Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya Freshman attack Coco Stanwick and the Hoya offense came up short on Wednesday afternoon as the Hoyas fell to the Nittany Lions of Penn State in a surprising 10-7 upset.
Despite a career-high five goals from senior midfielder Anouk Peters, the Georgetown women’s lacrosse team picked up its third upset loss Wednesday, falling 10-7 to Pennsylvania State University. The Hoyas, ranked third in the nation going into Wednesday’s game, slipped to 9-3 overall with the loss to the No. 19 Nittany Lions.
The Hoyas scored first when senior midfielder Gloria Lozano found the back of the net just over a minute into the game. Up 1-0, the Georgetown offense struggled and stalled, taking more than 12 minutes to score for a second time. Finally, senior midfielder ichi Ellers found junior attack Allison Chambers in front of the net to give the Hoyas a 2-0 lead.
Just under midway through the first half, the Nittany Lions found themselves trailing 2-0 and took advantage of the sputtering Hoya offense. Only 30 seconds after Chambers’ goal, Penn State junior midfielder Kristen Burke tallied her first of three. Over the remaining 15:30, she scored her second and third without a Georgetown response. Her hat trick on consecutive goals gave Penn State a sudden 3-2 lead going into the break. Burke’s three-goal first half gave her team a lead it would not relinquish.
The Nittany Lions continued their scoring run when the second half opened. Senior attack Katie Jeschke put a free position shot past Georgetown junior goaltender Sarah Robinson just 50 seconds after play resumed. Sophomore midfielder Lori Havrilla, who also scored a hat trick for Penn State, tallied her first goal off the ensuing draw control, taking a 5-2 advantage.
Georgetown finally put its third goal on the board just 28 seconds later when Peters scored her first of five in the half. A couple of minutes later, Peters tallied her second to bring the Hoyas to within one goal, 5-4.
Havrilla answered for the Nittany Lions and senior midfielder Jamie Donahue followed with a goal of her own four and a half minutes later. Peters again responded for the Hoyas, putting in two more to bring the score to 7-5.
Two Penn State goals were followed by Peters’ final two goals, leaving Georgetown down 9-7. They were also the Hoyas’ final two goals of the game, while the Nittany Lions stalled for the next five minutes but were able to finish the game with a goal just 24 ticks from the end.
Statistically, the game’s result was no surprise. Georgetown was unable to open a large lead in any statistical category. The Hoyas only outshot the Nittany Lions 30-28, while Penn State won 11 draw controls to Georgetown’s 8. In fact, the Hoyas won only one draw in the entire first half – a stark contrast to last season, when Lozano led the nation by averaging 4.76 draw controls per game and recording a school record 81 over the course of the season. This season she has won only 38 draws, while the Hoyas as a team have slipped from 12.6 draws per game last season to 11.6 this season.
Robinson, who normally saves 59 percent of shots on goal, allowed all 10 goals while making only 10 saves this game.
The Georgetown Hoyas will look to recover from the disappointing upset loss when they head to Connecticut to take on their Big East foe, the Huskies. Last week Georgetown wrapped up its fourth consecutive Big East title with the win over Notre Dame. The Hoyas, perfect in the Big East at 5-0, will look to continue that streak and pick up their 10th victory of the season; the Huskies (7-8, 2-3 Big East) will attempt to reach the .500 mark in conference and overall. The two teams meet tomorrow at noon.
