STORRS, Conn.—Sophomore left fielder Tess Cites (Horseheads, N.Y.) hit a game-tying single with one out in the top of the seventh inning and graduate right fielder Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) followed with a go-ahead, two-run single two batters later as Villanova (29-22, 16-7 BIG EAST) set a new program record for most conference wins in a season with a 4-2 victory over Connecticut (36-16, 20-4 BIG EAST) at Burrill Family Field on Sunday afternoon. This is the first time that the Wildcats have won 16 conference games and Sunday's victory secured the #3 seed for Villanova in the upcoming BIG EAST Championship.
 
Head coach Bridget Orchard has led the Wildcats to a combined 31-9 record in regular season BIG EAST games over the past two years. Last season Villanova tied the 2001 team which held the previous school record with 15 conference wins in a season, with this year's squad surpassing that total by one in their final game before the postseason. The Wildcats are one of the hotter teams in the country heading into the conference tournament in Rosemont, Ill., with the defending BIG EAST champions having gone 19-5 over their past 24 games to surge towards the top of the conference standings.
 
Freshman pitcher Kelsey White (Taunton, Mass.) threw a complete game to earn her sixth win of the season and kept the Huskies off the scoreboard after the first inning. Villanova trailed 2-1 when it came to bat in the top of the seventh inning but rallied with three runs on four hits to salvage the final game of a three-game series after Connecticut won a pair of close games earlier in the weekend. The teams also met in the final regular season series last year, then played each other three more times during the BIG EAST Championship.
 
The seventh inning rally got started quickly with junior catcher Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) leading off the inning with a double to the gap in left-center. Cites singled to left with one out to bring home freshman pinch runner Alexa Raphael (West Caldwell, N.J.) and knot the score at 2-2. With two outs in the inning, graduate second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) singled and moved up to second on a fielding error. Rauch was up next and lined the first pitch she saw into right field to score both Cites and Giampolo with the go-ahead runs. White (6-6, 3.31 ERA) retired the Huskies in order in the bottom of the seventh on a fly out to left and two groundouts.
 
Earlier in the game the Wildcats scored their first run in the top of the fifth inning when senior offensive player Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.) tripled, Cites singled and Giampolo eventually hit a sacrifice fly to right. Cites was on base in all three of her plate appearances on the day, going 2-for-2 with a walk, and White added two hits to go along with her second complete game of the season.
 
Connecticut scored twice in the bottom of the first inning against White on an RBI single by Olivia Sappington and a run-scoring double off the bat of Sami Barnett. White struck out left fielder Hollis Wivell to end the inning and was unscathed the rest of the game to allow Villanova to rally.
 
The 2022 BIG EAST Softball Championship Presented by JEEP runs from Thursday through Saturday, May 12-14 at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Ill.. The Wildcats earned the #3 seed in the tournament and will take on #2 seed Butler on Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern time (2 p.m. Central time).