The story of David and Goliath may be one of the few biblical tales as familiar to sports fans as it is to theologians. Underdogs like the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team or the 1985 Villanova basketball squad live on forever as giant-killers.
Despite the recent successes of Georgetown’s women’s lacrosse, they will definitely play the role of David this Saturday against Northwestern. In their past four seasons, Northwestern only suffered three losses and won four consecutive NCAA championships. In addition, the Wildcats have lost just two starters from last year’s team. Winning this weekend looks to be a tall order for the Hoyas. Nonetheless, the Hoyas are up to the challenge, according to Georgetown head coach Ricky Fried.
“It’s exciting to get the opportunity to play them again and to host such a well-known team on our field,” he said. “We need to go out with a positive attitude and believe that we can win.”
Last season, the Hoyas carried that same mentality. They gave the Wildcats all that they could handle, staging a furious comeback in the second half. But it was not enough, and the Hoyas came up short, losing 7-6.
“Last year was tough,” Fried said. “We were up on them, but Northwestern is a tough team and they found a way to win down the stretch. We had two late goals that gave us some momentum, but we just ran out of time.”
This year, however, the Hoyas plan to give the Wildcats a dose of their own medicine by adopting an aggressive playing style. They’ll need it against a squad led by Hannah Nielsen, the reigning national player of the year.
“Northwestern is an athletic, aggressive team with a lot of confidence,” Fried said. “Their MO is a high-pressure game and trying to get people to succumb to their will. Most people step back and react, but if you can make them react to you and get past the fact that they won a bunch of national championships, then we can be very successful.”
This sounds a lot like coach Herb Brook’s game plan when the U.S. hockey team was preparing to face the seemingly unbeatable Soviet hockey squad during the 1980 Winter Olympics. A U.S. win sent shockwaves through the world. On Saturday the Hoyas have their own chance to take down Goliath and shock the world.
Face-off is at 3 p.m. on Harbin Field.
