The Georgetown women’s Soccer team (5-4-0, Big East) travels to face the Providence Friars (7-3-0, Big East) this Sunday afternoon at 1:00pm, marking the start of Big East play for both programs.
The Friars are fresh off of a 1-0 match over the Harvard Crimson (2-6-1, Ivy League). Freshman forward Casey Estey scored the lone goal in the 48th minute for Providence, who are lead by junior Rachel Ugolik, who has a team-high 4 goals.
The Hoyas are coming off of a road trip that saw them fall to UCF (6-2-1, 1-0-0 AAC) 3-1 on Friday before bouncing back with a 4-0 win over Stetson (5-4-0, Atlantic Sun). Sophomore midfielder Rachel Corboz starred on the trip, scoring a goal and tallying an assist in the win over Stetson. However, the team’s performance was unsatisfactory in her eyes.
“I think our problem against UCF was going into the game no one really had that much energy,” said Corboz. “Just before games, (we need to) make sure we’re all motivated and energized, coming out confident, ready to take on any team.”
Getting motivated should not be difficult for Sunday’s matchup, as the Friars will be the first test in a string of Big East opponents that will stand in the way of the Hoyas and a strong placement in the conference tournament. This is a goal of the team’s and particular point of emphasis from Georgetown Head Coach Dave Nolan.
“In the conference, every game means something, and if you don’t take every game and play it as a six-pointer, you’re going to end up on the outside looking in,” Nolan said. “We’ve given ourselves a target for what we need to do in the conference, which is to finish in the top two, which gives us a bye in the first round, and that’s something we’ve managed to do successfully in the past. We’re probably going to have to win seven of our last nine conference games.”
In particular, the Hoyas will need to show the “sense of urgency” that has been lacking in the first half of games, relative to their performance in the latter 45 minutes. Georgetown has scored 12 goals in the second half compared to just five in the first half, earned 16 more corners in the second half than in the first half, and taken 23 more shots on goal in the second half than in the first half. While the Hoyas have shown glimpses of brilliance in stretches, Nolan thinks that his team needs to fall on more stable ground to truly reach its potential.
“This team, to this point, the one thing that jumps out to me the most is how inconsistent we can be,” said Nolan. “We have the ability to be really, really good, and we’ve shown that in games this year.”
However, the benefit of a rugged non-conference slate isn’t lost on Corboz. The rough patches the Hoyas have gone through so far may just be stepping stones to something bigger, according to her.
“We obviously had a really tough non-conference schedule, had some tough losses, but I think it’s important for us to have those types of games so we’re ready for Big East conference play,” said Corboz. “I think we definitely learned a lot from these past games, and it’ll really help us for the conference games coming up.”
