For the Georgetown women’s field hockey team and head coach Tiffany Hubbard, the 2013 campaign is a chance to improve upon a disappointing 2012 season that left a lot to be desired. The Hoyas finished a subpar 2-17, stumbling to a winless record in Big East Conference play and losing their final thirteen games. With ten players lost to graduation and only two seniors remaining on the roster, Hubbard will look to a core of young players to anchor the Blue and Gray.
“Obviously, we lost a lot of girls from last year and we have a pretty big freshman incoming group this year,” Hubbard said. “But the level at which all these girls came back to campus with is higher than it ever has been for our program… Overall, the main focus of the season is going to be focusing on us and taking our brand and style of hockey up week by week.”
Also, for Hubbard, while the team may look young on paper, she insists that they have experience far beyond their years.
“We have a lot of experience in those returners,” Hubbard explained. “Just with the talent level that the freshman came in at, I think we have a really good balance out on the field right now.“
Even with the strength of the team’s returners, a lot has to change for the Hoyas in order to find success. The team managed only 26 goals over the course of 19 games last season and allowed 84 total from their opponents. Also, the loss of Annie Wilson, a two-time Big East Second team member and the 2012 team leader in points, goals, and assists, to graduation, leaves a large hole for the Hoyas to fill.
With Wilson gone, Georgetown’s leading returning scorer will be sophomore midfielder Emily Weinberg. As a freshman, Weinberg netted two goals and started all but one of the team’s 19 games. Up front, sophomore Forward Sarah Butterfield, who scored one goal in her first college season, will look to contribute offensively as well.
Despite these challenges, Hubbard is excited about her team’s prospects, especially the unity they’ve showed in the season’s early stages.
“They’re very team-focused, and they’re very driven to make a name for our program,” Hubbard said. “Having a group of girls who will come to practice everyday, wanting to work hard and wanting to get better, it makes my job really easy. Practice is fun; they have a great attitude with everything. You don’t always get that from team to team.”
The first test for Georgetown will be this Friday against Davidson University. The Wildcats, who finished a pedestrian 9-13 last season, are a familiar opponent for the Hoyas. Last season, the Wildcats shut out Georgetown 4-0, capturing an early season contest that accounted for the first of the Hoyas’ 17 losses. This season, the Hoyas are prepared for a more even matchup.
“They always give us a tough game,” Hubbard said. “I mean we’ve went into overtime, we’ve went into strokes. … It’s one of those things we feel like we always come back and we lose by a goal. They play a physical and really fast game. …We really want to go in and, with the start the of the game, play our style and set a tone, and really try to start the season out with a win.”
Friday’s season opener for Georgetown will be held at their de facto home field at the University of Maryland’s field hockey complex. The scheduled start time is 1 p.m.
