Marquette women’s soccer, just one point shy of sixth place in the Big East, was facing first-place Georgetown in pursuit of a spot in the conference tournament.
However, the Hoyas (9-1-7, 5-0-4 Big East), who have not lost a game since Sept. 14, scored five second half goals, downing the Golden Eagles (5-8-4, 2-4-2 Big East) 5-0 Thursday night at Valley Fields.
“We played one of the best teams in the conference and in the country,” Marquette head coach Frank Pelaez said. “They showed it in the second half. We had a couple opportunities in the first half that we could have capitalized, and we didn’t. You just wake up a sleeping monster.”
Marquette has now lost nine-straight matches against Georgetown and is tied with Butler for eighth place in the conference standings.
The Hoyas pile on
55 minutes into the match, neither team had managed to find the back of the net.
Just 11 minutes later, Georgetown had a four-goal lead.
In the 56th minute, a set piece made its way to junior forward Maja Lardner, who fired it into the top right corner for her second goal of the season.
MAJA LARDNER!!! 💥 Hoyas lead 1-0!#HoyaSaxa pic.twitter.com/Q6e7Xh4mrU
— Georgetown Women’s Soccer (@HoyasWSoc) October 20, 2023
The Hoyas’ offense pressed on, piling on three more goals by three different players — senior midfielder Tatum Lenain, graduate student forward Allie Winstanley and junior midfielder Eliza Turner — in the following seven minutes.
Georgetown added another goal in the 82nd minute when sophomore midfielder Shay Montgomery controlled a deflected ball in the box and slipped it into the bottom right corner for her first goal of the year.
Shay Montgomery joins the party and makes it FIVE 🖐️ for the Hoyas!!#HoyaSaxa pic.twitter.com/uybMdG1qmn
— Georgetown Women’s Soccer (@HoyasWSoc) October 20, 2023
Marquette could not overcome the five-goal deficit, suffering its eighth loss and marking its largest margin of defeat this season.
Statistical leaders
Senior midfielder Hailey Block led the way for Marquette, recording four of its five shots. Senior goalkeeper Mikki Easter tallied four saves on the night.
For Georgetown, Winstanley earned an assist along with her goal and graduate student goalkeeper Allie Augur recorded three saves.
The Hoyas outshot the Golden Eagles 19-5, putting nine of those shots on target.
Scoreless after 45 minutes
As it has been throughout most of this season, Marquette’s offense could not find a way to score in the first half.
Despite outshooting the Golden Eagles 8-3, the Hoyas also could not find the back of the net.
Georgetown’s first shot came in the sixth minute when Tippins dribbled into the box and fired the ball right at Easter, who promptly caught it and ended the attack.
Seven minutes later, Block found herself with the ball just outside the box and rifled one towards the goal, but Augur was right there to save Marquette’s first shot of the night.
This marked the 13th time this season that the Golden Eagles have gone into halftime without a goal to their name.
Next up
Marquette will play St. John’s Sunday at 1 p.m. CST in its final home game of the regular season.
“I look at it as a learning experience and that’s what I told them,” Pelaez said. “We take this game, we learn, we move on and we have another one on Sunday.”
This story was written by Kaylynn Wright. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @KaylynnWrightMU.
