The rainy season in Villanova, Pa. brings with it more than Louis Vuitton umbrellas and Uggs rain boots. Carried with the gray clouds and sunless days comes the hot Villanova Wildcat women, with their standard upset of a ranked team. This years victim, No. 4 Notre Dame, found themselves blown away by Jackie Adamshick.

Adamshick earned Big East Player of the Week honors by pouring in 25 points, pulling down 5 rebounds and filling the rest of the stat sheet with an assist, a block and a steal, while taking almost half of her teams shots (23 for Adamshick to 30 for the rest). The forward hit twice from long range but struggled a bit from the free throw line, going one for five. She had more than a little help from her friends, though.

Kate Dessart-Mager hit the shot to put the ‘Cats up 51-49, the most important of her 14 second half points. Equally clutch was Besty McManus, who helped seal the win by sinking all four of her free throws.

The win raised the team to 2-0 in the Big East and 9-4 overall. Two straight road losses to no. 14 Boston College and vengeance-minded no. 16 UConn in Storrs brought the team down a bit, but strong performances from Jennifer Hilgenberg (15 points, four assists) against the Eagles and Adamshick (17 points, a board, an assist and two steals) were silver linings.

Lost in this is the steadily increasing minutes of Besty McManus. The guard had 30 in the loss to BC and 32 in the win over the Fighting Irish.

“It’s always nice to be able to contribute,” said McManus.

She had a little more to say when it came to coach Perretta’s schemes for disrupting highly ranked teams.

“We are able to trick a lot of teams by constantly moving, making them play defense for long possessions and making an extra pass or two.”

It may seem like a trick, but with three straight years with an upset, including three wins over top 10 teams, it is becoming more of a habit.

With the rain giving way to an unexpected snow storm, the ladies added to the precipitation dropping a sick 12 threes in beating the hated Georgetown Hoyas 71-52.

The win returns them to the plus side in conference play, and among the sharp-shooters were the usual suspects of Adamshick, Hilgenberg and Liad Suez.

The girls take on West Virginia this Sunday at the Pavilion, with Clubber Lang providing the perfect forecast for the Lady Mountaineers…”Pain.”