The Villanova Wildcats will travel to Chicago, Illinois this weekend to participate in the 2020 BIG EAST Tournament to be held at Wintrust Arena. Villanova finished the 2019-20 season with an 11-7 conference mark which was good enough for a five-way tie for third place. Due to the tie breaking procedure that was used
by the conference office, Villanova will be the seven seed in the
upcoming conference tournament.
 
Villanova will open-up play in the tournament on Friday, March 6, against No. 10 seed Xavier at 2:30 p.m., eastern time. This will be the third meeting between the two teams this year. The Wildcats won the two regular season match-ups, including a 66-54 home win on Jan. 12 and a 55-54 victory at Xavier on Feb. 7.
 
For the third time in program history, the Villanova Wildcats had two players named to the All-BIG EAST first team, as senior forward Mary Gedaka and redshirt freshman Maddy Siegrist were both named to the first team. The other two times in program history came in 1982-83 (Kathie Beisel & Nancy Bernhardt) and 1986-87 (Shelly Pennefather & Lynn Tighe). Siegrist also was named the league's Rookie of the Year and she earned a spot on the All-Freshman Team. Siegrist becomes the first Villanova freshman to garner first team All-League accolades.
 
Villanova finished the BIG EAST regular season with an 11-7 conference record. This marks the sixth time in the seven years since the new BIG EAST began in 2013-14 that the Wildcats have registered double digit league wins. Villanova has a 79-47 mark (.626) in conference games since 2013-14.
 
Wildcat head coach Harry Perretta will be coaching in his final BIG EAST Tournament this weekend in Chicago. Perretta will retire from coaching after 42 years at the conclusion of the season. This year will mark the 38th anniversary of the BIG EAST women's basketball tournament and Perretta is the only Big East coach to have been a part of all 38 tournaments. To put into perspective how long Perretta has been at Villanova, consider the following. In his first year at Villanova (1978-79), the President of the United States was Jimmy Carter, a gallon of milk cost $1.71, a gallon of gas cost 63 cents, the No. 1 song was Stayin Alive by the Bee Gees, the top movie was Grease, the average cost of a home was $54,800, and the average income per year was $17,000.
 
Villanova is led in scoring and rebounding by Siegrist who is averaging 19.1 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per contest. Gedaka is second on the team in scoring with a 17.4 points per contest average.
 

 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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