Both the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams stretched winning streaks over spring break and into this first week back. The women, now ranked no. 2 in the United States Women’s Lacrosse Association top-20, beat two conference foes and William & Mary, while the men defeated Cornell, Penn State and Delaware.
Behind strong offensive performances from junior attacker Sarah Oliphant, who has won two consecutive Big East offensive player of the week awards, the Hoyas have run over their early opponents. On Wednesday Georgetown demolished William & Mary 18-3, with four different Hoyas recording three-goal hat tricks. Oliphant and fellow junior attacker Catherine Elbe had three goals a piece, as did senior midfielders Anouk Peters and Gloria Lozano.
Both teams’ offenses seemed slowed by the bitter cold and sleet in the first half, as Georgetown went through a 13 minute scoreless drought after Lozano opened the scoring 3:30 into the game. Following a brief spurt the Hoyas entered the locker room with a 6-1 lead.
The lead would be expanded drastically shortly after the break. The William & Mary Tribe scored first less than a minute into the period, but the Hoyas responded with a decisive none goal run that put the game out of reach.
Junior goalie Sarah Robinson stopped 10 shots for the Hoyas and picked up two ground balls for Georgetown on runs out of the cage. The Hoya defense as a whole performed admirably, allowing only 19 shots in the game.
The blowout victory followed a steady break for the streaking Hoyas, now 4-0, as they opened their Big East schedule with wins on the road over Virginia Tech 16-7 and no. 8 Syracuse 10-5. Oliphant led the team in both contests, with four goals and two assists against the Hokies and four goals against the Orangewomen. Senior midfielder Michi Ellers provided consistent defense in stopping primary midfield threats from both opponents, earning her second Big East defensive player of the week award following the Virginia Tech game. Robinson also stopped eight key shots in the Syracuse game, which kept the Hoyas a perfect 7-0 in the all-time series against their rivals.
While the women’s team opened up the season on a tear, the men’s team had to erase the bitter taste of defeat that followed a season-opening 14-5 loss to no. 5 Maryland. Three wins have helped the team get back to their preseason United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association ranking of no.6, before the team’s 10-5 victory over the Deleware Blue Hens on Wednesday.
The Hoyas controlled the game from its outset, and kept the ball in their offensive zone throughout a majority of tboth halves. Senior Preseason All-American midfielder and Walid Hajj, who entered the game with a single goal, erupted for four goals. Deleware goalie Chris Collins made 18 impressive saves for the Blue Hens, but couldn’t stem the tide of shots from Georgetown, which also got a hat trick from senior co-captain and attackman Neal Goldman, who chipped in two assists as well to finish with five points.
Face off specialist Andy Corno also seemed to be back to his dominant self, winning 14-18 face offs in the game, a majority of which he won with clean draws at the whistle. Deleware attackman Matt Alrich paced the Blue Hens with three goals, but couldn’t combine with attackman Cam Howard for enough offense on the team’s limited offensive chances to keep them in the game. Howard, who did provide a number of agile dodges behind the cage, scored a goal and had two assists on four shots on goal.
The Hoyas got their first bounce after the Maryland loss by trouncing no. 10 Cornell 14-4 on March 6. Georgetown, determined to stem the tide from the earlier loss, erupted for five goals out of the gate and never looked back in an impressive performance. Corno won 15-22 face offs for the Hoyas and first-year midfielder Peter Cannon paced the team with three goals. Hajj also added an uncharacteristic three assists, and goldman added two goals and an assist.
Georgetown followed their first win of the season with a hard fought victory over a dangerous Penn State team 10-8. Hajj again led the way with surprising assists, tying his season total from last year by chipping in four assists. the Hoyas trailed the Nittany Lions 8-6 before a four goal spurt in the final ten minutes to take the key win. Junior long stick midfielder Brodie Merrill and first-year attackman Trevor Casey both earned Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Week awards, Merrill as defender of the week, and Casey as co-Rookie of the Week, for their performances against Cornell and Penn State.
