Georgetown’s women’s soccer team assured themselves a bye in the first round of the Big East Tournament over the past weekend. The Hoyas (12-3-2, 6-2-1 Big East) shut out Pittsburgh 3-0 on Friday, and defeated West Virginia on Sunday’s Senior Day game.
The Hoyas honored the winningest class in team history before the 2-1 Hoya victory. The three seniors, defenders Erika Roberts and Norah Swanson and forward Toni Marie Hudson, have all been essential in the improvement of the program over the last four seasons, helping lead the team to its first-ever NCAA tournament in 2007.
“All three of them have helped improve the attitude and work ethic in the program, which has helped us win,” head coach Dave Nolan said.
Swanson said that Senior Day was a career highlight.
“We were able to beat West Virginia for the first time in our four years,” she said. “It was such a beautiful day and it couldn’t have been better.”
All three seniors have found that the team’s chemistry has improved over their tenure here. One of Roberts’s favorite moments with her teammates actually came off the field, when the team broke into an impromptu rendition of The Fray’s “You Found Me” during a summer road trip.
Of course plenty of on-field memories loom large in the seniors’ minds, particularly the NCAA tournament trip in 2007.
“They had cameras on us, and we were one of the last four teams to be announced,” Hudson said of the Hoyas’ tournament selection. “We all went nuts.”
The Hoyas’ tournament, however, ended in a first-round exit. This year, the seniors are hoping for another chance to advance to the next round.
Georgetown is currently third in the Big East with a chance to eclipse Rutgers and move into second over the weekend. The Hoyas finish their season by traveling to DePaul on Friday and conference-leading Notre Dame on Sunday. Regardless of this weekend’s results, the team is guaranteed at least a third place finish.
After a slow 2-2-1 Big East start, the Hoyas are currently on a four game win streak that secured the first round bye in the conference tournament.
“We want to finish second in our division, but we’re going to need Rutgers to slip up, and then we’re going to need to win over the weekend,” Nolan said.
The Hoyas are more likely to get a result out of the Blue Demons, who enter their match with a 4-5 Big East record. The Fighting Irish, on the other hand, are ranked seventh in the country and have yet to lose in conference.
If the Hoyas hope to make it through the Big East and deep into the NCAA tournament, it will need to show it can handle teams like Notre Dame. That will be a challenge, but Georgetown’s senior leadership thinks the team is prepared.
“We’ve raised the standards so that every year we expect more, and every year we’ve been able to deliver more,” Swanson said.
