VILLANOVA, Pa.—The start of the 2022 softball season officially arrives on Friday afternoon when the Wildcats open play in the Buzz Classic at Georgia Tech. The first weekend of the year features a five-game slate for Villanova, which will square off against both Marshall and Georgia Tech on Friday and Saturday before taking on Saint Joseph's on Sunday morning. Below is a notebook of team storylines for the 2022 season.
 
VILLANOVA SOFTBALL: This is the 46^th season of varsity softball for the Wildcats, who open a season for the first time ever as the BIG EAST defending champions. Villanova is coming off the first conference title, first NCAA Regional appearance and first NCAA Regional victory last Spring when the team went 37-15 overall. The softball program was formed during the 1970's and it is believed that 1977 was the first year of varsity competition, although the fledgling Wildcats had an official roster and played games prior to the 1977 season. Using that year as a starting point, the program's all-time record is 1,016-867-13 (.539).
 
GETTING BACK TO GEORGIA: This weekend marks only the second time that Villanova Softball will travel to the state of Georgia. The previous occasion was in 2003 when the Wildcats opened the season by playing in the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus. Villanova would ultimately go 34-15-1 that season but the team opened the season with four straight losses against ranked opponents in the NFCA tournament, falling to No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 9 LSU, No. 7 Cal State Fullerton and No. 21 Ohio State by a combined total of just 10 runs.
 
STARTING THE SEASON: Villanova is 25-20 all-time in season openers and has won four of its past five openers. The 1989 season was the first year that the Wildcats played games in February and the program is 80-85 (.485) all-time during the month. Amidst the uncertainty that surrounded the start of the 2021 campaign, Villanova began last season with five straight losses in February before winning 37 of its final 47 games the rest of the way.
 
UNFAMILIAR FOES: During the first two days of the Buzz Classic this weekend the Wildcats will play Marshall and Georgia Tech for the first time ever on the softball diamond. Those teams will become the 231^st and 232^nd opponents that Villanova has faced during its varsity history. It will be a different story on the final day at Georgia Tech when the Wildcats square off against Philly rival Saint Joseph's. Villanova leads the all-time series with the Hawks by a 39-24-1 margin. Only five of the 64 previous meetings between the two schools have been played at a neutral site.
 
PRESEASON FAVORITES: Villanova was picked atop a preseason poll of BIG EAST head coaches for the second straight season. After winning their first-ever conference title last year, the Wildcats return 16 letterwinners and all five of its All-BIG EAST performers from last year. The group includes fifth-year pitcher/utility Paige Rauch who was a third team All-American last season and became the first player in BIG EAST history to sweep the league's Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year honors in the same season.
 
ACCOLADES FOR PAIGE: Graduate pitcher/utility Paige Rauch has earned several preseason honors ahead of her final year of collegiate eligibility. After being a third team NFCA All-American last season, Rauch has been named a preseason second team All-American by D1Softball and a third team preseason All-America honoree by Softball America. She also came in at No. 33 on the Softball America Preseason College Top 100 list and was ranked No. 21 on the Extra Elite 100 College Player Rankings released by Extra Innings Softball. Rauch begins the 2022 season as the Wildcats all-time leader in career home runs (39), walks (97), batting average (.426), on-base percentage (.539), slugging percentage (.844) and OPS (1.383). She also holds the program's all-time single-season records in each of those categories as well as setting a new single-season record with nine shutouts as a pitcher last season.
 
SEASON OF SUCCESS: Villanova went 37-15 (.712) in 2021 to record the fourth-highest winning percentage and fifth-most wins in a single season in school history. Included in that mark is a 15-2 (.882) record in regular season BIG EAST play which set a new program mark for highest winning percentage in conference games and tied the record for most BIG EAST wins in a single season. Last year was the 14^th time that the Wildcats won at least 30 games, and their record of 30-12 when they notched their 30^th win of the year was the team's best-record ever through 42 games.
 
SIX HONOREES RETURN: Among the 16 letterwinners who return to the Wildcats from last season are six student-athletes who earned All-BIG EAST and/or NFCA Mideast All-Region honors for the 2021 season. Graduate pitcher/utility Paige Rauch and senior catcher Ryan Henry were named first team all-conference honorees a year ago. Graduate second baseman Angela Giampolo, senior shortstop Megan Kern and junior catcher Ally Jones were each named to the All-BIG EAST second team. As for all-region accolades, Rauch and junior third baseman Chloe Smith were first team selections. Jones was a second team Mideast All-Region choice and Henry was chosen to the third team.
 
CONSECUTIVE GAMES PLAYED: Graduate second baseman Angela Giampolo begins the 2022 season with an active streak of 177 consecutive games played dating back to her freshman season in 2018. The streak is the fifth-longest in school history and is eight games behind the fourth-longest streak of 185 consecutive games played by outfielder Jessica DeLuca from 1995-98. During her career Giampolo has started 181 of the 186 games (97.3%) that Villanova has played. She is a career .297/.388/.436 hitter with 164 hits, 136 runs scored, 33 doubles, 12 home runs, 64 walks and 33 stolen bases. Giampolo is currently tied for second in school history in runs scored, ranks fifth in walks and is sixth in hit by pitch (22). She also ranks in the top-20 in school history in eight other offensive categories.
 
STARTING EVERY GAME: Graduate pitcher/utility Paige Rauch has started all 132 games the Wildcats have played since her arrival to the team in 2019. Rauch is the only player in school history to start every game of her Villanova career.
 
OFFENSIVELY MINDED: Villanova had the best all-around offensive season in its history last year and either set or tied five single-season program records. The Wildcats hit the most home runs (59), had the highest OPS (.873) and drew the most walks (187) of any season since becoming a varsity sport in 1977. The team also tied its single-season records with 293 runs scored and six intentional walks, while posting the second-highest marks in on-base percentage (.387), slugging percentage (.486), runs batted in (268) and total bases (677).
 
PATIENT AT THE PLATE: Villanova batters did an excellent job last season of working the count to either wait for their pitch or take a walk. Nearly 20 percent (19.4%) of the Wildcats plate appearances in 2021 (316 of 1,632) resulted in a full count, including 45 percent of the team's school-record 187 walks (84 of 187) coming on 3-2 pitches. Junior catcher Ally Jones drew 21 of her 24 walks on full counts as a sophomore last year, while the team's total of 84 full-count walks was especially impressive considering that Paige Rauch was walked on four pitches 26 times as teams repeatedly pitched around her during the year.
 
SCORING LATE: One of the traits that made Villanova successful last season was the team's ability to score runs late in games. The Wildcats plated 102 of their 293 runs scored (34.8 percent) in the fifth and sixth innings last year, while nearly half of the team's run production (137 runs out of 293 scored, 46.8 percent) came from the fifth inning on. Paige Rauch led the team with 25 RBI from the fifth inning on, while Angela Giampolo had 18 such RBI and Ryan Henry had 17. Villanova was 27-1 when leading after five innings and 30-1 when it held a lead after six innings.
 
HOME RUN HAPPY: After an 0-6 start to the 2021 season the Wildcats tallied their first win of the year against Hofstra on March 7 when they hit four home runs in a 5-4 victory. That game was a sign of things to come, as beginning with that contest Villanova was 29-2 the rest of the way when it hit at least one home run. The Wildcats set a single-season school record with 59 homers last year and hit multiple home runs in a game 18 times.
 
35%: Villanova scored 35 percent of its runs last season (104 of 293) on home runs. The team hit 27 of its school-record 59 homers with at least one runner on base, including six grand slams on the year. All six grand slams came from a different batter.
 
33%: Villanova had 217 batters reach base safely via a walk (187) or a hit by pitch (30) last season. Of those runners, 71, or 33 percent, came around to score.