No. 10 Villanova received a four-seed in the Greenville 2 region of the NCAA Tournament bracket. As a top-16 overall seed, the ‘Cats will host first and second round games at the Finneran Pavilion. They will face 13-seed Cleveland St. in their first-round matchup. If the ‘Cats advance past the Vikings, they will face the winner of the 5/12 seed matchup between Washington St. and Florida Gulf Coast, also played at Finneran Pavilion. 

“They’re an aggressive team, [they] put points on the board,” head coach Denise Dillon said of Cleveland St. “So obviously we’ll do our work, the coaches, to get the scout ready.” 

The ‘Cats finished the regular season with a record of 26-5, then advanced to the Big East Tournament Finals, where they fell to UConn 67-56. The fourth seed is the highest seeding the ‘Cats have received since the 2003 postseason, where they received a two seed.  

“Extremely excited [to play at home],” Dillon said. “We talked about it after our last game of the regular season. We were confident, or determined, to make sure that wasn’t our last game on our court.” 

Cleveland St. won the Horizon League Tournament to claim its spot in the field of 68, going 30-4 over the course of the season. The ‘Cats and the Vikings share two common opponents in Iowa State and DePaul. The Vikings lost to the Cyclones early in the season but took down DePaul in an overtime game in November. The ‘Cats lost to the Cyclones in a neutral site game in December and swept the season series against DePaul.