VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Villanova women's lacrosse team ranks third in the preseason coaches' poll and junior Sydney Pappas earns preseason All-BIG EAST Honors the conference announced Wednesday.
"I'm really looking to kick this season off this weekend," Villanova Head Coach Jill Batcheller said. "While this is our highest preseason ranking since I've been here and I'm really proud of that, we know that we need to put in the work each day to compete against our strong by Big East conference."
With a total of 25 points, the Wildcats sit right behind Denver and UConn. Denver received 36 points and six first place votes to surpass UConn's 29 points. Georgetown and Marquette round out the top five as the Hoyas received 21 points with one first place vote and the Golden Eagles earned 19 points.
In the 2023 season, Villanova (3-3) ranked fourth among its BIG EAST competitors just behind Denver, Marquette and UConn. Denver finished undefeated in conference play going 6-0 while Marquette and UConn notched 5-1 and 4-2 records respectfully.
The Wildcats recorded statement wins against BIG EAST opponents in Butler (15-5), Georgetown (13-12) and Xavier (21-9) in route to the most wins in program history. Batcheller added 13 new 'Cats to the fold, while also returning key players in Pappas, juniors Amelia Ricciuti and Sami Carey, sophomores Juliet Walls, Maddie Luer and Maddy Stoddard as well as redshirt freshman Elena Torres.
Specifically, Pappas was named to the 2024 Preseason All-BIG EAST Team. The Garden City, N.Y., native appeared in 17 games while making 16 starts to lead the team in points with 64 and goals with 52 last season. Pappas garnered numerous accolades throughout the previous season including being named to the IWLCA Mid-Atlantic Region Second Team, BIG EAST Co-Attacker of the Year, All-BIG EAST First Team as well as earning a spot on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll three times.
"I'm so excited for this season," Pappas said. "With the mix of talented new faces along with our experienced players we are ready to compete and bring this program to the next level."
The third year etched her name in the record book with a trio of program season top-10 appearances. Her 64 points (52 goals, 11 assists) puts her tied with Meghan Carolan '02 for fourth all-time for points in a game which also puts the two sixth all-time for points per game at 3.75. With 52 goals, Pappas edged out Carolan to become third all-time for goals and fifth for goals per game (3.06).
Villanova will kick start the 2024 season with a scrimmage at home against Delaware on Saturday February 3 at 10:30 a.m. from Villanova Stadium.
For all of the latest updates surrounding the program, follow Villanova Women's Lacrosse on X, formally known as Twitter, and Instagram @novawlax.
