VILLANOVA, Pa.—The 51^st season of Villanova field hockey will begin and end with home games at the Conshohocken Proving Grounds, with the Wildcats slated to play 10 games on their home field during the 2023 campaign which is less than seven weeks away. Head coach Joanie Milhous and her Villanova squad begin the season on Friday, August 25 with a 5 p.m. home game against Ball State. Four of the Wildcats first five games are at home over the first three weeks of the season.
 
After five straight non-conference games to begin the year, Villanova opens BIG EAST play on Friday, September 15 when it travels to Georgetown for a 1 p.m. contest. There are seven regular season conference games on the schedule and, as always, the Wildcats will be playing for a top-four finish in the BIG EAST standings and a spot in the postseason conference championship which takes place on November 3 and 5 at Temple.
 
The conference opponents on the Villanova home schedule include Connecticut (September 29/4pm), Old Dominion (October 13/3pm) and Providence (October 27/5pm). The Wildcats were 3-1 in conference home games a year ago. In addition to the BIG EAST opener at Georgetown, the other road games on the conference schedule are at Quinnipiac (September 22/3pm), Liberty (October 6/3pm) and Temple (October 20/1pm).
 
Villanova's season opener against Ball State on August 25 is the only game on the schedule for the opening weekend of the season. Following that contest the Wildcats will return to action on the road on Friday, September 1 with a 5 p.m. game at 2022 CAA champion Delaware. The next three games will be at home against Longwood (September 3/12pm), Rutgers (September 8/6pm) and La Salle (September 10/12pm).
 
Five additional games make up the remainder of the regular season non-conference schedule. The five contests include home games against Saint Francis (September 17/12pm), James Madison (October 1/12pm) and Penn (October 8/12pm) in addition to road contests versus Fairfield (September 24/1pm) and Drexel (October 22/3pm). Villanova has played each of this year's non-conference opponents in previous seasons and is 97-73-5 (.569) all-time against its 2023 non-conference foes.
 
Villanova is coming off a 2022 season in which it went 11-6 (.647) and tallied its highest win total in 14 years. The team started and finished strong a year ago, winning both its first three games and its final three contests of the season. Last season also marked the first time since 2005 that the Wildcats had three or more separate winning streaks of at least three games during a single season.