VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova volleyball split the weekend with a loss on Saturday evening, falling to the DePaul Blue Demons in five sets (25-23, 16-25, 23-25, 25-22, 11-15) at Jake Nevin Field House.

Taylor Lewis had a record day for Villanova (14-11, 7-7 BIG EAST), tallying a career-high 16 kills to lead the Wildcats while Elizabeth Feczko reached 1,000 career digs with a team-best 21 as the 'Cats set a season-high with 78 on the night. 

Campbell McKinnon (14 kills, team-high .429 hitting), Riley Homer (13) and Cat Young (11) each contributed double digit terminations as Abby Harrell added her sixth double-double this season with 11 kills and 14 digs.

Alyssa Nelson totaled her seventh double-double of the year and second career against DPU with 30 assists and a career-high 17 digs with Taylor Jakubowski putting up her sixth this season on 25 assists, 18 digs and a match-best two aces.

"That's a tough loss, we played really hard," head coach Josh Steinbach said. "That's a 50-50 matchup, it could have gone either way but DePaul made a couple plays at the end and pulled it out."

After a tight start to the first set, Villanova used a 4-0 stretch to force a DPU timeout at 14-10 but the Blue Demons answered with four of their own to tie it at 17-all. After Jakubowski went on her second three-point serving run of the period to get the 'Cats to set point, VU weathered a DPU run to take the first 25-23.

The Wildcats got the first point of the second stanza, but it was all DePaul from then on as the Blue Demons went up 5-2 and didn't look back en route to a 25-16 victory and an even match.

Villanova was the first to create distance in the third with an 8-4 stretch putting VU up four before a DePaul timeout, but the Blue Demons turned the tides using a 10-4 run of their own to take the frame 25-23.

The 'Cats jumped on DPU in the fourth, forcing an early timeout after leads of 3-0 and 9-3 in VU's favor. DePaul made it interesting by closing the gap to 19-18, but Villanova re-grouped to force five with a 25-22 win.

The Blue Demons used a quick 3-0 run to gain control of the fourth, forcing a Wildcat pause at 6-2 and the side switch at 8-3. Villanova rallied back to get it within one, but DPU took four out of the final five points to take the match.