VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova has fared well away from home in the 2021 fall campaign, posting a 5-2 mark on opponents' turf thus far. Now, the Wildcats hope to continue that success as they visit No. 18 Providence Saturday night at 7 p.m in their penultimate regular season contest.
The match kicks off just after 7 p.m. and will be live streamed via the BIG EAST Digital Network presented by Flo Sports. John Fanta will be on the call for BEDN.
The five road victories are the most amassed by Villanova since 2011. In that season, two of those wins, at Notre Dame and at USF, were registered in the BIG EAST Tournament. This is the most regular season road wins since 2007 when current head coach
Tom Carlin was an aide to head coach Larry Sullivan. Those Wildcats garnered six road regular season wins, including one over top-ranked Duke.
Both Providence and Villanova are in tightly bunched race for the postseason. Entering the weekend, the Friars are 9-3-2 overall, 5-1-2 BIG EAST). Those 17 league points place them second to only Georgetown (21), a team Providence knocked off earlier this month.
Villanova, meanwhile, is 9-6 overall, 4-4 BIG EAST. Its 12 points leave if in fifth place, one behind fourth place Butler (13 points) and one point more than sixth place DePaul (11 points). Creighton and Seton Hall each have 10 points.
The Wildcats hope to move up the standings in their final two regular season outings. After the visit to Rhode Island, Villanova wraps up the regular season on Wednesday (Nov. 3) against Seton Hall at the Higgins Soccer Complex. That afternoon the 'Cats will host their annual "Senior Day" ceremony.
On Sunday, Villanova stepped outside the league to down Northwestern 2-0 on a rainy afternoon in Evanston, Ill. The 'Cats were boosted by the returns of outside back Anthony Cousins Jr. after missing one game and junior midfielder
Josh Belluz, who was idle for four after suffering an injury late in the first half of a 1-0 victory over Connecticut on Oct. 6.
"Big Josh means a lot to us," stated Villanova head coach
Tom Carlin, "and it was good to see A.J. out there too."
Villanova will also welcome back another key defender in
Anthony Dragisics Saturday night. The junior served a one-game suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card of the fall campaign in a double overtime 3-2 loss to DePaul on Oct. 20.
Junior
Lyam MacKinnon leads the Wildcats with seven goals and four assists. That's the most goals scored by a Wildcat in a single season since Sean Sheridan notched eight in 2015.
With one more victory Carlin can match Sullivan (114) for the most victories in Villanova program history.
The Friars have been even better at home this season (6-0-1) than Villanova has been away from its home turf.
Villanova can still climb as high as second in the BIG EAST race with a strong finish. The top six teams reach the BIG EAST Tournament with the top two seeds gaining a first round bye. The third and fourth place finishers will hosts the sixth and fifth place finishers on Saturday, Nov. 6 with the winners advancing to the semifinals.
