins from 20 yards out to give the Blue Demons a 1-0 lead.
“DePaul really only had one chance, and to be fair, they took it,” Nolan said.
Georgetown searched for an equalizer in the last 20 minutes of the match and generated a flurry of opportunities but failed to find the tying goal. The scoreline held, and the match ended in a 1-0 defeat for the Hoyas. DePaul advanced to the championship game on Sunday where they fell to Marquette, 2-0.
“Tonight was certainly a disappointing result for the girls. We knew coming in what a good defensive team DePaul is, and we were confident we could come out with a positive result,” Nolan said. “Unfortunately, this game so mirrored our first meeting with them, and we couldn’t find a way to get the win despite having more than our fair share of chances.”
The loss meant that Georgetown did not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and had to anxiously await the tournament draw on Monday afternoon.
“We will wait for the selection show on Monday, and hopefully, we will still have plenty of soccer to play this year,” Nolan said after the match.
The wait was not in vain. On Monday afternoon, the Hoyas received word that they had received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and would play host to La Salle (15-4-3, 5-2-1 A-10) on Friday. It will be the first home NCAA tournament game in program history.
The Explorers punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament when they defeated Dayton on penalty kicks in the championship match of the Atlantic 10 Tournament to receive an automatic bid.
