Facing Off: The Villanova Wildcats will take on the St. John's Red Storm on Saturday, April 20
th for the final home game of the regular season. First faceoff is scheduled for 1:00 P.M. and can be seen on Nova Nation All-Access.
Series History: Saturday marks the 20
th meeting all-time between these two teams with the Wildcats winning 12 of the previous match-ups. Villanova has won the four previous games including a 10-8 victory on the road last season. The last time the Wildcats hosted the Red Storm in 2017 Villanova won by a final of 18-3. This was the largest margin of victory over an opponent dating back to that date 22 years ago when they defeated Holy Cross 24-7.
A Look at Villanova: The Wildcats are 7-5 and 2-1 in BIG EAST play heading into the final home game of the season. Villanova's four game winning streak was snapped last weekend during a 16-13 loss at Georgetown. The week prior the Wildcats defeated Denver 12-11 on the road, this was the Pioneers first loss in conference play since joining five years ago.
Villanova's Offense: Villanova's starting attack and midfield lines have contributed double digit points this season.
Connor Kirst leads all with 39 points, while
Keegan Khan has a most assists with 21, and
Corey McManus leads all goal scorers with 26. Freshman attack
Patrick Daly had a career high game against the Hoyas with five points and four goals. Fellow rookie
Matt Campbell has 35 points this season while sophomore midfielder
Eric Overbay has 17.
Villanova's Defense: TJ Comizio is now tied for third all-time in career caused turnovers with 57. This season in senior SSDM has 20 caused turnovers along with a team high 49 ground balls. Freshman
Will Vitton has played over 530 minutes between the posts and has a .512 save percentage and 11.63 goal against average. Villanova's starting close defense of
Patrick Kennedy,
Zachary Kryza, and
Owen Prybylski have combined for 49 ground balls and 29 caused turnovers.
A Look at St. John's: The Red Storm are 4-8 overall and 0-3 in BIG EAST play heading into Saturday's game. Last weekend in Queen, N.Y. St. John's fell to the Denver Pioneers 15-12 and the week before at Marquette 13-8. The Providence Friars and the Red Storm went to overtime during their conference opener but lost 8-7. Mike Madsen has a team high 42 points while both Declan Smartwood and Joe Madsen have 26 goals. Colin Bosak and Joseph Fitzpatrick have spilt faceoffs this season and are a combined 152-for-327 from the center X. In goal will be Brody Agres, who is almost 700 minutes between the posts has a 12.46 goals against average and .488 save percentage.
Senior Day: Prior to Saturday's game the men's lacrosse team's 11 seniors will be honored at 12:30 P.M. This group currently stands as the fifth winningest class in program history as well as helped the Wildcats reach their third NCAA Tournament appearance in program history just one season ago.
