LYNCHBURG, Va.—Villanova (0-5) wrapped up its opening weekend of the 2021 season with its fifth game in three days on Sunday morning and fell to Notre Dame (7-5) by an 11-3 score at Kamphuis Field at Liberty Softball Stadium. A shifting schedule in the opening weeks of the season saw the Wildcats play the Fighting Irish three times and tournament host Liberty twice at this weekend's Liberty Softball Classic.
 
Senior third baseman Julia DaCosta (North Attleboro, Mass.) had two hits for Villanova and freshman right fielder Brooklyn Ostrowski (Port Chester, N.Y.) had the best game of her young career with an RBI double and a run scored. Sophomore catcher Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) had her third hit in the last two games and also scored a run.
 
Notre Dame hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning and had plated a single run in the bottom of the second when an error with two out in the inning allowed two unearned runs to score. That swelled the margin to 4-0 and the Fighting Irish led 7-0 through four innings before the Wildcats scored all three of their runs in the top of the fifth.
 
Sophomore first baseman Victoria Sebastian (Ridgewood, N.J.) walked to lead off the fifth inning and Jones singled up the middle to set Villanova up for a rally. Ostrowski double to the gap in right-center to bring in the first run of the inning. With two on and one out, senior second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) was safe on a fielder's choice to drive in Jones. Senior left fielder Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) followed with a sacrifice fly to center to bring Ostrowski home, and Rauch was safe at first when her fly ball was dropped in center field.
 
It was starting to feel like déjà vu for the Wildcats, who erupted for an 11-run fifth inning against Liberty on Saturday afternoon. This time however, the rally was thwarted after three runs as Notre Dame escaped the inning with a strikeout and groundout to prevent Villanova from narrowing the deficit any further. Three runs for the Fighting Irish in the bottom of the fifth accounted for the final scoring margin.
 
The five-game run at Liberty this weekend came about when the Wildcats scheduled doubleheader at Saint Joseph's was cancelled due to the continued cold weather and snowy field conditions in the Northeast. Villanova instead began the season by facing a former BIG EAST rival along with the preseason Atlantic Sun Conference favorite in the host Flames.
 
Although the results from the Wildcats were not what they would have liked, it was not hard either to see the bright spots from the weekend. Villanova gave a glimpse of what it's offense is capable of in Saturday's game against Liberty when it hit two grand slams and sent 15 batters to the plate in the 11-run fifth inning outburst. It was only the eighth time since 2000 that a Division I team hit two grand slams in the same inning.
 
Junior catcher Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.) hit two home runs on the weekend to double her career total from her first two collegiate seasons. She hit the first grand slam on Saturday and DaCosta the second. With two more hits on Sunday, DaCosta finished the weekend 4-for-4 with five RBI, while Henry slugged .786 in 14 plate appearances. Giampolo led Villanova with a .333 average (6-for-18) and four runs scored, and in Saturday's game against Liberty became the 12^th player in school history to score at least 100 career runs. The senior stalwart has now started 130 consecutive games dating back to the 2018 season.