It was quite the weekend for volleyball fanatics as the Wildcats hosted Seton Hall and St. John’s in back-to-back games Friday and Saturday at Jake Nevin Field House. 

“Jam the Jake” included free t-shirts for the first 100 students in attendance and a pizza eating contest to win a Jay Wright-signed basketball.

Previously, the Wildcats stood in fifth place of the BIG EAST, and Seton Hall was a half game ahead of them for the fourth and final playoff spot for the conference tournament before their match.

The Pirates went down 3-1 in an impressive Wildcat performance.

The ‘Cats came out of the gate strong as they won the first set, 25-12. In the second set, Seton Hall held a 22-21 advantage before the ‘Cats closed the gap. Sophomore Remy Fairchild put the finishing touches on the set to give Villanova a commanding 2-0 lead.

After a third-set loss, the Wildcats bounced back and won the fourth set 25-17 to close out the match. Allie Loitz led the team with 16 kills, 18 digs and 19 points, Amanda Pedersen-Henry contributed 14 kills as Remy Fairchild added an additional 13. 

Fresh off their victory, the Wildcats were back in action Saturday night in a game against the Red Storm.

St. John’s got off to a quick start and did not slow down from there. The Wildcats suffered a 3-0 loss, which makes their road to the playoffs more difficult.

It was a disappointing loss for the Wildcats, coming off a very promising victory the night before against Seton Hall.

The team was without Allie Loitz, who was an integral part of their victory the night before. Although disappointed about their loss to St. John’s, the Wildcats strong performance over Seton Hall was the highlight of the weekend. 

The Wildcats look forward to making their playoff push as they travel to DePaul and Marquette next weekend for their last road trip of the season.