VILLANOVA, Pa. – The regular season wraps up this weekend for Villanova volleyball (15-12, 8-8 BIG EAST), who welcome Providence and Connecticut to Jake Nevin Field House on Friday and Saturday to close out the 2024 BIG EAST campaign.

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
Saturday night will mark the final home match for Villanova's senior class and the annual Senior Night ceremony is on tap for the evening. The 'Cats will honor seniors Rose Crist, Elizabeth Feczko, Ellery Gray, Dani Ortiz and Ozzie Ozonoh, plus graduate students Riley Homer and Taylor Jakubowski, in a pregame ceremony on the Jake Nevin court. As a group, this class has accrued 57 total victories with plus-.500 campaigns in each of the last two seasons. These five have produced an All-BIG EAST Freshman Team selection (Crist), two major conference weekly awards (Crist OPOW, Feczko DPOW) and three non-conference All-Tournament nods (Crist 2022, Feczko & Ozonoh 2024). Academically, it's 15 BIG EAST All-Academic Team accolades and 23 Athletic Director's Honor Roll recipients from this group. On the court, these five have combined for more than 800 sets and 245 matches played with over 600 kills, 1100 digs and 150 blocks. The two graduate students have also left their mark on the program, with Homer playing a key role all five years and Jakubowski providing a vocal leader in 2024.

PHOTO FINISH    
Conference play finishes in the BIG EAST this weekend and though two spots are already locked up, five postseason hopefuls have big matches ahead. Creighton secured the regular season championship and Marquette earned the other bye, Connecticut and DePaul each clinched a berth but don't yet have a seed, and St. John's, Villanova and Xavier all have a fighting chance entering the final week. The Huskies and Blue Demons are each 10-6 but will both meet two current tournament teams this weekend, St. John's sits 9-7 with one-win Providence still on the ledger. Then there's Villanova and Xavier, each 8-8 but in dramatically different situations. Xavier plays No. 5 Creighton and RV Marquette to close out the campaign while VU gets last-place PC before a toss-up vs. Connecticut. To help matters for the 'Cats, the season sweep of Xavier means Villanova only has to match XU's win total this weekend to guarantee a Thanksgiving trip to the Cornhusker State.

FEELING OUT THE FRIARS

• Providence sits at 8-19 overall entering the final weekend of BIG EAST play, but just 1-15 in conference. The Friars earned their first league win on their Senior Day last Saturday, defeating DePaul in four sets at Alumni Hall.
• PC is led by outside hitter Shaliyah Rhoden, who paces the squad at 291 kills (nearly 100 better than the second best Friar) after a career-best 23 against DPU last week.
• Outside of Rhoden, Kayla Grant (194 kills, team-high 97 blocks, 22 aces) provides a force at the net, setter Miller McDonald has racked up 645 assists plus 239 digs and libero Jiji Lykins ranks in the conference's top 10 for digs (348).

UNDERSTANDING UCONN

• Connecticut owns a 22-6 record, undefeated in non-conference play and 10-6 against BIG EAST opponents. UConn is tied for the third seed in the upcoming league tournament, but could potentially be caught in the win column by all four other playoff contenders with a winless weekend.
• The Huskies rank in the conference's top three for blocks, service aces and opponent hitting percentage (all second) in addition to sitting third for hitting percentage.
• Emma Werkmeister leads the BIG EAST in service aces per set and ranks third in kills per frame (3.70) while Taylor Pannell is the team leader in terminations (262) on a BIG EAST top-10 hitting percentage (.322). Doga Kutlu is one of two conference players with over 1,000 assists this year and McKenna Brand is second in the league for total digs (398).

Both matches will stream on FloSports with statistics available on StatBroadcast.