Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya Junior attack Catherine Elbe tracks down a groundball. She had two goals during the Hoyas’ 4-0 run in the second half that clinched the victory over the Terps.
The Georgetown women’s lacrosse team upset No. 3 University of Maryland Sunday afternoon, 14-10, to advance to the NCAA final four for the third time in four years.
The Hoyas (13-4) defeated the Terrapins (15-5) with well-rounded play, including goals from nine different players and strong defense all over the field.
“Obviously, it was an unbelievable team effort, it just seemed seamless today in terms of one player to the next and everyone doing their job,” Georgetown Head Coach Kim Simons said. “At those critical points . when we needed to come together and move forward and take control of the game, we did that, and that was the difference.”
The Hoyas were led on offense by freshman attack Coco Stanwick, who had a hat trick on the afternoon. Junior midfielders Lauryn Bernier and Allison Chambers and junior attack Catherine Elbe each had two goals for Georgetown, and senior midfielders Michi Ellers, Gloria Lozano and Anouk Peters, junior attack Sarah Oliphant and sophomore attack Lucy Poole each added one tally.
On the defensive end, Georgetown overcame Maryland advantages in draw controls and shots by capitalizing on both turnovers and fouls. The Hoyas converted on two of their four free-position shots and both of Oliphant’s caused turnovers led to Georgetown goals.
“Our defense was incredible all over the field and that’s one of the things we focused on,” Simons said. “We tried to do our best to play great team defense to make it tough for them.”
Maryland has always been a difficult opponent for Georgetown – coming into Sunday’s match the Hoyas were 1-13 all-time against the Terps, including a 13-8 loss earlier in the season.
According to Ellers, the Hoyas had let that history intimidate them in the past, but that was not the case on Sunday.
“I think the first time we played against Maryland, we put a lot of pressure on [ourselves] because we knew didn’t have a good history going into it,” she said. “This game, it was more about us and we really didn’t care who we were playing, we just went out there and played and [saw] what we could do.”
The Hoyas got on the board first with a goal by Bernier from Oliphant less than four minutes into the contest. The lead did not last for long, though, as the Terps responded with two goals in less than two minutes.
Georgetown came back to tie the game at two with a goal by Ellers and for the rest of the half the teams kept the contest close. The two teams were never separated by more than two goals and heading into halftime the Hoyas held a slim one-goal lead, 6-5.
Coming out of halftime, the Terps were prepared – on the opening draw Maryland junior attacker Jessica Dorney took the ball and 32 seconds later the game was tied again on a goal by freshman Terp attack Brooke Richards at six-all.
Georgetown did not let the tie stand for long though. Less than two minutes later, Stanwick scored her third goal of the day on a free-position shot and from there the Hoyas never looked back. The Terps cut the lead to one with just over 25 minutes left, but the Hoyas scored four unanswered goals and put up a tough defensive stand over the next 17 minutes to seal the game.
Overall, the Terps outshot the Hoyas, 38-28, and won 19 of 26 draws. Maryland was plagued by fouls, however, committing 18 to Georgetown’s nine, 14 of which came in the second half. Hoya junior goaltkeeper Sarah Robinson made 14 saves and Terp junior goalie Kirah Miles had only seven, another important factor in Georgetown’s win.
The Hoyas will need another strong overall team performance in tonight’s national semifinals against No. 2 University of Virginia if they hope to advance to the championship game.
The Cavaliers eliminated the Hoyas from the tournament last year in the second round.
Virginia (17-3) defeated Northwestern University, 15-11, Sunday afternoon in Charlottesville, Va., to advance to the semifinals. It was the seventh consecutive win for the Atlantic Coast Conference champion Cavaliers. Last year Virginia fell to Princeton, 8-7, in overtime in the national championship game.
Princeton and Vanderbilt round out the final four teams and will also face each other on Friday night in Princeton. The national championship game will be held on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Princeton.
