Photo by Jackson Perry
In any sport, it is always better to finish strong than to start strong. For the Georgetown women’s soccer team, the question is, can you do both? Thanks to a potent offense, the Hoyas (8-3-2, 2-2-1 Big East) had an impressive start to the season, but in the rough and tumble Big East, that only gets you so far. Currently, the team is tied for sixth overall in the conference and tied for third in their division. With six games left in the regular season, the Hoyas have some serious work to do.
With their eyes on the Big East tournament, the women must rediscover their scoring touch, which has carried them most of the season, but has seemed to disappear in the last few games.
“We were scoring lots of goals earlier this season, and the unfortunate nature of conference play is, [that] it gets harder,” head coach Dave Nolan said. “And you can see in our conference games, pretty much every game is a one-goal game, and pretty much every game is a low scoring game.”
Nolan has become known for a high-powered offense in his six seasons on the Hilltop. This year, the offense, which has averaged a league best 2.62 goals per game, has been led by redshirt sophomore Ingrid Wells, sophomore Camille Trujillo, and graduate student Sara Jordan.
Coming in at a modest 5-foot-2, Wells has given Nolan’s squad a huge offensive boost after spending last season playing on the U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team, which she helped lead to the 2008 Under-20 Women’s World Cup.
“From the [national team], I’ve matured as a player, and played at a really high level that is more fast-paced,” Wells said.
Adding to the youthful offensive punch is Trujillo, who played in every game of her freshman season and has continued her success this season with six goals and four assists. Rounding out the trio is Jordan, who has an extra year of eligibility because of a season ending injury sustained in 2006. Jordan is having her best season yet, not only showing strong leadership, but also adding sixteen points, enough to make her Georgetown’s all-time leading scorer.
The Hoyas have all the pieces in place to make the late-season charge essential to play deep into the Big East and NCAA tournaments.
“With six games to go in the regular season, I feel we’ve got to win at least four of these six, hopefully five to put ourselves in a position to do what we want to do,” Nolan said.
The offense will be the key for Georgetown to be victorious. They will need to capitalize on their opportunities, no matter how rare.
“We need to finish some of our chances better and keep creating [scoring opportunities],” Wells said.
The Hoyas will need as many opportunities as they can get as they face two more Big East opponents this weekend. Georgetown faces Louisville on Friday at 3 p.m. and Cincinnati on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games are at North Kehoe Field.
