Facing Off: The Villanova Wildcats will open the 2020 season this Saturday at 1:00 P.M. against the No. 2/1 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions. This will be the third straight season the Wildcats have opened against the Nittany Lions. Saturday's game can be seen on Nova Nation All-Access.
A Look at Villanova: The No. 18 Wildcats were picked second in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches' Poll and had four players named to the conference preseason team.
Connor Kirst was named to USILA's Preseason All-American Second Team as well as Inside Lacrosse Preseason Media All-American Second Team. Kirst was one of the four Wildcats to earn conference preseason team honors joining him was redshirt junior Patrick Kenned, junior
Keegan Khan, and sophomore
Will Vitton.
Villanova is returning just over 88% of their goal scorers from last season including top goal scorer
Corey McManus who had 35. Kirst contributed 31 goals of his own, while
Matt Campbell had 28. Also returning in goal this season will be Vitton. Last season as a rookie he picked up seven wins between the pipes and had a .518 save percentage and 11.37 goals against average.
A Look at Penn State: Last weekend the Nittany Lions opened their season with a 16-9 win over Lafayette. Led by Grant Ament's 10 points and Mac O'Keefe's six goals Penn State had an early 8-0 run and later tacked on six straight against the Leopards. Gearld Arceri took all 21 of Penn State's faceoffs winning just over 90% with 15 ground balls. In goal was Colby Kneese who in 57 minutes had eight saves on 16 shots faced and boasted an 8.42 goals against average.
Last Time Against a No. 1: The Villanova Wildcats picked up their first program win against a No. 1 ranked team last season when they took on then #1 Yale. The Bulldogs were coming off a 2018 National Championship win and the Wildcats travel to New Haven for Yale's season opener. It was Kirst in overtime who needed the game winner for Villanova.
Season Openers: Dating back to the start of the 1981 season the Wildcats are 18-20 (.474) in season openers. With the last two against Penn State the two teams have gone 1-1, with the Wildcats taking a overtime victory in 2018 and the Nittany Lion's winning last season 17-7.
