Despite a disappointing end to the season, the Villanova women’s soccer team has much to be proud of in 2024. The Wildcats finished the year with a 5-7-6 overall record and a 2-3-5 conference record, finishing seventh in the Big East Conference and only two points away from making the Big East tournament.

Last season, Villanova finished last, with one win and seven losses. The improvement the Wildcats saw in 2024 has sparked hope for the program to be a contending team in the Big East once again.

“The team is extremely competitive,” head coach Samar Azem said. “The belief is there. The ideas of what this team looks like, how we train, how they go out to the field, how prepared they are for the game.”

It was a unique season that included five ties within the conference for the Wildcats. These games represented Villanova’s fight and resilience throughout the year to stay competitive. One game in particular highlighted the identity of this team.

On Oct. 27, Villanova took on Providence a crucial conference game. It came three days after the Wildcats had their worst loss of the season against Georgetown.

The game didn’t start how they wanted with Providence scoring two goals in the first ten minutes. The Wildcats finished the first half down 2-0.

The second half was more of the same as the Friars scored two minutes in. Villanova was looking at a three goal deficit in what was a must-win game.

With the game coming to an end, the Wildcats pressed numbers up looking for any offensive production.

Fortunately for Villanova, graduate midfielder Alex Fava put in their first goal of the game. There was only ten minutes remaining, but this was the spark they needed.

“We definitely had the nothing-to-lose mindset,” Fava said. “As we started to high press, we saw how frantic they became. We saw that we could really exploit that and that fueled us. In those last ten minutes especially we saw how frantic they were, and we were able to capitalize on a corner kick. At that point, we were down 3-1 and we knew if we lost that game we were definitely out of the Big East [Tournament]. I think a lot of us thought this could’ve been in our last game. It was really in those last ten minutes that we were like, let’s just give everything we have.”

The ‘Cats went on to score two more goals in the span of eight minutes to make it a 3-3 tie. Graduate midfielder Lauren Ashman and senior midfielder Susanna Soderman were responsible for the game-changing plays. It was fitting for three of the team’s oldest players to be a part of such an impressive turnaround.

“I think this game really does represent our time at Villanova really well,” Ashman said. “Me coming in five years ago, Sue coming in four years ago and even Fava coming in two years ago, our team was more of a losing team in the sense that when we would get down we weren’t getting back up. We were getting discouraged. I think that in the past season we learned how to build that culture that will come back and fight to win. Although we didn’t come out with the win and we didn’t make the Big East tournament, I think that all three of us can say that we’re leaving this program better than we found it. And, I think this team will be pulling out those wins next year and have a great chance at making the tournament.”

Although the game finished in yet another tie for Villanova, it was one of the most impressive comebacks in program history. Especially with it being such a crucial game at the backend of the season.

“We had a very small but mighty group of seniors, but the majority of our players who played had a year or less experience with us,” Azem said. “We knew that throughout the season there would be these inconsistencies. These ebbs and flows of success. And the goal was we would be peaking at the right time, which is the end of the season. To me, that match showed just how much the team has taken on this process throughout the season of growing and learning each day.”

It may not have been the perfect ending for Villanova, but it certainly was a memorable one. The Wildcats will look to take this program to the next level in the 2025 season and compete for a Big East title.