VILLANOVA, Pa.—A left-handed power play goal by sophomore attacker Allie Hansen (Friendswood, Texas) with 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter snapped a 3-3 tie and wound up starting a run of four unanswered goals for Villanova (7-4, 3-2 MAAC), which overwhelmed No. 23 Iona (2-2, 2-2 MAAC) to the tune of a 20-8 victory at the Villanova Swim Complex on Sunday afternoon. The lopsided victory was the second of the day for the Wildcats, who tallied a 21-12 win over Siena earlier in the day.
 
Junior center defender Amanda Rice (San Jose, Calif.) and freshman attacker Sydney Bianchi (Menlo Park, Calif.) scored four goals apiece to lead a balanced Villanova offense. Three different players had a hat trick in the game, with Rice and Bianchi joined by sophomore attacker Lauren Picard (Darien, Conn.) who netted three goals.
 
Eight different players in all found the scoring column for the Wildcats, who got two goals apiece from Hansen, freshman attacker Stella Byles (Portland, Ore.), junior utility Kaysie Stuba (La Grange, Ill.) and freshman Lillie Jones (Honolulu, Hawaii). Sophomore attacker Joie McKinney (Chicago, Ill.) also scored for Villanova, which defeated the Gaels for only the third time in the last 42 meetings. Prior to Sunday, the Wildcats had never scored 20 goals in a game against a MAAC opponent. They did so twice in the span of a few hours in their home pool as head coach Larry Sanders continues to develop a young team into an offensive juggernaut.
 
Villanova has scored 20 or more goals in a game seven times in program history, including three times this season and three times in Sanders' first year as head coach in 2019. The only previous 20+ goal game in the Wildcats record book was a 20-2 win over James Madison on March 14, 1998 in Villanova's ninth contest as a varsity program in its inaugural season. Sunday's win over Iona was the first over a nationally-ranked Division I opponent in several seasons, although the team defeated Division III Redlands last year when the Bulldogs were ranked seventh in the Division III national polls.
 
Bianchi got the Wildcats started against the Gaels with a goal just 33 seconds into the contest. Iona had a lob shot hit off the left post 25 seconds later and Byles extended the Villanova lead to 2-0 with 6:36 remaining in the first quarter. The first goal of the game for the Gaels was scored by Karsyn Stewart on a power play with 6:10 left in the period, while Carli Tovar skipped in a shot with 2:54 to play which tied the score at 2-2. Stuba put the Wildcats back in front at the 2:26 mark of the period, but Tovar countered with a long shot to the left side of the net 14 seconds later to tie the score.
 
It was the grittiness of the Villanova defense which swung momentum back towards the Wildcats – this time for good as it turned out – late in the first quarter. Physical defensive play by Iona led to a shot clock violation against Villanova with 1:35 to play, but the Wildcats returned the favor with an equally big defensive stand to force a shot clock violation against the Gaels with 59 seconds left. A foul against Iona gave Villanova a power play opportunity with 27 seconds remaining and the shot clock off, and Hansen scored with 15 seconds to go for a 4-3 lead. Sophomore goalie Emily Morrissey (Ambler, Pa.) saved a shot at the buzzer to preserve the lead at the end of the first quarter.
 
That sequence to end the period proved to be a harbinger of things to come. The defense withstood a Gaels power play to open the second quarter and Picard scored twice in a span of 56 seconds to extend the lead to 6-3 with 6:34 to play before halftime. Iona hit the crossbar with 4:52 left in the quarter and Rice skipped in a deep shot at the 4:18 mark of the period to make the score 7-3. Jones scored in the final minute of the half and Morrissey saved a shot on a Gaels power play with less than 10 seconds on the clock as the Wildcats went into the intermission with an 8-4 lead.
 
It was all Villanova in the second half. Iona did not score its first goal of the third quarter until there was less than a minute to play in the period and by then the Wildcats had grown the scoring margin to double digits. Rice skipped in another long shot with 6:18 left in the third quarter and five different Villanova players scored goals in the period. It was 10-4 with 4:59 to play when Morrissey saved a shot off a quick Iona restart following a foul against the Wildcats. Rice scored at the 3:41 mark of the period and Stuba trickled in a shot with 2:24 left, while tallies from Picard and Bianchi 30 seconds apart swelled the score to 14-4 with 1:20 on the clock.
 
A scoring drought of 9:33 for the Gaels was snapped on Laura Rockett's backhanded goal with 57 seconds left in the third quarter and Iona eventually made the score 15-7 with 7:19 left in the game on a score by Malia Naugle. Hansen skipped in a left-handed shot with 4:54 to play, Bianchi netted her fourth goal at the 3:59 mark of the quarter and Rice converted a penalty shot with 3:27 remaining. The final two Villanova goals were scored by Jones with 2:04 to go and McKinney with just over a minute left.