After defeating Marquette (2-12) 13-7 in Milwaukee this past Friday, the No. 8 Georgetown women’s lacrosse team (9-3, 3-1 Big East) completed their Midwestern road trip in South Bend , Ind. on Sunday with a 13-12 loss at the hands of No. 6 Notre Dame (11-1, 5-1 Big East). Despite three goals by senior midfielder Sophia Thomas, as well as two apiece from senior midfielder Kelsi Bozel and junior midfielder Meghan Farrell, the Hoyas failed to complete a last-minute comeback.
With both teams entering the third quarter tied at 4, the Fighting Irish scored four unanswered goals to claim an 8-4 lead early in the quarter. The Hoyas replied with four unanswered goals of their own to tie the game at 8. Notre Dame, however, took control in the fourth quarter as they grabbed a 13-8 lead that the Hoyas couldn’t overcome.
Georgetown has struggled recently in matchups with Notre Dame; the loss marks their fourth loss in a row to the Fighting Irish, as well as the second consecutive game between the two teams with a 1-goal margin.
Head Coach Ricky Fried simply believed his team didn’t take advantage of its opportunities throughout the game.
“I don’t think it’s too much about Notre Dame,” Fried said. “One-goal games the last [two] years. I think it’s about what we’ve been doing this year. Frankly, I thought we outplayed them. If we outshoot them by 15 shots, we shouldn’t lose the game by a goal. It’s more discipline on our part and how we are finishing our plays across the board.”
Fried took some positives and negatives from the loss, which drops the Hoyas to fourth place in the Big East standings.
“I guess the biggest thing we are looking for is to be disciplined and hit the target,” he said. “I think we are doing a good job in aspects of our game but there’s other aspects that we aren’t doing enough and those are the things that are letting us down at the end of the day.”
When asked about how his team could improve on the Notre Dame game, Fried responded, “Shooting and turnovers.” The Hoyas struggled to find the back of the net despite outshooting the Fighting Irish 37-22 and went only 3-for-10 on free-position shots. What’s more, they also racked up 15 turnovers.
Because these frustrating stats prevented the Hoyas from taking advantage of a winnable game, Fried is emphasizing reducing turnovers and improving shot-selection in practice this week.
“We are tracking things a little bit better in practice about who’s turning the ball over and trying to make that a little more public to the team so that they are aware of it,” he said. “I don’t think in practice you are always aware of when you turn the ball over. For shooting we are emphasizing as much as we possibly can about what a quality shot is, and what we are expecting [them] to shoot.”
Georgetown will look to rebound from their most recent loss when they travel later this week up to Piscataway, N.J. on Friday to take on Rutgers (9-4, 1-3 Big East), and then travel south Radnor, Penn. to play Villanova (5-7, 0-4 Big East) on Sunday afternoon.
