It’s hard to take down the nation’s top-ranked team without possessing the ball. No. 5 Georgetown found that out the hard way in its 15-10 loss to No. 1 Northwestern on Saturday.
The Wildcats doubled the Hoyas’ draw controls 18-9 and won five in a row coming out of halftime. NU kept the ball away from Georgetown in the early going as well – the Hoyas had no shots on goal for the first 10 minutes of the game.
When Georgetown did get looks at the net, it capitalized, such as a 3-0 run in the middle of the first half to tie the game 3-3. But senior attacker Katrina Dowd put an end to that streak less than 30 seconds later when she scored her first goal of the contest.
“At the beginning of the game, I didn’t want them to get any momentum, and it was a quick score,” said Dowd, who finished with a career-high eight points. “The whole game we were trying to break away, not get comfortable but get some distance between those scores.”
The Cats did just that at the start of the second half. The score was 6-4 at intermission, but behind several won draw controls, NU put in four straight goals to extend its lead to 10-4.
The Hoyas tried to mount another comeback, scoring twice to cut into the Cats’ lead. But again it was Dowd who slammed the door on Georgetown with a goal of her own. With the lead cut to three with 10 minutes remaining in the game, Dowd went on a final tear, ripping off NU’s last three goals to seal the win.
“That’s the role of a big player, to come out and make the difference in times of need,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said.
The battle between two top-5 teams featured an unusually high 69 total fouls. In NU’s first three games of the season, it averaged about 48.
“It was definitely really physical – that’s what you get when you have a No. 5 and a No. 1 team playing,” Dowd said. “There’s a lot to fight for. It’s early in the season and it’s really going to be a big win for both teams, so it gets physical out there. It’s fun to be a part of that.”
