Final Stats

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Villanova Wildcats suffered a 6-5 defeat to the Providence Friars on Saturday afternoon at Lennon Family Field to conclude the regular season portion of their 2015 schedule. With the loss, Villanova fell to 6-7 overall and 1-4 in the conference while Providence improved to 5-9 overall and 1-4 in league play.

Despite the loss, the Wildcats captured the bigger prize at hand and qualified for their fourth-straight BIG EAST Tournament by virtue of goal differential in a three-way tie with St. John's, Providence and Villanova who all finished at 1-4 in league play. The Wildcats will play No. 1 seed Denver at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 30th while No. 2 Georgetown will square off against No. 3 Marquette at 4:30 p.m. at Villanova Stadium.

Villanova held the advantage in shots 41-24 and won the ground ball game by a 24-18 margin against the Friars, but Providence held the Wildcats scoreless for nearly 35 minutes of action and registered 18 saves to keep the VU offense at bay for the afternoon. Both sides were even in faceoff's with each winning 7-of-14 attempts.

The Wildcats were the first to get on board in the contest when Christian Cuccinello gave Villanova an early 1-0 lead with 8:41 on the clock in the first stanza, but the Friars responded to even the score with a Greg Fitzmaurice tally at the 6:29 mark to make it 1-1.

The Friars would build upon that momentum and rattled off five more goals to bridge the first and third quarters to surge to a 6-1 lead over the visitors. Buck McClure and Michael Perettine each scored twice during that span while Buck McClure added one of his own as the Friars went up five goals on Villanova with 8:55 left to play in the third quarter.

Junior attackman Johnny Gallaway ended the Providence run with 3:53 left to play in the third period to close the Friar lead to 6-2 and added another score to open the final stanza at 6-3 with 13:32 left to play in the contest.

The Wildcats continued their comeback attempt when Eric Gartner found the back of the net at the 6:54 mark and Jack Curran followed suit just 35 second later to make it a one-goal game at 6-5 with just over five minutes remaining.

Villanova had several chances in the closing minutes to even the score and send it into overtime. With 2:52 left on the clock, freshman Danny Seibel took a shot on net that forced Friar goalkeeper Peter Badgley to make a game-winning save in the closing minutes. Classmate Sean Cerrone also took a shot that sailed wide with 31 seconds left to play but it wouldn't be enough to even the score as Providence earned their first conference win of the season.

The Wildcats were led defensively by the combined 10 save performances of goalkeepers Greg Stamatov and Dan Willis while Gallaway's two goals paved the way for the Villanova offense. Providence goalkeeper Peter Badgley registered 18 saves in the victory as the Friars claimed their second-straight win over Villanova in as many years.

Villanova will look for redemption in just a few short days when they take on Denver in the first round of the BIG EAST Championship where winner of the tournament will earn the automatic berth into the NCAA field. Game time versus the Pioneers is slated for 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 30th.