The Hoyas lost both of their in-conference weekend games, 2-0 against Rutgers (7-1-1, 2-0-1) at home on Friday and 1-0 at Seton Hall (5-5-0, 1-2-0) on Sunday, to drop their overall record to 3-5-3 and league mark to a dismal 0-3. The shutout loss is the Hoyas’ fourth in a row.
Georgetown is now in last place in the Big East National division with eight conference games remaining.
Against Rutgers on Friday, five days after a frustrating 1-0 loss to James Madison, Georgetown came out flat and never even threatened to score.
“I’m flabbergasted on how we came out to play today,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “We were so good against JMU even though we lost. We were into it, winning balls, making opportunities. The players let themselves down today; they let me down; they let the University down today.”
The Hoyas looked sluggish from the get-go. They never controlled play as Rutgers established dominance in the midfield and directed its attack at will. Meanwhile, Georgetown struggled to establish any offense from the chances it had.
At 8:21, Rutgers freshman forward Karla Schacher, playing two weeks after suffering a concussion, took a pass from freshman forward Jennifer Anzivino and seemingly walked through Georgetown’s defense for an easy goal.
“We were in slow motion. I don’t know what was going on,” junior defender Karen Waskewich said. “It was a lack of focus. I don’t think we came out hard enough. They were working harder than we were.”
After a sloppy restart by Georgetown, Rutgers again found itself confident and in possession of the ball.
And then, it was deja vu all over again for the Hoyas: Schacher to Anzivino. While the two have not played with each other much this year, they had no trouble marching up the left side of Georgetown’s box and running the same play for another easy goal while the Hoya defense was unable to do anything but watch.
“It started with our midfield. When our midfield wins its areas of the field, we win games,” Rutgers Head Coach Glen Crooks said.
The duo that supplied both Scarlet Knights goals made the scoring look easy.
“Jen and Karla, they haven’t worked together very much because Jen was a midfielder until a few weeks ago,” Crooks said. However, both have looked good together. They have three goals each this year.
On Sunday, Georgetown faced what Nolan characterized as a “must-win game,” saying, “Against Rutgers at home, we’d like to have the game but we need to beat Seton Hall or go down 0-3 in the conference.”
The game was also a must-win for Seton Hall, which entered the game with a 0-2 record in Big East play.
The Hoya defense shut down the Pirates for most of the afternoon, but the Pirates still found a way to score.
After a corner kick, freshman midfielder Kaitlyn Rogers took a floating pass from junior midfielder Jen Michewicz inside the Georgetown box and headed the ball into the back of the net with 90 seconds left in the first half.
“That was the only way they we’re going to score,” Nolan said, “and I feel like once we go down 1-0, we have a hard time getting back.”
Like their contest against James Madison, the Hoyas had a plethora of scoring opportunities, some inside the Pirate box, but were never able to close the deal. The Hoyas have not scored since September 15 th against American, a span of 360 minutes of game-time but not for lack of opportunities.
“Right now, we’re hoping shots go in instead of [our] forcing them in,” Nolan said. “We’re not taking chances and we’re not getting too many breaks. Yesterday [against Seton Hall] we had a lot of balls in front of goal and invariably it seemed to end up in their goalkeeper’s hands.”
Seton Hall sophomore keeper Amanda Becker recorded eight saves to Higgins’ four.
Georgetown has an uphill battle to work its way into the Big East tournament now that it stands dead last in its division. Nolan still believes that five conference wins will guarantee a tournament berth, but those wins must come against Providence, No. 15 Connecticut, Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburgh, No. 6 West Virginia, DePaul and No.1 Notre Dame – teams with a combined 47-17-11 record this season.
“If we can beat Providence on Friday, I think we have a chance against Connecticut at home,” Nolan said, “But another heartbreaking loss may be too tough to recover from.”
Georgetown plays host to Providence at 3 p.m. on Friday and Connecticut at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Both games are at North Kehoe Field.