The No. 3 Georgetown women’s lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday on North Kehoe Field as the visiting No. 4 Duke Blue Devils held on for a 14-11 victory. Senior attacker Wick Stanwick paced the Hoyas with four goals and an assist.
The Blue Devils wasted no time getting to work, scoring two quick goals in the game’s first four minutes. Sophomore midfielder Lauryn Bernier put the Hoyas on the board at the 21:25 mark, but Duke responded with two more goals to stretch their lead to 4-1.
“You never want to be playing from behind, but once you get there you’ve just got to keep thinking you can come back, ” said Stanwick.
After the two teams traded goals, Stanwick’s first tally of the day spurred a three-goal Hoya rally to close the deficit to 5-4. Duke, however, responded with three goals of their own to take an 8-4 lead into halftime.
Georgetown opened the second half with thoughts of a comeback as junior midfielder Anouk Peters found the back of the net just 29 seconds into the period. Duke responded with two goals of their own to open their largest lead of the game at 10-5. Not quick to roll over, the Hoyas responded by bulging the twine three times, including back-to-back goals from Bernier to close the gap to 10-8.
The Blue Devils proved to be too much, netting two goals to run their lead up to 12-8. A valiant effort from Stanwick, including three goals in a seven-minute span, closed the margin, but Duke would net the game’s final two goals to seal the victory.
“You’ve got to give them credit, they just went hard,” said Head Coach Kim Simons. “They made people kind of hesitate and second guess whether they could dodge [defenders].”
“They were very physical and aggressive. I don’t know if we were quite prepared for that type of game,” she said.
On Friday, the Hoyas have a rematch with No. 6 Princeton on the road. The last time the two teams met was in last year’s NCAA Championship game, where Princeton won, 12-7. The last time the Hoyas lost two games in a row was during the 2000 season, when they dropped consecutive games to, coincidentally, Princeton and Duke.
“You can’t put too much importance on [the game] because you can’t psyche yourself out,” said Stanwick. “You have to prepare for it because obviously, we can’t lose. We won’t lose.”
Following the loss to Duke, the team’s focus has shifted from game preparation to gaining the competitive edge as a team.
“Duke outcompeted us on Saturday, ” said Simons. “We’re good enough that if we compete hard, and we compete as a team, things fall for us. We need to compete and outwork Princeton.”
For Simons, the game is also a rematch with her alma mater and former coach. She was a three-time All-American at Princeton and captained the team to the 1994 NCAA championship. Simons, however, downplays her personal stake in Friday’s game.
“It doesn’t really enter my mind except that I know how good they are at preparing teams, ” said Simons. “They’re 3-3 right now, and I can’t remember the last time they had a losing record, so it’s not like they’re going to fold.”
“Obviously, whenever you lose in the national championship game, whether you’re a player or a coach, you do remember the team that handed it to you,” continued Simons. “I would be disappointed if our team didn’t have a little bit extra in the tank going into the game on Friday because of that.”
