NEW YORK—Graduate pitcher/utility Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) was named to the weekly BIG EAST Honor Roll in an announcement made by the conference office on Monday afternoon. This is the fifth time during the 2022 season and the 28^th time during her Villanova career that Rauch has earned weekly recognition from the BIG EAST. She has been a 16-time selection to the weekly Honor Roll, has been the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week on 10 occasions and is a two-time conference Player of the Week.
 
Rauch starred both in the circle and at the plate during four games last week. She pitched two complete games in a three-game series sweep of Georgetown over the weekend and previously had a two-inning relief stint in a non-conference game at Penn last Wednesday. In the three appearances Rauch went 2-0 with a 1.31 ERA and a 0.69 WHIP while holding opposing batters to a .175 average against her and racking up 23 strikeouts in 16.0 innings pitched.
 
In the Georgetown series over the weekend Rauch set the tone for the sweep in the opener on Friday afternoon when she tossed a three-hitter with 11 strikeouts. Rauch pitched the series finale on Sunday and worked a five-hitter with eight strikeouts, including striking out the side in the seventh inning to close out the game. She has now won six of her last seven decisions overall and in Sunday's game recorded her 10^th win of the season and her 100^th strikeout of the year.
 
Rauch had a monster week at the plate in the four games last week, slashing .462/.563/1.308 with three home runs and a triple in 13 plate appearances. She scored eight runs and had six runs batted in over the four games, including a big game against Penn during the week in which she tripled and hit two home runs in an 8-2 victory. Rauch homered again in the final game of the Georgetown series and, when she crossed home plate, tied the Villanova career record with her 156^th run scored. She is now even with Brittany Husk (2015-18) in the Wildcats record book in runs scored, while her 147 RBI in a Villanova uniform are one off the career record of 148 held by Sara Carlson (2000-03).
 
After going 4-0 last week the Wildcats are back at .500 for the season (19-19) for the first time since they were 7-7 on February 26. Villanova has gone 9-3 in its last 12 games and has moved into the middle of the pack in the BIG EAST standings with a 7-4 record in conference play.
 
Rauch was one of several Wildcats who put up big numbers last week. Junior third baseman Chloe Smith (Sacramento, Calif.) led Villanova with a .545 (6-for-11) batting average in the sweep of Georgetown, including a double and a home run in the three games.
 
She has in many ways been the catalyst for Villanova's turnaround in the win column in recent weeks. Smith was moved to the leadoff spot in the batting order on March 23 in a non-conference game at Princeton and in the 12 games since is batting .381 (16-for-42) with 11 runs scored. Perhaps more important than Smith's own stats in the past 12 games is the overall performance of the Wildcats offense in this stretch. Villanova is slashing .308/.389/.563 over the last 12 games and has recorded 41 extra-base hits while averaging 6.7 runs per game.  
 
Senior catcher Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.), the defending BIG EAST home run champion, went 4-for-10 against Georgetown with two doubles, two home runs and eight runs batted in. Freshman pitcher/right fielder Kelsey White (Taunton, Mass.) was 3-for-8 (.375) at the plate over the past week and made two appearances in the circle in which she logged five innings without allowing an earned run.
 
Villanova returns to action this week with a road series at Creighton from Thursday through Saturday.