This past weekend, the women’s water polo team went 0-4 after traveling to Indiana for the Hoosier Invite tournament at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center. 

After Villanova’s first two-time All-American, Kaysie Stuba, graduated in 2022, the squad was left with a new team dynamic, and one that was searching for a new lead scorer. In addition to Stuba, the team was also left to play without two other previously graduated seniors for their first games of the new year.  

The Wildcats started the season off ranked 6th in their conference, but a challenging schedule with several other ranked teams has presented challenges for the squad, such as the hard loss this past weekend. 

However, regardless of the loss, head coach Larry Sanders remains optimistic about the future of this team and the season to come: “[the team] could see improvement happen as we played each game.” Sanders also expressed his excitement for what is to come after the team continued to show great improvement in the first couple of games. 

The Wildcats had a rocky start with their season opener as Villanova was down 0-8 and missed all 5 shot attempts in the first quarter. The ‘Cats made a slight comeback, but fell to the home team Indiana.  

In the second game, Villanova had ten steals and eight blocks as a group. Freshman Ella Mattocks scored her first career goal with 1:02 remaining in the first quarter, but a scoring run by Marist College led to an overall 6-9 loss for the ‘Cats on Saturday. 

Score improvement improved for Villanova in the final against Cal State East Bay, where after some back-and-forth scoring, Villanova climbed their way back to tie the score up late in the fourth quarter. However, the team fell short, losing 8-7 at the end of the game.

With an overall 20.5 shooting percentage over the course of four games, the team plans to focus more on their offense, as well as adjusting to the absence of former seniors. 

Villanova opens the doors to the Villanova Swim Complex on Feb. 4 as it hosts Mercyhurst for the first home game of the season at 2 p.m.