In its final regular season matchup on Saturday, April 26, Villanova women’s lacrosse (10-6, 4-2 Big East) fell to the No. 23 ranked University of Denver (12-5, 5-1 Big East), 17-7.
After the loss, the Wildcats seeded second in the Big East Championship, marking their highest Big East standing in program history. Denver advanced to earn the No. 1 seed.
Villanova will host the conference playoffs for the first time since 2017. The Wildcats will now face No. 3 seeded University of Connecticut (11-5, 4-2 Big East) in the semifinal round on Thursday, May 1 at Villanova Stadium (4 p.m., Big East Digital Network).
“It’s a quick turnaround from Denver to the Big East Tournament, so the whole team is excited for this week,” Villanova head coach Jill Batcheller said. “We’re ready to move forward and redeem ourselves a little bit.”
Against Denver, senior attacker Sydney Pappas led in scoring, with two goals on the day, and freshman midfielder Leslie Iorio had one goal, two assists and one draw control. Senior goalie Cate Gallagher tallied six saves, and sophomore midfielder Emma Verhoust had eight draw controls.
The Pioneers opened the game on a 4-0 run in the opening quarter before the Wildcats could get on the board. Junior attacker Ashlyn Hickey scored on a free position with three minutes and 29 seconds remaining in the period. Both teams added one more goal to end the quarter with the Pioneers ahead, 5-2.
Villanova then went scoreless throughout the second quarter, and Denver added four more goals to its total. At the half, Denver led Villanova, 9-2.
“Overall, we started out a little bit slow in the Denver game,” Batcheller said. “A big key for us is to start our game from the first whistle.”
The Wildcats closed the gap in the third quarter, tallying three goals in a row. Pappas was first to score, with four minutes remaining in the quarter. Redshirt sophomore Elena Torres scored next with 3:04 on the clock. Pappas came back for seconds with just nine seconds remaining in the period. The Wildcats headed into the fourth trailing the Pioneers, 12-6.
However, the offense slowed down for Villanova in the fourth, and Denver netted four goals in a row. Senior defender Lindsey Kupka scored the final goal of the game with three-and-a-half minutes remaining.
Villanova now prepares for Thursday’s highly-anticipated Big East Tournament matchup against UConn. The Wildcats upset the Huskies, 11-7, in the first conference game of the season on March 29.
“The last time we played UConn, we had our alumni game and a huge crowd and it was so special to have so many people cheering us on,” Batcheller said. “It really felt like the community was behind that win. That’s going to be really important for us again in this next game, so we would love to have a lot of support from our Philly lacrosse community.”
UConn will make its way to Villanova Stadium for the semifinal after a 15-9 loss to Georgetown on Saturday, April 26.
