WOMEN'S SOCCER | Hoyas Advance In Win Over Blue Demons

In the postseason, records are wiped clean — what teams did in the regular season isn’t important and anyone can beat anyone.

In spite of that, the No. 14 Georgetown women’s soccer team (15-2-2, 8-1-1 Big East) continued its outstanding season in the quarterfinals of the Big East Championship on Sunday, beating DePaul, 1-0, at North Kehoe Field.

The Hoyas, coming off of a disappointing loss at Villanova — their only defeat in Big East regular season play — dominated the run of play against the Blue Demons (9-10-2, 3-7-1 Big East), advancing to the semifinals in the process.

“It was always going to be a very difficult game,” Head Coach Dave Nolan said. “DePaul is a tough team. They don’t give up a lot of goals.”

The Blue Demons were somewhat familiar for the Blue and Gray. The two teams played on Oct. 14, a game Georgetown won in an overtime thriller.

“We had just played DePaul two weeks ago [so] we knew it was going to be a good game. It was a good game last time [and] it came down to overtime,” junior forward Colleen Dinn said. “So we really wanted to be focused.”

Unlike in the previous meeting, Georgetown scored in the early going Sunday. In the tenth minute, sophomore midfielder Daphne Corboz lofted a cross into the box, and Dinn headed it past the DePaul keeper and into the back of the net.

“[The goal] settled us down a little,” Nolan said. “We wanted to get on top of them before the weather broke. It was a good start, and we were probably a little unlucky not to get a second.”

The Hoyas continued to pressure the DePaul defense throughout the first half. Corboz, Georgetown’s leading scorer, had a shot blocked in the 17th minute, while another one sailed wide in the 30th minute. Overall, the Hoyas outshot DePaul, 7-1, in the first half.

“It is always good to score early and to get the momentum flowing and to kind of build the confidence,” Dinn said. “We had a certain confidence the whole game, but we still had to be nervous about them scoring.”

As opposed to the first meeting, the Blue and Gray had a wealth of offensive opportunities. DePaul did not pack the box, allowing Georgetown to find holes in its defense.

The hosts continued to control the tempo in the second half but were unable to capitalize on their chances despite outshooting DePaul, 14-4, and attempting four corner kicks, while the Blue Demons received none.

“It was just a matter of if we could get enough to get them on their back foot by scoring. I have to give them a lot of credit — they played a great game, and they made it very difficult for us,” Nolan said.

With eleven minutes left in the game, the Hoyas had their best opportunity of the second half: Sophomore forward Jessica Clinton fired a shot off of a loose ball in the box, but the DePaul keeper just managed to punch it out.

Despite being on the defensive for the majority of the game, the Blue Demons began to threaten in the final five minutes. Finally able to maintain possession, DePaul was appeared to be on the verge of tying the game.

“They had nothing to lose. They took one defender off and put another attacker on, and they just tried to take chances,” Nolan said. “All their players were just taking risks. I didn’t really feel, [though, that] they had [many opportunities] where they were going to score.”

Georgetown once again was keyed by its stellar defense, posting its thirteenth shutout of the season.

“We are a little piecemeal right now because we have had some injuries,” Nolan said. “They just have that mentality right now that they don’t like giving up goals, which is something that we didn’t have last year. “

"Our center backs, with [juniors] Mary [Kroening] and Alexa [St. Martin], were very good, and [freshman] Marina [Paul] and [senior] Tina [O'Tousa] did a good job of stopping anything before it started. Overall, it was a fair result."

With the win, the Hoyas advance to the semifinals, which will be held Friday at Morrone Stadium in Storrs, Conn. Seeded No. 1 in the National Division, they will be facing South Florida, the No. 2 seed in the American Division.

The game will be aired live on the CBS Sports Network, and kickoff will be at 6:30 p.m.