NEW YORK—Graduate pitcher Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) and freshman right fielder Kelsey White (Taunton, Mass.) earned weekly awards from the BIG EAST in an announcement made by the conference office on Monday afternoon. Rauch was named the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season and the 10^th time in her career, while White was named the BIG EAST Rookie of the Week for the first time. The pair of weekly honors came after Villanova swept a three-game conference series against St. John's over the weekend.
 
Rauch has earned weekly recognition from the BIG EAST an incredible 26 times during her Wildcats career. She has been the Pitcher of the Week 10 times, the Player of the Week on two occasions and has garnered a spot on the weekly Honor Roll a total of 14 times. No other player in program history has earned that many weekly awards from the conference during their careers; former Villanova pitcher Kate Poppe ranks second to Rauch with 16 career weekly honors (13 Honor Roll, three Pitcher of the Week).
 
In the series sweep against the Red Storm over the weekend Rauch made two starts in the circle and pitched complete games in both outings. She went 2-0 with a 0.54 ERA in the two starts, with the Wildcats winning those games by scores of 6-2 and 9-1. Rauch allowed just eight hits over 13.0 innings pitched and did not issue a walk to any of the 48 batters she faced. She pitched to a 0.615 WHIP in the two starts and held St. John's batters to going 8-for-47 (.170) with 12 strikeouts against her. During the 6-2 win in the series opener on Friday afternoon, Rauch became the seventh pitcher to reach 500 strikeouts during their Villanova careers.
 
Rauch also hit a home run in each of the games that she started in the circle over the weekend, including a game-ending three-run shot in the series finale on Sunday. In four games overall last week – including the series against the Red Storm and a midweek non-conference game at Princeton – Rauch batted was 5-for-14 (.357) at the plate with four runs scored, five RBI and a walk.
 
This is the first career weekly honor for White, who has come on strong for the Wildcats in recent weeks. She led the team with a .600 (6-for-10) batting average in four games last week and keyed the final win over St. John's with a three-run home run in the first inning. It was the first collegiate home run for White, who spotted Villanova an early 3-0 lead that they never looked back from. In the four games last week White went 6-for-10 at the plate with a run scored, five RBI, a double, the home run and three walks. She did not strike out in 13 plate appearances and slashed .600/.692/1.000 for the week.
 
White has been a significant contributor for the Wildcats this season both at the plate and in the circle. She is slashing .364/.462/.515 over 39 plate appearances with two doubles, one home run and six walks. White has reached base safely in each of her last eight games played. She has made 15 appearances as a pitcher during the season, including seven starts with one complete game. White ranks second on the pitching staff with three victories and has pitched to a 3.95 ERA over 44 1/3 innings.
 
Villanova improved to 13-17 on the season and 3-2 in the BIG EAST with its series sweep over the weekend. This week the Wildcats will host a home game against Saint Joseph's on Wednesday afternoon and then travel to DePaul for a weekend series from Friday-Sunday.