NEW YORK—After setting a program record for the most conference wins in a season in its final regular season contest, Villanova (29-22, 16-7 BIG EAST) earned the #3 seed in the upcoming 2022 BIG EAST Softball Championship Presented by JEEP. The seeding for the conference tournament was announced on Sunday evening for the four-team championship which takes place from Thursday-Saturday, May 12-14, at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Ill.
 
In their first game at the BIG EAST Championship the Wildcats will face #2 seed Butler (31-15, 16-6) on Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. Central time (3 p.m. Eastern). The game can be seen live on the BIG EAST Digital Network Presented by SoFi on FloSports, with the winner moving on to a semifinal game against the winner of an earlier game between #1 seed Connecticut (36-16, 20-4) and #4 seed DePaul (28-22, 16-8) which will be played at 11 a.m. Central time on Thursday. The losing teams in each of the first two games will play an elimination contest on Thursday evening.


 
Villanova enters the conference tournament having won 19 of its last 25 games, including a 4-2 victory over the regular season champion Huskies on Sunday afternoon. That win pushed the Wildcats final record in BIG EAST play this year to 16-7 (.696) and established a new program record for conference wins in a single season. Villanova previously won 15 league contests in 2001 as well as last year. This season marks only the sixth time in the 29-year history of BIG EAST softball competition that the third place team has had as many as 16 wins.
 
The four qualifying teams for the BIG EAST Championship had already been determined prior to the final weekend of the regular season, but none of the seeds had been locked into place with three games to play. The #2, #3 and #4 seeds which eventually went to Butler, Villanova and DePaul were not determined until the last out of the regular season was made late Sunday afternoon.
 
Prior to the start of the season the Wildcats were picked as the preseason BIG EAST favorites after winning their first-ever conference title and advancing to an NCAA regional for the first time in school history last year. Villanova played a tough early-season schedule and was seven games below .500 as late in the year as March 23 (10-17) before going on an impressive run over the past six weeks which showcased the team's full potential. During the 19-5 run to end the regular season, the Wildcats batted .304 and had a team ERA of 1.80 while scoring double the number of runs as the opposition (132-61).
 
This is the seventh straight year (excluding the abbreviated 2020 season in which there was no regular season conference competition) that Villanova has qualified for the BIG EAST Championship and it will be the program's 19^th overall appearance in the conference tournament. The Wildcats are 17-29 all-time in the BIG EAST Championship.