After a disappointing 2003 season, the Georgetown women’s soccer team has already gotten off on the right foot in 2004. Two games into the new season the Hoyas are undefeated, taking down both Howard and Bucknell by large margins.
Opening the season against cross-town rival Howard University , Georgetown demonstrated an ability to finish that was lacking for most of last year with a 7-1 win. The team got off to a slow start, scoring only twice in the first half and keeping the Bison in the match, but the Hoyas came together in the second to score five goals and seal the victory. Five different players scored for the Hoyas and the team remained composed despite physical play.
In the next match, an away game at Bucknell, the Hoyas again played a physical contest and came out on top, 4-0. Georgetown dominated the play in the game, attempting 17 shots to Bucknell’s seven, and the players continued to work well together as four different players each got on the board. Freshman goalkeeper Jade Higgins got her first shutout as a Hoya, making three saves.
“The game was not as easy as the score suggests,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “There are no easy road games, but the girls, with a great effort, put together two strong halves.”
Nolan, in his first year as head coach after taking over for Diane Drake, is already pleased with how this year’s team is coming together.
“This is a growing time for us,” he said. “Every day, on the playing field and the practice field, we get better.”
The 2004 squad is a young team, with five freshmen as regular starters, but it will be the three senior captains who carry the team this fall.
Seniors forward Casey McCann, midfielder Nicole DePalma and defender Elizabeth Roberti will all play in the center of the field, making up the “spine of the team” and setting the tone for the year. Both on and off the field, the captains are expected to lead the team and Nolan feels these girls “have the experience to pull the rest of the team.”
Other Hoyas to watch are junior forward Shara McNeil, last year’s points leader and a second team all-Big East player, and junior midfielder Chrissy Skogen, who was third on the team in scoring in 2003.
Last year the Hoyas went 7-11-1 (0-6 Big East) and failed to qualify for the conference tournament. Entering this season, the Hoyas were ranked ninth in the Big East, an improvement over last year’s 14th-place finish. Georgetown , however, will have to better than ninth place to make postseason play. For the first time since 1998, the Big East will play as one division, so only the top eight teams in the conference will qualify for a tournament berth.
Georgetown will continue its climb back toward the Big East tournament this afternoon with a game against Dartmouth at 2:30 p.m. on North Kehoe in the opening game of the Hoya Classic. It will be Dartmouth ‘s first game of the season.
“We are hoping to sneak up on them,” Nolan said. “This game will be a good gauge on where to go the rest of the year.”
