Volleyball

The women’s volleyball team followed up a 3-0 loss to the Syracuse Orange (19-25, 22-25, 24-26) last Friday evening at the Manley Field House with a 3-0 loss to the Marquette Golden Eagles on Sunday (19-25, 21-25, 25-27) at the Al McGuire Center.

The team fell to 16-13 on the season and 5-9 in conference play. They finished the season at 11th place in the Big East, failing to qualify for the Big East Championship tournament, for which they haven’t qualified since 2007.

Syracuse finished the season 21-10 (9-5) and qualified for the fifth seed in the Big East Championship. Villanova played three close sets, at times leading the Orange, but the more experienced Syracuse team was able to pull through in the end, sweeping the Wildcats.

Like Villanova, Marquette did not qualify for the Big East tournament, missing the cut by one game. The Golden Eagles finished the season with a record of 17-12 (6-8).

Villanova’s underclassmen excelled. Freshman outside hitter Krista Andersen led the team in kills against Syracuse with 13 and Marquette with 12. Sophomore Maggie Mergen contributed nine kills against Syracuse and 10 kills against Marquette. Sophomore defensive specialist Kim Maroon led the team in digs with 16 against Syracuse and 17 digs against Marquette. Sophomore setter Courtney Oertli dished out a team-high 28 assists against the Orange and 35 against the Golden Eagles.. -N.M.

Swimming

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams had their home debuts of the season last Friday at the Villanova Swim Center. Both teams faced off against Big East rival West Virginia.

The women’s meet came down to the wire, and the Wildcats (3-2) were able to prevail with some late heroics over the Mountaineers (3-3) by a score of 135-106. Out of 13 events Villanova picked up wins in eight of them. However, Villanova was only winning by four points going into the final individual race of the meet.

Needing to do well in the last two races to end their two meet skid, Villanova received that help as freshman Laura McGlauglin and junior Astrid Armgarth finished first and second, respectively, in the 200-yard breaststroke. Following the first and second places, junior Kristin Prautzsch took a fifth place in the event to give the Wildcats 15 points, clinching the meet.

Freshman Hayley Edwards continued to pad her win total in her young collegiate swimming career with two more wins in the 200-yard butterfly and the 1,000-yard freestyle, posting a personal best in the freestyle of 10:08.86.

Argmgarth, along with her second place in the 200-yard breaststroke, took home a win in the 400-yard individual medley. Other Villanova first place finishers included freshman Gretchen Hestley (50-yard freestyle) and sophomore Amanda DiMarco (1-meter and 3-meter diving competitions).

The men’s team, on the other hand was not as fortunate as the women ‘s team. The men lost 207-35. The highlights of the meet were the six third place finishes and 11 personal best times recorded by the team.

The six third place finishes were by: freshman Jordan Bickhart (200-yard butterfly), junior Nick Williams (100-yard freestlye), freshman Scott Thiede (200-yard freestlye), sophomore Ted Sukramani (200-yard breaststroke), senior James Styles (3-meter dive) and the 200-yard freestyle relay. -N.B.