The No. 22 Georgetown women’s soccer team (1-0, Big East) opened its season with a 1-0 win over Georgia (0-1, SEC) on Friday afternoon in Blacksburg, Virginia. Graduate student forward Kyra Carusa, who transfered to Georgetown from Stanford, scored the winner in the 14th minute off an assist from senior forward Amanda Carolan. The shutout is the 33rd in graduate student goalkeeper Arielle Schechtman’s Georgetown career, a program record.
The Bulldogs began the match with two shots in the first 10 minutes neither of which tested Schechtman in goal, and with the Hoyas’ first shot of the game in the 14th minute, Carusa struck on her debut. From there, the Hoyas built a rhythm, with senior forward Caitlin Farrell testing Georgia’s freshman goalkeeper Emory Wegener two minutes later. Sophomore midfielder Grace Nguyen forced another save from Wegener, but both teams cooled for most of the final twenty minutes of the first half. Schechtman made a save in the final seconds of the half to preserve the Georgetown lead, and the teams went into the break at 1-0.
After the slow start, Georgetown asserted its will on the match, outshooting the Bulldogs 7-4 and recording four corners to Georgia’s one. They picked up where they left off in the second half, applying pressure to Georgia’s defense and forcing Wegener into early saves. The Bulldogs couldn’t hit the target in the second half, and Georgetown had the best opportunity again to score when sophomore forward Jenna Menta hit the post in the 74th minute. Despite failing to extend their advantage, the Hoyas cruised to victory in the end, outshooting Georgia 16-6 and forcing Wegener into seven saves. Aside from Carusa, two freshmen made their Hoya debuts, forward Boo Jackson and defender Jenna Royson.
The Hoyas return to action on Sunday afternoon against Virginia Tech at 1:30 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on espn.com.
