WASHINGTON – The No. 20 Georgetown University women's lacrosse squad downed the Drexel University Dragons 16-5 Saturday afternoon at Cooper Field.  The Hoyas scored early and often to cruise to the victory and improve to 3-0 on the young season while Drexel dropped to 1-2 overall.
 
"Coming off of a big win over Towson, we had asked them to play to our standard every game and I think the team really took that to heart," said Georgetown Head Coach Ricky Fried.  "I thought we executed really well today starting with the draw controls."
 
Senior attacker Morgan Ryan (Maplewood, N.J. / Oak Knoll School) led the way with four goals, while classmate Taylor Gebhardt (Baldwinsville, N.Y. / C.W. Baker) managed the hat trick with a pair of assists for five points on the afternoon.  Junior midfielder Natalia Lynch (Smithtown, N.Y. / Smithtown West) added three goals and an assist as well as three draw controls.  Additionally, senior midfielder Francesca Whitehurst (Baltimore, Md. / Roland Park Country School) had two assists and five draw controls.  Also putting up multiple points were junior Michaela Bruno (Garden City, N.Y. / Garden City) and sophomore Mary Pagano (Short Hills, N.J. / Pingry School) with two goals apiece and junior Emily Ehle (Baldwinsville, N.Y. / Christian Brothers Academy) who had three assists in the contest.
 
The Hoyas outshot the Dragons 36-17 and picked up 10 ground balls to Drexel's three.  GU hauled in 16 draw controls while limiting the Dragons to seven as well as forcing 11 Drexel turnovers.  On free position shots, the Hoyas went 4 for 8 while the Georgetown keepers combined in an 0 for 4 day for Drexel.  Senior goalkeeper Haelle Chomo (Naples, Fla. / Barron Collier) was awarded the victory with five saves, while junior Micheline DiNardo (Rye, N.Y. / Rye) saw 12 minutes in the cage with two stops to her credit.
 
The Hoyas jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead as Bruno and Ryan scored in the run of play and Pagano connected on a pair of free position shots.  Whitehurst was the feeder assisting on two of the four goals.  Drexel answered with a goal at 20:28, but Georgetown would come back with three quick goals from Ryan, Bruno and Lynch.
 
Midway through the half, Liotta scored at 14:34 on the assist from Lynch.  This forced a Drexel timeout as the Dragons searched for an answer to GU's scoring barrage.  The answer would not come as solid defense from senior Josephine Zinn (Franklin Lakes, N.J. / Immaculate Heart Academy) resulted in a Gebhardt goal on the other end. 
 
Drexel would score on the ensuing possession, but the Hoyas would come right back with goal from Lynch making it an eight-goal game.  In the final seconds of the first half, Drexel drove down right side of the field and scored a man-down goal to make it 10-3 at the break. 
 
Ryan opened the scoring less than a minute into the second half with a man-up goal.  Gebhardt then hit an unassisted tally of her own before Ryan's unassisted score with 22 minutes remaining made it a 10-goal game. Gebhardt would connect on a free-position goal, and Drexel came right back to score on the other end.
 
In the final minutes of the game, Georgetown continued to find the back of the cage as Lynch and freshman Celia Walsh (Walpole, Mass. / Walpole) both connected on goals.  Drexel would score one more making the final 16-5.
 
The Hoyas will hit the road for a Wednesday matchup at No. 17/14 Johns Hopkins University at 3 p.m.  Live stats and a webcast will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.