PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Villanova Wildcats completed a marathon reverse sweep on Saturday, taking down the Providence Friars in a five-set thriller (27-29, 25-27, 25-18, 25-14, 17-15) at Alumni Hall.
Abby Harrell (match-high 21 kills, 10 digs) and Cat Young (career-best 15 kills and team-high 15 digs) each notched their second double-double in as many days for Villanova (12-7, 5-3 BIG EAST), Harrell's fifth of the year and Young's third career.
Alyssa Nelson contributed a career-best 42 assists in the bout and 10 digs added another double-double for the first-year setter as Campbell McKinnon tallied her own career-high 19 kills on a .424 hitting percentage.
It was the first double-digit kill performance of Taylor Lewis' collegiate campaign, contributing 12 terminations on the day, and Ozzie Ozonoh totaled a match and career-best seven total blocks with seven kills.
"Anytime you have a young team and can win on the road, it's a positive," head coach Josh Steinbach said. "We weren't happy with how we played at times, but we dominated in points scored. We really battled today and we're always glad to come out with a victory."
It was just Villanova's third five-set match of the season and the first in BIG EAST play, as well as VU's longest match of the year at just under three hours.
As a unit, the Wildcats hit .339 with four of the six attackers above .300 on the day. The 'Cats out-scored the Friars by almost 20 with 15 more kills and tallied more assists, digs and blocks in the contest.
The Wildcats began the match ahead 7-3, but the Friars battled back to tie the first frame at 13-all before the sides traded three-point runs to force a PC pause. After the timeout, Providence used five straight to induce a pair of Villanova breaks, but VU battled back to knot it up at 21. The teams repeatedly sided out up until a 3-0 PC string won the home side the set in extra points at 29-27.
Villanova secured an early 11-6 advantage in the second to force a Providence timeout, but the Friars responded with four of their own and moved to a 14-13 lead. It remained close the rest of the period with PC staving off back-to-back set points and going on to another long set victory.
It was another hot VU start in the third with a 9-5 opening stretch causing a Friar timeout and extending it to 16-10 before another pause. A personal 3-0 run from Young moved the Wildcats into prime position, allowing a 25-18 set victory to extend the match.
The 'Cats went up 7-3 to begin the fourth and moved to 14-8 before a Providence TO. Villanova continued to make its presence felt by continuing on to an 18-9 lead and another PC break, then powering through to force a fifth with a 25-14 frame.
It was the Harrell show to gain early control of the fifth for the Wildcats with four kills in five points from the sophomore to send VU ahead 7-3, then an Ozonoh solo block switched sides with the 'Cats up three.
As usual the hosts battled back and evened it up at 12-all before earning a match point at 15-14, but a Steinbach timeout iced the server and Villanova took advantage of back-to-back PC errors before a Harrell ace fittingly ended the contest.
With the victory, VU extended its all-time lead over the Friars to 28-21 with wins in five of the last six bouts dating back to the 2021 campaign.
UP NEXT: Next week will be wonky for the Wildcats as Villanova will travel to Queens for a Wednesday competition at St. John's before a Sunday home bout against Butler at Jake Nevin.
