STORRS, Conn.—The first day of play in the 2021 BIG EAST Softball Championship Presented by JEEP is on Thursday afternoon and #2 seed Villanova (32-12) will face off against #3 seed Connecticut (20-18) at 3 p.m. at the Burrill Family Field on the UConn campus. The game will be broadcast live by BIG EAST Digital Network and can be seen free of charge on YouTube. The winner of Thursday's game will face the winner of an earlier game between #1 seed DePaul (25-9) and #4 seed Butler (16-19-1).
 
This season will mark the 18^th appearance all-time for the Wildcats in the BIG EAST Championship and the fourth time that Villanova enters the conference tournament as a #2 seed, which represents the highest seed the Wildcats have earned based on regular season league play. Villanova went 15-2 during the regular season conference schedule and set a program record with its highest-ever BIG EAST winning percentage (.882). Beginning with a win over Hofstra in the second game of a doubleheader on March 7, the Wildcats have won 32 of their last 38 games overall entering the postseason.
 
Villanova owns a 13-28 all-time record in the BIG EAST Championship and has reached the championship game on three occasions. For the first time since 2005, this year's conference tournament will be a double elimination format. The championship has been double elimination from its debut in 1990 through the 2005 championship before switching to single elimination for 14 years from 2006-19. In the original format, the Wildcats made 11 appearances in the conference tournament from 1992-05 and during that span won at least one game nine times.
 
It is hard to believe that it has been two years since there has been a BIG EAST Championship, but back in 2019 fourth-seeded Villanova advanced to the championship game and battled DePaul to the wire before falling in an 11-10 contest. The teams combined for 21 runs on 23 hits in the offensive onslaught that day, with the Wildcats hitting two home runs and having two different players with three RBI. One day earlier, Villanova knocked out top-seed St. John's from the conference tournament with a 6-4 victory to notch its first postseason win since 2004.
 
This year's Wildcats are a battle-tested team with plenty of star power throughout the lineup. Senior pitcher/utility Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) became the first player to sweep the BIG EAST Player of the Year and BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year awards in the same season when the conference announced its regular season awards on Wednesday morning. Rauch was a unanimous selection to the All-BIG EAST First Team and was one of five Villanova players to earn all-conference recognition.
 
Junior catcher Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.) joined Rauch in earning first team recognition. Senior second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.), sophomore catcher Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) and junior shortstop Megan Kern (Royersford, Pa.) were all named to the second team. The five total selections for the Wildcats are the most since the 2016 season.
 
Thursday's opening game in the conference tournament will be a rematch of the final weekend of the regular season when Villanova swept three games from the Huskies at the Villanova Softball Complex. Giampolo drove in six runs in the series, including the go-ahead runs in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader with a three-run double. She also brought home the tying and go-ahead runs in the regular season finale on Sunday. Rauch was on base seven times in 12 plate appearances last weekend and pitched a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts in the series opener.