Lights! Camera! Action!

Last Friday, in the inaugural game under the lights at the Hoya Yard, I witnessed one of the more dramatic Georgetown comebacks I have seen. The women's lacrosse team hosted defending Big East champion Syracuse coached by the legendary Gary Gait.

Last Friday, in the inaugural game under the lights at the Hoya Yard, I witnessed one of the more dramatic Georgetown comebacks I have seen. The women's lacrosse team hosted defending Big East champion Syracuse coached by the legendary Gary Gait.



By the middle of the second half, the Hoyas found themselves on the short end of a 10-6 score. Since women's lacrosse rules do not provide for stalling or delay of game, it is not uncommon, with as much as ten minutes to play, for a team with the lead to slow the pace or simply play keep-away to protect their margin for victory. It never got to that point in this matchup however, mostly because the Orange couldn't get the ball back. Instead, the Hoyas poured in four goals in little more than four minutes to tie the game. They then slowed things down a bit for the rest of regulation, which ended with the score knotted at ten. Four 3-minute overtime periods ensued without result. In the fifth overtime, junior star Ashby Kaestner ended the contest on a free position shot.

An extended night game victory in the Yard. What a fitting way to break in the new lights!


An aside: 39 years ago, back when the Hoya Yard was still known as Harbin field, the lack of lighting on the field limited its use to a daytime schedule. Motivated to expand practice times for the Hoya teams, a group of students, alumni, and faculty organized an effort to raise funds to put up lights on Harbin field. They asked for others to join them by paying dues of ten dollars (five for students). With the money they raised, a steering committee allocated $5,000 to put up a couple of poles with two floodlights on each and to run electricity to them. This modest first lighting of athletic fields was a small yet defining contribution of an organization that continues to provide vital support to Georgetown athletics to this day: Hoyas Unlimited.