VILLANOVA, Pa. – It's the penultimate week of regular season BIG EAST volleyball and Villanova (14-11, 7-7 BIG EAST) will kick off this week's schedule on Wednesday night by hosting the St. John's Red Storm in a match featuring two of the current six tournament teams.

JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES    
A pair of Wildcat veterans have reached major career milestones in the last two weekends with senior libero Elizabeth Feczko crossing the 1,000 dig plateau on Saturday and Riley Homer notching her 1,000 kill at No. 6 Creighton two Sundays ago. Feczko reached her benchmark at home after a season-best weekend, totaling 21 digs in each matchup for the best individual defensive matches of the year for VU. The western Pennsylvania product has been a four-year contributor for VU, the primary starting libero as a sophomore and senior in addition to DS duties in her other two seasons. Homer joined the 1K kill club in Omaha, the 20th Wildcat ever and first since Amanda Pedersen-Henry in 2019 to reach that mark. An All-BIG EAST selection as a true freshman, the 6-foot-2 pin hitter crossed the 1,000 point threshold in October of 2023 as well.

CONFERENCE CRUNCH TIME    
It's nearly conference tournament time in college volleyball as the BIG EAST regular season winds down next weekend, and it'll be a photo finish for which six teams will make the late November trek to Omaha. Creighton and Marquette have each locked up spots in the league playoffs with CU undefeated in BIG EAST play and the Golden Eagles owning just a pair of losses (both to Creighton) with only four matches to play. From there, right now it's a five-team battle for the other four slots, two with a 9-5 record and three (including the Wildcats) at a 7-7 mark. As it currently stands, the 'Cats are the sixth and final seed heading to DJ Sokol Arena due to the head-to-head tiebreaker with Xavier. Villanova has a pair of contests remaining against current members of the tournament field to bolster their resume: Wednesday against St. John's and the regular season finale versus Connecticut. After losses to each of those squads in the first go-around, VU could greatly use victories over the Johnnies and Huskies for tiebreaking scenarios. Even so, three wins in the final four matches all but guarantee the 'Cats a second straight berth to the conference tournament, and even a pair of victories will likely be enough for a Thanksgiving week expedition to the Cornhusker State.

STARING AT ST. JOHN'S

• The Red Storm own an 18-10 overall record, tied for the fifth spot in the BIG EAST Tournament with a 7-7 mark in conference play after sweeping the weekend with Ws over DePaul and Xavier. 
• St. John's has the league's reigning Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, with Erin Jones (OPOW) ranking fourth in kills and second in aces with six triple doubles (one off a conference record) while libero and DPOW Rashanny Solano Smith is third in digs per set.
• The Johnnies are fourth in the league as a team for assists, kills and blocks plus third in opponent hitting. Outside of Jones and Solano Smith, Giorgia Walther is ninth in the conference for kills, Wiktoria Kowalczyk is fifth in assists and Lucrezia Lodi racked up 24 terminations versus VU last time.

Wednesday night's match will stream on FloSports with live stats published on StatBroadcast.