Five days after upsetting No. 24 Georgetown, Marquette women’s lacrosse suffered a season-ending 17-10 loss in a rematch with the Hoyas Thursday night.
“Today they came out with a little bit more fight than they came out in the first game, and we weren’t quite ready for it,” head coach Meredith Black said. “I don’t think we came out as hard in the first half as we should have.”
The Golden Eagles were the higher seed entering the BIG EAST semifinals Thursday, but Georgetown captured a 6-2 lead fewer than 13 minutes into the game. That included four goals from senior attacker Taylor Gebhardt.
“(Gebhardt’s) shifty,” Horning said. “She just was getting open for them and we didn’t respond as fast as maybe we should have. But a lot of credit goes to her, she’s a great attack.”
The Hoyas ended the first half with a 12-4 lead. Two of Marquette’s four goals came from senior midfielder Grace Gabriel.
Horning said Black told the team at halftime to just keep fighting despite the large deficit.
“We have to chip away one by one,” Black said. “Just a few mistakes there in the second half at key moments when we could’ve maybe gotten a goal and at least given us a little momentum. We never gained enough momentum to keep it rolling.”
Senior Lindsey Willcocks opened the second half with a goal 39 seconds into the second half, and the Golden Eagles outscored the Hoyas 6-5 in the second half. However, it was not enough to overcome Georgetown’s big lead.
Gabriel had a team-high eight draw controls, but Georgetown had a 17-13 advantage in draw controls.
“We worked all week on it but they just battled well,” Black said. “We’re actually really good in draws. Normally, we beat most teams. This team, for whatever reason, it was hard.”
BIG EAST Co-Midfielder of the Year Francesca Whitehurst led the Hoyas with six goals on nine shots, five draw controls and two assists. Gebhardt pitched in four goals on five shots. Georgetown goalie Haelle Chomo played all 60 minutes and totaled seven saves.
Meanwhile, Marquette’s senior class scored all 10 of Marquette’s goals. Gabriel, Willcocks and graduate student Charlotte McGuire all finished with hat tricks. Gabriel also had a game-high eight draw controls. Fellow senior Cate Soccodato tallied one goal and one assist.
“(The seniors) really changed our program,” Black said. “They did things that no other class was able to do. I’m going to miss them and everything that they bring, leadership and skills (in) lacrosse and stats.”
In the goal, Horning finished with a 0.370 save percentage.
“It’s just frustrating to see,” Horning said. “Obviously it’s not the result we wanted. It’s a tough way to end the season like this.”
Marquette (9-9, 3-2 BIG EAST) possibly had its best season in program history with a No. 2 seed in the BIG EAST Championships.
“I’m not going to be satisfied until we’re winning a national championship,” Black said. “We had some really great moments. We fought. We battled. … I love a lot of things we did, but I think there’s a lot of things we can get better on.”
