Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Women’s Soccer Merited More Support, Publicity

By all accounts, this was a banner year for the Georgetown women’s soccer team. For only the second time in school history, the Hoyas qualified for the NCAA tournament. And once they made it, Georgetown advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time ever before losing 2-0 to Ohio State in the quarterfinals.

The players and coaches certainly have much to be proud of. Aside from their postseason accomplishments, the Blue and Gray also began the season 7-0 for the first time in program history, were ranked as high as No. 15 during the regular season and finished with 15 wins – a school record.

The enormity of these feats was not lost on the media. Two days after Georgetown’s dramatic upset win over No. 1 seed Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament, the Nov. 16 edition of Hoya Sports led with a jubilant picture of the squad celebrating its improbable victory in penalty kicks.

Ordinarily, this editorial choice would not be significant, except that it meant that the Georgetown men’s basketball team’s win over Tulane from the night before was relegated to a smaller story on the front page of the sports section beneath the soccer coverage. It isn’t too often that men’s basketball takes a backseat to any other sport at Georgetown, particularly the day after its home opener.

Beyond the Hilltop, even The New York Times was compelled to write about Georgetown women’s soccer. In a Nov. 26 article discussing the rise of women’s soccer at several schools, Georgetown was prominently featured as a school that invested in its program and is now seeing dividends.

Other than a story about men’s basketball or a 2007 feature done on the future of Georgetown football, how often has The Times covered Georgetown athletics?

Unfortunately, despite their on-field success and the media attention they have received, it still does not feel as though this historic season for the women’s soccer team has resonated with the Georgetown community.

Part of this is because the tournament games were played off campus, they were not televised, and the quarterfinal against the Buckeyes occurred during Thanksgiving break when students were more worried about turkey and travel.

But other, more systemic problems also contribute to the Hilltop’s lack of energy for sports other than men’s basketball.

The first issue surrounds the promotion of sports other than basketball. It must be said that the athletic department has done a better job this year of advertising upcoming games through sidewalk signs around campus. They’ve also made soccer matches more exciting by creating an intimidating student section behind the east goal of North Kehoe Field.

Even so, I think I have attended just two soccer matches in my time at Georgetown – both men’s – and it seemed there were few reminders about the women’s soccer team’s run over the past few weeks. Friendly emails promoting the games or announcing the results – particularly over Thanksgiving – would have been appreciated.

The second issue is that many Georgetown fans simply don’t care about anything but men’s basketball. Georgetown football’s homecoming victory in September over Holy Cross in front of a sellout crowd was enough of a reason to have hope that maybe the football program was turning a corner – and that maybe fans would be there to cheer them on. But as the rest of the football season demonstrated, students just don’t seem to care about anything not having to do with men’s basketball – especially when that team isn’t winning.

Finally, there is the nature of Georgetown, the institution. With so many different types of students (undergraduate, graduate, medical, et cetera) who have a wide variety of interests, it is very difficult to galvanize the diffuse university population behind a single, unifying theme. It seems, regrettably, that the only two things that have such an effect are men’s basketball games against the likes of Duke or Syracuse or an announcement that the university moved up in U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings. Based on these factors, it appears there is little any team could do on campus to win such support.

This lack of attention paid to the women’s soccer team’s accomplishments reminds me of a conversation I had with my brother, who is a sophomore at Villanova. Despite having a football program that won the Football Championship Subdivision last year, he said that students there just don’t care about how the football team does, as evidenced by rather paltry attendance figures. It seems at basketball schools that no other sport can come close to dethroning the king.

Congratulations to the women’s soccer team. They deserve all of the credit they have received. I’m sure they’d appreciate, though, if other students were there to join them in their celebration.

Nick Macri is a senior in the College. The Big Picture appears in every third issue of Hoya Sports. “

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