NEW YORK—Senior shortstop Megan Kern (Royersford, Pa.) was named to the weekly BIG EAST Honor Roll on Monday afternoon in an announcement made by the league office. This is the third time in her career that Kern was been a weekly honoree from the BIG EAST and it also marks the 23^rd consecutive week dating back to the middle of the 2019 season that Villanova has had at least one player garner weekly recognition.
 
Kern led the Wildcats in batting during the opening weekend of the season and slashed .462/.500/.769 in five games at the Buzz Classic hosted by Georgia Tech. She had a double and a home run in the tournament while scoring three runs, driving in two and drawing a walk. Villanova raced out of the gates with a 9-1 victory in five innings against Marshall in its season opener on Friday afternoon and closed the weekend with a 7-5 win over Saint Joseph's on Sunday morning.
 
It only took until the fourth batter of the 2022 season for a powerful Wildcats lineup to produce its first home run of the season. Kern batted with a runner at first base and two outs in the bottom of the first inning against Marshall on Friday and slugged a two-run home run far over the fence in straightaway center field for a 2-0 lead. She came up big in the win over Saint Joseph's as well, going 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored in a come-from-behind win. Kern had two hits and two runs scored in the first two innings alone as Villanova rallied from an early 3-0 deficit.
 
As a junior last season Kern was a second team All-BIG EAST selection when she batted .302 with a .516 slugging percentage and tied for second on the team with 12 doubles despite missing 16 games with an injury. She went on to be named to the All-Tournament Team at the BIG EAST Championship while helping the Wildcats win their first-ever BIG EAST title and advance to an NCAA Regional for the first time. During her first season at Villanova in 2020, Kern was named to the BIG EAST Honor Roll on February 10 and March 2.
 
Since head coach Bridget Orchard took over leading the Wildcats for the 2019 season, Villanova has earned BIG EAST weekly recognition in 27 out of a possible 30 weeks. During that span of time the Wildcats have earned eight Player of the Week awards, 10 Pitcher of the Week accolades, one Rookie of the Week honoree and 23 selections to the weekly Honor Roll.