Villanova returns home on Thursday evening to play host to the Richmond Spiders. The Wildcats enter play riding a three-game winning streak with a 4-1 record, while Richmond has won five straight and are 6-1 on the year. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
The Wildcats and Spiders will be meeting for just the second time when the two schools face one another on Thursday evening. The only other match-up came on Dec. 8, 1991, when Richmond tallied an 80-73 win in a game played at Villanova.Â
Entering play versus Richmond, the Wildcats have won 26 of their last 28 home games. Villanova captured 11 straight home contests to finish the 2021-22 season and were 13-2 at home last year. The Wildcats are currently 2-0 at home this season. Under fourth-year head coach
Denise Dillon, the Wildcats are 34-7 (.829) in games played at the Finneran Pavilion. Â
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It will be a homecoming on Thursday night for Richmond assistant coach/operations
Alex Louin. During her collegiate career, Louin was a standout at Villanova from 2014-2018 where she helped lead the Wildcats to an 83-50 record, four-straight 20-win seasons, a trip to the 2018 NCAA Tournament and three WNIT appearances. She currently ranks 10
th on Vilanova's all-time scoring list with 1,432 points and 12
th in rebounding with 672.
Junior guard
Lucy Olsen is off to a great start to the 2023-24 season. After five games, she has scored 119 points for an average of 23.8 points per game. She is currently shooting 49.4 percent from the field (44-of-89), 45.0 percent from three (9-of-20) and .733 from the foul line (22-of-30). She has had four 20-point games this year and now has nine for her career.
Villanova has received a solid contribution from its bench in the last two games. After the reserves scored 23 of Villanova's 63 points in the win over Holy Cross, the bench posted 28 of the 74 points in Sunday's win at Wake Forest. The top two reserves in the Wake Forest victory were junior
Kaitlyn Orihel who had 14 points and freshman
Brynn McCurry who added a career-high 12 points. The duo was a combined 9-of-15 from the field and 2-of-5 from three-point range.
The Wildcats hit the road on Sunday with an away game at Columbia. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
