Villanova Women’s Lacrosse dropped their BIG EAST conference opener to #25 Georgetown 19-10 on Saturday afternoon. Junior attack Jillian Swikart (Rumson, N.J.) led the Wildcats with three goals and one assist. Villanova is now 5-3 on the season and 0-1 in the BIG EAST. Villanova struck first when sophomore midfielder Maggie Jennings (Fair Haven, N.J.) buried a free position shot roughly one minute into the game to take a 1-0 lead. Georgetown fired back with three straight goals to take a two goal lead early in the first half at 3-1. With 17:41 left in the half, Swikart found sophomore attack Katie Comerford (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) on a goal to bring the Wildcats back within one. The Hoyas responded back with another three consecutive goals giving them a 6-2 lead. Villanova stopped the run when sophomore attack Liz Trojan (Airmont, N.Y.) assisted Swikart for her first goal of the game. Georgetown then took advantage of two free position shots to take an 8-3 lead. With just over 10 minutes left in the half, Swikart scored her second and third goals of the game, one on a free position shot and the other on a Comerford assist to bring Villanova down just three goals. The Wildcats couldn’t hold off the Hoyas offense, allowing four unanswered goals to put Villanova at a 12-5 halftime deficit. Georgetown outshot Villanova 28-15 in the first half and won the ground ball battle 18-10. The Wildcats, who have been dominant on the draw all year, lost 10 of 18 first half draw controls. Villanova came out strong in the second half, scoring two goals right out of the gate. Junior midfielder Carlye Maita (Mendham, N.J.) assisted sophomore attack Ashley Lynch (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) on a goal, followed by an unassisted goal from sophomore attack Grainger Rosati (Booton Township, N.J.) to put Villanova down 12-7 with 25 minutes remaining in the game. Georgetown then answered with a pair of goals to regain their seven goal lead. The Wildcats tried to cut into the lead with a goal from Maita, assisted by senior midfielder Devin Hassinger (Glemoore, Pa.), but Georgetown scored four more goals to extend the score to the biggest lead of the day at 18-8. Villanova scored twice more on free position goals from sophomore attack Kim McDonough (Pennington, N.J.) and freshman attack Nicole Concannon (Syosset, N.Y.) but fell to the Hoyas 19-10. Senior defender Elizabeth Armstrong (Chatham, N.J.) had five ground balls and two caused turnovers on the game. Devin Hassinger had a team-high five draw controls. Sophomore goalkeeper Khaia Baranowski (Marlton, N.J.) made nine saves on the game, senior goalkeeper Julia Michaels (Mount Sinai, N.Y.) finished with eight saves. “Georgetown played a very aggressive and strong game and we just didn’t answer back,” said Head Coach Julie Young. The Wildcats were outshot 45-31 and lost in both ground balls and draw controls as well. “We were disappointed in how we played but we know we can learn from this and move forward to our next game against Marquette.” Villanova returns home against Marquette next Saturday, March 24th, at noon. The Wildcats are a perfect 3-0 so far at home this season.