The Georgetown women’s soccer team finished last season with its most conference wins in one season and an invitation to the Big East tournament for the fourth time in five years. Despite a tougher slate of opponents on this year’s schedule, the Hoyas are gearing up to build upon last year’s improvements.
The Hoyas lost five players from last season, three of them starters, but the team is bringing in eight new first-years. In contrast to years past, however, the team will not demand as much from their new players.
“Our freshmen can all play and they can all contribute and all help us,” said head coach Dave Nolan, “but in the past we have always have two or three freshmen who would come in and impact us … This is the first time in a long time where we haven’t really had to get a freshman and throw them into the deep end straightaway.”
The reduced reliance on incoming first-years is one of a few indications that the team has developed a new level of maturity and depth on the field.
The team returns three of their four starters from last year on defense. Senior captain Norah Swanson, along with junior Michaela Buonomo and sophomore Gabby Miller, will lead the Hoyas’ defense. The left back position, which is currently held by freshman Catherine Cabot, is the single uncertain area for the defense.
“[Left back] is probably an area that remains to be seen over the course of the season how we deal with that,” Nolan said, “but defensively, we are fine.”
On the opposite side of the pitch, the team’s offense is driven by multiple power forwards. Graduate student and captain Sara Jordan will return to the team after being sidelined by an injury early last season. She is joined by senior Toni Marie Hudson who, despite her own injury trouble, scored 10 goals last season, good for third in the Big East. Sophomore Samantha Baker, who led the Hoyas with 26 points last year, rounds out the offense.
Perhaps the Hoyas are strongest in the middle of the pitch, where redshirt sophomore Ingrid Wells returns after taking last season off to compete with the U.S. Under-20 National Team. Teaming up with Wells is sophomore Kelly D’Ambrisi. D’Ambrisi, who started every game for the Hoyas last season, earned Freshman All-American status. In addition to these two offense-oriented midfielders, junior Caitlin Durkee will continue at the defensive midfield position. Last year she led the team in assists with 10.
There is no question that the team’s quality displays the progress that the Georgetown women’s soccer program has made through the years.
“As a program we have been getting better, and better players have come along,” Wells said. “With that, a different attitude comes about as to how you carry yourself as a member of the team, how you go out each game, and what you expect from yourself and each other.”
With a strong team across the pitch and an attitude focused on success, it seems as though this year the Hoyas will be tough to stop; their schedule, however, will not allow them any slack.
“You look at our schedule and in the Big East we are going to get to play probably the four top teams,” Nolan said. “Then we throw a game in there against [James Madison] and Santa Clara in two we
eks. We will have a tough game up at UPenn and then there is Louisville and Villanova, who had somewhat of a down year last year, and will be looking to rebound. It will be difficult to have the same record as last year, but we are going to try.”
With one win under their belts against American last Saturday (2-0), however, the excitement is building.
“I already have the schedule set up in my room with the highlighted games that are big for me,” Wells said.
And despite the difficult schedule ahead, the girls remain confident.
“It is tough, with the schedule we have, to say that we want this many wins,” Swanson said. “But we have a really talented team and we have all the capabilities to do really well. It’s just a matter of, at the end of the day, we feel that we have lived up to that potential and given everything that we have.”
The Hoyas head to the D.C. Invitational at American University this weekend. Their first match of the tournament is Friday at 1 p.m. against Bryant University.
