March 27, 2009
Box Score
South Bend, Ind. - Staring at a three-goal deficit at the break, the Georgetown University women's lacrosse squad put together an amazing second half, opening with a 6-0 run, to come back and get the, 14-12, victory over the No. 8/6 University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish (8-2, 1-1)) Friday evening. The No. 5/4 Hoyas are now 6-2 on the season and 1-0 in conference play after picking up their first BIG EAST victory.
"It was a BIG EAST game so I knew we wouldn't give up after the slow start," said Head Coach Ricky Fried. "This team has a lot of character and they enjoy playing together, they rallied around each other. I knew we would come out strong in the second half, I wasn't sure if we would win, but I knew we would fight to the end and we did a very good job of that."
The squads traded goals early on as Molly Ford (Reisterstown, Md./Notre Dame Prep) and Sarah Seats (Baltimore, Md./St. Paul's School) both hit before Ashby Kaestner (Trappe, Md./Saints Peter and Paul) scored a pair back-to-back tying it at four.
Unfortunately in the final 12 minutes of the half, the Fighting Irish rattled off four goals and Jordy Kirr (Baltimore, Md./Bryn Mawr School) could only contribute one making it 8-5 at the break.
Seats opened the second half off of an unassisted tally that she created by dodging a pair of defenders. Ford made it a one-goal game hitting an unbelievable shot after seeing a small opening to make the score 8-7. After a big save by Caitlin Formby (Towson, Md./Notre Dame Prep), the team worked the ball down the field as Jacqueline Giles (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) hit a shot from the middle to tie it up.
The Irish called a timeout to regroup but it was no use as Ford added another for the go-ahead score to take GU's first lead of the evening. Giles took advantage of two more offensive opportunities and found the back of the net twice as the Hoyas had momentum and possession.
Notre Dame ended the run at 16:05 scooping up a rebound for the put-back, but Kaestner came right back to score after Kirr stripped one of the Fighting Irish at midfield and then added one of her own minutes later.
At 6:07, a low shot got past Formby but once again the Hoyas answered on the other end when Giles hit an eight-meter attempt. UND added two more to make it interesting but the effort came up short as Georgetown won, 14-12.
"The biggest problem in the first was that we weren't executing fundamentals," said Fried. "In the second we caught, passed better and took care of the ball. We were a few steps slow in the first half but our pace running people in and our really began to wear on them (Notre Dame) in the second and we took advantage of offensive opportunities."
Giles led the Hoyas with four goals while Ford and Kaestner each had three. Statistically, it was Notre Dame that held the advantage in shots (33-28), ground balls (16-11) and draw controls (17-11) but it was GU that managed the victory with 10 of 14 draw controls in the second half to control the tempo. Formby had 11 saves in the game including six in the second and got the win in goal.
"Caitlin got off to a slow start when they hit a few low angle goals, at one point in the first we even took her out. In the second, she saw ball really well and came up with some big saves early on which helped everyone's confidence," said Fried.
The victory snapped a seven-game win streak for the Fighting Irish and also marked the second time in two seasons that GU has come back from a big deficit at Notre Dame. Last season in the BIG EAST Tournament, the Hoyas were down by six early on but battled back through four overtimes for the win.
Georgetown will finish off its four-game road trip with a BIG EAST contest at Rutgers on Sunday. The opening draw is scheduled for 2 p.m., live stats will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.
