Villanova Univeristy Athletics

The start of Ann Brennan’s collegiate career coincided with Villanova’s first season of varsity women’s soccer. She would become one of the fledgling program’s early stars and remained the Wildcats career record holder in goals and points nearly 40 years after her graduation. Brennan played for Villanova from 1983-86 and was inducted to the Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2007.
 
The career totals for Brennan during her collegiate career include 45 goals, 25 assists and 115 points. Along with her teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Cathy Ford, Brennan is one of just four athletes in school history with at least 30 career goals and at least 20 career assists. In addition to setting the program records for goals and points, Brennan was second in the record book only to Ford at the time of her graduation. She ranked fourth among the career assist leaders at the time of her Hall of Fame induction.
 
Brennan’s impact on the Wildcats was immediate. During her freshman season she scored five goals in a 9-1 win at Penn on September 29, 1983. The contest was only the sixth in Villanova’s young varsity history; the five goals remained the school single-game record more than 40 years later. In the same contest Brennan’s senior teammate Annie Kempf tallied a school-record four assists.
 
Team success came just as quickly for the Wildcats as the combined efforts of its biggest stars. Villanova was 12-6 under the direction of Lee Stevens in its inaugural varsity season in 1983. The team qualified for the ECAC Tournament and defeated Colgate in a consolation matchup one day after losing to Vermont on November 4, 1983 in the program’s first-ever postseason contest.
 
Don Paxson took over as head coach in 1984 and the Wildcats compiled a 10-11-1 record to go along with another ECAC appearance. Brennan finished her sophomore season with career highs of 14 goals and 34 points, both of which rank in the top-five for a single season in Villanova annals.
 
Brennan’s junior campaign in 1985 saw the Wildcats go 10-5-1 in what can best be described as a year of transition. Ford was a senior playing her final collegiate season, but Villanova’s influx of talent included a pair of first year players in Ann Beirne and Jean Hajjar who would go on to author their own Hall of Fame careers.
 
With its roster fully fortified at multiple spots, Villanova went 12-4-3 in 1986. Brennan set a single-season school record with 10 assists on the year and the benchmark stood for more than two decades until being surpassed in 2008. She also tied for second in school history with seven game-winning goals during her senior campaign. Brennan and Ford were tied for the Wildcats career mark of 14 game-winning goals by the end of the 1986 season; their mark stood until 2011.
 
Villanova was 44-26-5 (.633) overall during Brennan’s collegiate career.