Despite a strong come-from-behind rally, the women’s swimming and diving team was unable to get past Rutgers on Friday. The 125-116 loss was the first loss for them all season, dropping them to 3-1.

Although the Wildcats trailed by 29 points at the first break, some strong performances helped them to rally and come to a tie by the second break. Senior Jenny Somerville picked up wins in the 1,000m and 500m freestyle events to lead the women, and her times in both events were personal season-bests. Freshman Sarah Czar and senior Kristina Lennox both swam to firsts in the 100m freestyle and the 200m butterfly, respectively, and they too attained season-best times. Junior Tiffany Brown also helped the Wildcats by finishing in first place in the 200 backstroke. The competition came down to the final relay event, which Rutgers won to capture the win over Villanova.

Although the team ended up losing, Lennox feels that the meet was a positive experience for the Wildcats and that they should be proud of the swim times they were able to get at Rutgers.

“Being a senior at Villanova, it was pretty exciting to be in such a close race with Rutgers as they have always had much more depth than we ever had,” she said. “The meet was a whole team effort and we all swam what we needed to do and beyond.”

Czar is also proud of her team’s performance and her personal performance at the meet and feels that the way her team swam was a confidence boost for them.

“It was really awesome for me to swim best times at Rutgers,” she said. “I knew we have been working really hard, and I just wanted to try to win my races for the team. I think that this meet will give us the confidence we need to keep improving throughout the season and to do amazing at Big East Championships.”

The men’s team also lost to Rutgers by a score of 133.5-95.5. Freshman Mike Kernicky won the 100m freestyle and AJ Mak, also a freshman, won the 500m freestyle to lead the Wildcats. Mak and Kernicky were also members of the first-place 400m freestyle relay team with Brett Karbach and Zach Rambo.

Next up for both squads is the Maryland Invitational.