Last weekend, Villanova women’s volleyball clinched a postseason berth in the Big East Tournament with back-to-back home wins at Jake Nevin Fieldhouse.
The Wildcats closed regular-season play with victories over the University of Connecticut (19-9, 8-8 Big East) on Friday, Nov. 14, and Providence (12-7, 3-13 Big East) on Saturday, Nov. 15.
The weekend sweep earned the Wildcats (20-7, 11-5 Big East) their third consecutive appearance in the Big East Tournament. However, for the 2025 season, the pool of teams from the conference in contention for tournament play shrank from six teams to four.
“The level of this conference keeps on rising, and I think that goes to show how this team keeps rising,” junior outside hitter Abby Harrell said. “Everyone is so bought into our mentality of getting better and better, and it’s exciting that when the bar is raised, everyone is ready to meet it.”
The Wildcats finished third in the conference and ended the season with their best record since its 2019 campaign, when they finished 22-9 and 13-5 in the Big East.
Headed into the weekend, the Wildcats knew that they needed to win one of their two matches to finish in the top four.
Friday’s match against UConn (23-25, 14-25, 25-17, 27-25, 15-10) got off to a shaky start after the Huskies won the first two sets.
UConn senior outside hitter Emma Werkmeister proved herself a challenge for the Wildcats, leading the Huskies with 15 kills.
The Wildcats took to the locker room to regroup after the second set. Once they returned to the court for the third set, the team regained its rhythm, winning the third set, 25-17.
“We don’t normally go to the locker room between sets, but after we tanked in the second, we really wanted to reset,” Villanova head coach Josh Steinbach said. “So, we went back in and said, ‘Hey, let’s take a breath, refocus and recenter.’ They went back out there, and I don’t know if it was any magic, but they did a great job of exactly that, and played composed for the rest of the game.”
After Villanova secured the third set, UConn crept up the scoreboard in the fourth frame, tying it at 25. As both teams searched for the set point, Villanova found itself leading, 26-25. Sophomore defensive specialist Lola Buck-Taylor delivered critical back-to-back digs, helping the Wildcats secure a 27-25 victory in the fourth set.
“My teammate Marly [Smith] had done her absolute best at battling us through that fourth set, and in that moment I knew that I couldn’t let her efforts go to waste when it was my turn,” Buck-Taylor said. “When I saw the ball come over the net, the only thing I wanted to do was get it up, so one of my teammates could put the ball down, and that’s exactly what happened. Taylor ripped it, and it was the perfect ending to that set.”
Winning the fourth set of the game mathematically earned Villanova a berth to the Big East Tournament.
In the final set of the game, Villanova won, 15-10, defeating the Huskies in a 3-2 reverse sweep.
Wildcats fans rejoiced across the packed fieldhouse, with the Villanova football team rushing down to the court in support.
On Saturday, Villanova carried its momentum from Friday’s game into a match against Providence. The Wildcats swept the Friars to close out their 2025 regular season (25-17, 25-19, 25-20) .
Harrell finished the regular season leading the Wildcats in points (457.5 total) and kills (399 total), marking her personal best in each benchmark throughout her career as a Wildcat.
This Saturday, the Wildcats will travel to Milwaukee, WI, to compete in the Big East Tournament.
The semifinals are set for Saturday, Nov. 22. Villanova will play No. 2 seed Xavier at 3:30 p.m. ET. No. 1 seed Creighton will face off against No. 4 seed Marquette at 1 p.m. ET. The winners of the two matches will meet on Sunday, Nov. 23, in the championship match at 3 p.m. ET.
