It's true, of course, that every game matters.
Yet when the calendar turns to league action – as it will on Thursday for the Villanova Wildcats as they host Seton Hall at the Higgins Soccer Complex – there is a subtle, unmistakable shift in tone. Call it familiarity, reality or whatever you choose, but the participants are fully cognizant that results in league play go a long way toward determining how a season is ultimately viewed.
"We've been tested in the non-conference part of the schedule," says senior forward
Chloe O'Neill, who has helped lead Villanova to a 6-2 overall mark thus far. "We've seen some different styles and I think we've handled it pretty well.
"But the Big East is something different. Every game is a challenge. It's physical and recovery is so important. We've got a lot of positive energy going into this Big East season."
O'Neill, now in her fourth season in the Blue and White, understands this better than most. She enters BIG EAST action on a sustained roll, having scored seven goals and added three assists in the pre-conference slate. On Aug. 30 she was named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week after recording four goals in wins over Colorado College and Rider. One week earlier, she was on the BIG EAST Honor Roll.
It's been a steady climb to this point for the Wildcats and O'Neill, an elite recruit born in Honolulu whose family eventually relocated to Florida. Her parents, Joseph and Ione, allowed her to sample a variety of sports –lacrosse, softball, even flag football in a boys' league.
"I tried all different kinds of sports," she says now. "Soccer was just kind of the one that stuck."
One morning, when she was 10, Joseph O'Neill woke his daughter for school and posed a question: would she have interest in being part of a travel soccer team?
"I vividly recall that day," she states.
Chloe O'Neill never hesitated. At that point, the sampling of sports was at an end. By age 11 she was a fixture with the Sunrise Sting club team. During her seven years with the side, it would register two national championships.
"(Soccer) became my first love," says O'Neill. "I was really committed from a very young age. I just loved it. I love winning, I love competition. I knew I wanted to play Division I soccer from a young age."
That vision grew closer to becoming a reality as she reached high school age. In fact, many of her contemporaries were making verbal pledges to colleges. As a high school freshman and sophomore, she and her family began paying close attention to the programs that were recruiting her, taking more than a few unofficial visits.
"It felt like I was visiting schools every weekend of my freshman and sophomore years," she says. "Honestly, it was very difficult. I didn't know what I wanted. All I knew was that I wanted to play soccer. And there were all these other factors coming in – do I want to be near home? Do I want to go to a good academic school?"
As a sophomore, O'Neill felt ready to make a call. She made a verbal commitment to Ohio State University in large part because she had made a connection with the Buckeyes' lead assistant coach.
"When I made that commitment, I was set," says O'Neill. "He sold me on the school, the campus, the atmosphere."
Alas, a few months later that Ohio State aide,
Chris McLain, was named head coach at Villanova.
"I was so devastated that he left Ohio State," states O'Neill.
Once the initial shock wore off, Joseph O'Neill – ironically a Philadelphia native himself – gently counseled that perhaps Chloe should consider McLain's new employer as an option. She ran into McLain at a tournament at Walt Disney World and began contemplating the notion of a different college destination.
A visit to Villanova was arranged in her junior year at St. Thomas Aquinas High School. It wasn't long before she reconsidered her original choice.
"My Dad and I just looked at each other and agreed 'this is it,'" O'Neill states. "I trusted Chris. He sold me on a dream. I fully believed in him and what he could do. And he's doing it."
Once she enrolled, she soon had another revelation.
"Before I came here," she notes, "my focus was always, soccer, soccer, soccer. When I got here, I realized there is so much more to my identity and life than just soccer, which is a good thing. Coming in, it was a wakeup call because Villanova is such a great academic school."
Last month, the Communication major was selected as August's Villanova Student-Athlete of the Month presented by Rothman Institute. She carries a 3.22 grade point average.
On the field the skill was apparent quickly. She started 18 games as a freshman in 2018, scoring five goals to go with three assists for 13 points. That performance earned her a place on the BIG EAST All-Freshman team. In 2019, she added four goals and three assists as a sophomore before a postponed 2020 season played in the spring due to COVID-19 that challenged everyone.
Through it all, O'Neill has been a cornerstone of a rising program that is now poised to take a step forward in the BIG EAST.
"The culture has grown in a very positive way from my freshman year to now," she states. "Overall, I think this is the best team I've played on, playing wise and off the field too. I'm very close to all my teammates.
"We're all on the same page. We want to win and do it as a team. I think that's very important."
As for the individual points, O'Neill says: "I'm surrounded by a great team."
The Wildcats quest for BIG EAST points begins Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. on West Campus (BIG EAST Digital Network presented by Flo Sports).
