The Georgetown women’s soccer team’s season came to an end on Sunday after a 6-0 loss to Notre Dame in the second round of the Big East Championship in South Bend, Ind. The loss came after a 1-0 victory over Syracuse in the first round last Thursday.
The loss ended the most successful year in Georgetown history in which the Hoyas won 12 games, a single-season record.
“We let a couple of games go early in the season, a home loss to Pittsburgh and a road loss to DePaul,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “If we had gotten at least one point out of those games we could have been on the other side taking on UConn or West Virginia and improved our chances. Also the amount of travel caught up to us.”
The Hoyas traveled from South Bend to Syracuse and then back to South Bend in a one week span.
Reaping revenge for their Oct. 2 loss in double overtime, the Hoyas handed the Orange (4-12-4 overall, 3-5-3 BE) their season-ending shutout loss at Syracuse. Syracuse and Georgetown played evenly except for the lone Georgetown goal at 37:02 from sophomore forward Elaina Filauro.
Georgetown finished the game with eight shots on goal, holding the Orange to just seven. Sophomore goalkeeper Jade Higgins had three saves for the Hoyas and senior forward Shara McNeill led Georgetown with three shots.
The Hoyas then traveled to the midwest on Sunday to take on the Fighting Irish (17-2-0 overall, 10-1-0 BE), looking for retribution for Notre Dame’s 6-1 win over the Hoyas on Oct. 23. The Irish seized control of the game in only the 10th minute, when first-year forward Kerri Hanks got one past Higgins to put Notre Dame up 1-0.
In the 22nd minute, junior midfielder Jen Buczkowski scored from the left side adding to the lead. In the second half, sophomore midfielder Ashley Jones continued the Notre Dame attack, scoring the third goal in the 54th minute. Hanks and senior forward Katie Thorlakson had back-to-back goals in the 67th and 68th minutes, leaving first-year midfielder Beth Koloup to finish the rout with a sixth and final goal in the 87th minute.
Notre Dame outplayed Georgetown in every category, posting fifteen shots on goal compared to only one for Georgetown. The Hoyas had no corner kicks while the Irish had five, and they posted only two shots compared to twenty-nine for Notre Dame.
“It was a disappointing way to end the season but we did everything we could in that game,” Nolan said. “We were clearly outmatched. Notre Dame has two players from the Canadian national team … and has the most explosive forward line-up in the nation and they are the defending national champions. They put the beating they put on us on everyone.”
Despite the tough loss to end the season, the Hoyas won 12 games, a single-season record, and achieved many other objectives this season.
“Our goal is to improve every season and this season we had the most amounts of wins, most amount of shut-outs,” Nolan said. “We were ranked No. 5 regionally at one point, our highest yet. We had an eight-game win streak this season, the most we’ve had; we had some really good things happen this season.”
The Hoyas will have a good chance to build on this year’s success next fall. Going into next season Georgetown will lose only three graduating seniors?defender Ashley Darcy, midfielder Alexandra Hardy and McNeill?and maintain the bulk of their starting squad.
“In college everyone loses players every year, we just look forward to improving next season,” Nolan said.
