Coming off a morale-boosting win last week against St. Louis University, the Georgetown field hockey team (2-5) faced Providence (4-2) this Friday in its first Big East matchup. Despite defeating the Friars last year in an overtime contest, the Hoyas fell behind in the first half, when Providence scored two goals within only a few minutes of each other. Georgetown was able to put one goal into the net just before the half ended, but it was quickly matched by an early second half goal. Minutes later, Providence scored again to give them a substantial 4-1 lead. The final attack at the end of the game was not enough to bring the Hoyas back, as senior midfielder Katy Wingo was able to score off a penalty just before time was called.
This past Sunday against Lehigh, the Hoyas fell behind by two goals in the first half. Leihigh went up 3-1 with 28 minutes left, but Georgetown battled back by scoring another goal with ten minutes to play. The effort proved not to be enough, though, as the squad was unable to tie the score as time ran out. Despite taking 19 shots to Lehigh’s eight, the Hoyas could not consistently find the back of the net.
These results are a disappointing step, as the team was riding the high from their road win in St. Louis. One of the main concerns going into these games was the amount of corners given up in the second half. The team’s defense performed well on avoiding the penalties early in most of their games, but when they came out for the second half the number of corners jumped.
“It’s been one of our key focuses for our defensive unit. Obviously we need to protect the circle because those set pieces are opportunities where we’re giving them numbers and situations to score, and knowing that we are going into our Big East that’s never become more crucial,” said Head Coach Tiffany Williams.
As for the offensive half, things seemed to be looking up after the game against St. Louis, with the Hoyas’ four goals scored by three different teammates. The team performed well, with some extra motivation provided by Coach Williams–she said their goal was to score within the first five minutes, and they did just that. Senior forward Catherine Shugrue scored twice with an assist against St. Louis and believed the team’s overall offensive performance was promising but could use work going into Big East play.
“I think that we just need to work on our off-ball movement and creating our cuts at the right time and coming back at the right time to help the defense,” Shugrue said. “But I think we did well on Sunday and hopefully we’ll just keep going up from there.”
