MILWAUKEE, Wis.—The start of the 2023 BIG EAST Men's Lacrosse Championship presented by JEEP has arrived and #3 seed Villanova (10-4) will take on #2 seed Denver (9-4) in the second semifinal matchup on Thursday night from Valley Fields in Milwaukee. The game is scheduled for an 8:37 p.m. Central time (9:37 p.m. ET) start and will air live on CBS Sports Network with Jason Knapp and Steve Panarelli on the call. Thursday's nightcap will follow the first semifinal matchup between #1 seed Georgetown (10-3) and #4 seed Providence (6-8).
Villanova is the only BIG EAST men's lacrosse member to have played in the conference tournament all 11 years that it has been held. This year's semifinal matchup is a repeat of last year's game when the Wildcats and the Pioneers had the same seeds and Villanova came away with a 15-14 victory to advance to its third BIG EAST championship game. That contest was played at Georgetown's Cooper Field and is the only one of the previous 21 matchups between the Wildcats and Denver to occur at a neutral site. Thursday night's game will be the second.
As they look to advance in the conference tournament for the second straight year, the Wildcats will try to continue their success away from home. Villanova is 6-2 at road and neutral sites this year and has won 16 of its last 25 games away from home since the start of the 2020 season. The team is also 4-0 all-time at Valley Fields where this year's BIG EAST Championship is being played, although the Wildcats have never played a neutral game at the site. The four wins were in regular season matchups against Marquette during the 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Villanova is led by BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year
Matt Campbell (Madison, N.J.) who is a trophy nominee (top 25 finalist) for this year's Tewaaraton Award. Campbell has broken the Villanova career records for goals (152) and points (228) this season and leads the team with 60 points on the year. He has an active streak of 29 consecutive games with a point since the start of the 2022 campaign and is nine points away from tying the Wildcats single-season record of 69 points. Campbell is the fourth Villanova player to be named the BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year and has now been an All-BIG EAST selection four straight seasons.
The leading scorer for the Wildcats this season is fifth year attackman
Patrick Daly (Shrewsbury, Mass.) who has recorded the sixth season by a Villanova player with at least 40 goals scored. Daly's season totals are 40 goals, eight assists and 48 points. He has scored a goal in all 14 games played and has recorded a hat trick or better in 11 of the 14 outings. Daly is just six goals away from tying the program's single-season record and he needs just four more goals to tie the Wildcats previous career scoring record of 128 goals that Campbell broke earlier in the year.
Villanova senior faceoff specialist
Justin Coppola (Garden City, N.Y.) has been on a tear the past two weeks and was named a second team All-BIG EAST selection on Wednesday afternoon. Coppola has won 31 faceoff chances and picked up 28 ground balls in the Wildcats last two games against Marquette and Georgetown. In the Marquette game, his faceoff win at the start of overtime created the game-winning possession which clinched Villanova's spot in this week's conference tournament. The faceoff victory was also the 591
st of Coppola's career which set a new Wildcats record. Coppola became the program's all-time ground ball leader during the regular season finale at Georgetown.
Fifth year goalie
Will Vitton (Summit, N.J.) leads all active Division I players with 3,395:03 career minutes played. He has tallied 10+ saves in nine of the 14 games Villanova has played this season and is the program's career leader with 36 wins in goal. Vitton joined Daly and Coppola on the All-BIG EAST second team this year. He is second in the conference in both goals-against average (10.42) and save percentage (.502) while ranking third in the league with an average of 10.36 saves per game.
Defensive players
Reid Colwell (Westfield, N.J.) and
Chet Comizio (Basking Ridge, N.J.) were each first team All-BIG EAST selections when the postseason awards were announced this week. Colwell is having a breakout season and leads the Wildcats with 21 caused turnovers on the year. He was an honorable mention
Inside Lacrosse Midseason All-American and has registered two or more caused turnovers six times on the year. Comizio is Villanova's top SSDM and also plays on the wing on faceoffs. He is second on the squad with 46 ground balls this season to go along with 10 caused turnovers, two goals scored, three assists and five points.
Thursday's game is the second of the season between the Wildcats and Denver. In the regular season matchup between the teams the Pioneers tallied a 12-6 win on their home field on April 8. Six different players scored goals in that contest for Villanova and the score was tied 2-2 after the first quarter before the Wildcats were kept off the scoreboard until late in the third period.
In last year's BIG EAST semifinal matchup, Villanova built leads of 5-2 by the end of the first quarter and 11-7 at halftime, then had its largest lead of the game at 14-8 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter before Denver stormed back with five straight goals. The Wildcats lead was trimmed to 14-13 with 3:47 left, but a
Matt Campbell goal with 20 seconds remaining added critical insurance and made the score 15-13 just moments before the Pioneers put in a final tally with 11 seconds remaining to account for the final 15-14 margin.
The winners of Thursday night's semifinal contests will meet in the BIG EAST championship game on Saturday at 3:37 p.m. Central time on CBS Sports Network.
