GU Falls To ‘Nova

With only two divisional games left in the season and playoff berths on the line, the Georgetown women’s soccer team had a great opportunity to reserve a postseason ticket in Wednesday’s game against a mediocre 7-7 Villanova. However, the lost 3-0, and must wait until their Oct. 25 game against division rival West Virginia to determine their future.

Last weekend, Georgetown split two Big East division games. The Hoyas slugged out a 2-1 victory over Pittsburgh and were defeated by No. 1 ranked Notre Dame, 8-0. As a result, Georgetown had control over its postseason destiny going into the Villanova game. Before Wednesday’s loss the Hoyas were in good position to claim the second Mid-Atlantic Division seed for the Big East Championship tournament, meaning the Hoyas would get to play at least their first tournament game at home. But Villanova shut out Georgetown, which is now 7-6-2 overall and 2-2-1 in the Big East.

According to Head Coach Diane Drake, the Hoyas will need no less than three division wins if they want to make it to the tournament. After defeating Seton Hall and Pittsburgh, the Hoyas stand only a win away from that goal.

The Wildcats got the only goal they needed 12:16 into the first half from Jessica Painchaud. They tacked on two more goals from Kristin Dunst in the second half at the 54:33 and 65:48 marks. The Hoyas outshot the Wildcats, 10-7, but it was Villanova that proved able to connect. Junior goalkeeper Shereena Chang had four saves in the losing cause.

After last Friday’s disheartening loss to the Fighting Irish, the Hoyas looked to take out its anger on Mid-Atlantic cellar dweller Pittsburgh on Sunday. However, Georgetown came out sluggish in its last home game of the season against the inexperienced Pittsburgh team, whose overall record was only 4-9 going into the game.

“I really thought they’d be pumped up and ready to go,” Drake said. “But everyone, in general, was really flat and we had to scrape to win.”

The Hoyas capitalized first on freshman forward Jessie Beers-Altmann’s second goal of the season. Off a corner kick in the first half, Beers-Altmann cleaned up a missed header from junior forward Kelly Haden at the 37:30 mark.

At the 52:18 mark, the Panthers answered back with a breakaway goal from Laura Marsh. The Hoyas, who were not connecting well throughout the game, found their way out of trouble when a Pittsburgh defender took down senior midfielder Liz Delgado in the goal box. The Hoyas elected freshman midfielder Jen Choiniere to shoot the penalty kick, which she sent past the goalkeeper at the 64:15 mark.

“We found a way to win on Sunday,” Drake said. “It wasn’t the prettiest game, and I was really disappointed with the level of gameplay.”

Sunday’s poor performance was set up by an 8-0 drubbing by Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish, who came into the game on a 309-minute shutout streak, held the potent Hoya offense to just four shots.

Georgetown was looking to capitalize on the momentum from its dominant victories over UNC-Wilmington and Seton Hall two weekends ago, but Notre Dame zapped that opportunity with two quick scores from Amanda Guertin and Meotis Erikson in the first 12 minutes.

The Irish roamed freely around Georgetown senior goalkeeper Emily Main in the first half, firing 11 shots on goal. Notre Dame’s lead at halftime could have been larger, but Main made a couple of solid point-blank saves and two shots hit off the crossbar.

Unfortunately, the floodgates opened up in the second half, as porous defense and goalkeeping by the Hoyas led to six more Irish goals. Erikson added on two more goals to give her a four-goal game and Guertin put in another as well. Rounding out the scoring for Notre Dame were Kim Carpenter, Ali Lovelace and All-American Anne akinen, who also had three assists.

Having already eclipsed last season’s total goal mark, Georgetown sought to attack rather than make it a one-dimensional defensive game against the caliber of Notre Dame.

“We take a lot of pride in trying to get goals,” Drake said. “We were trying to score rather than bunkering down on defense like most teams.”

Drake treated the Notre Dame game as a learning experience for her team.

“We learned more in that one game than maybe all the games we’ve played this season,” she said.

The Hoyas will need to use all the knowledge they’ve obtained this season when they play today at 7 p.m. against No. 18 Connecticut.