FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A sensational season for the Villanova softball program came to a close on Sunday afternoon as Arizona emerged victorious in the battle of the Wildcats with a 9-4 VU loss in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional Final.
The defeat does not diminish a tremendous year for Villanova in which the Wildcats went to the furthest round of the NCAA Tournament that the team has ever reached in the Regional Final.
VU's 2024 brought the program's fourth straight 30-win season, third BIG EAST title in four years and more NCAA Regional wins in one day than in the previous 48 seasons combined.
Tess Cites saved her best for last for Villanova (33-24), totaling her third three-hit effort of the season with a pair of doubles and two runs batted in.
Chloe Smith added a pair of knocks with a run scored and another driven in as Elizabeth Gray contributed the other RBI and Ava Franz the lone other knock.
Kelsey White received the loss after going two frames as the VU starter while Alyssa Seidler faced six batters in relief, Kat Gallant tossed a staff-high 2.2 innings with the lone Villanova strikeout and Caroline Pellicano delivered a shutdown stanza.
Arizona got on the board first in the opening frame, getting a baserunner via a bunt single before a base knock down the first base line and a sacrifice fly put UofA up 1-0.
Franz broke up the perfect game in the second with a two-out bloop single into right, then Smith rolled one to short that was mishandled to put runners on the corners. But the score remained the same as the third VU popout in just six outs was recorded, leaving Arizona ahead by one.
UofA added to that advantage in the second with lots of small ball, getting two aboard with bunts and moving them up on groundouts to plate the first of the inning. With a pair of outs and a runner on third, a two-run homer moved the edge to 4-0.
Cites roped a single to get a runner in the third before Elaina Wagner joined her aboard on a one-out walk, yet a double play ended VU's second straight RISP opportunity.
Another Arizona homer expanded the lead as a third-inning solo shot put them up by five before a walk, single and triple advanced the score to 7-0.
The Villanova offense came alive in the fourth, with the patience starting things out as Ally Jones worked a leadoff walk before White got plunked for a pair of baserunners. Smith kept up her stellar weekend with a looped single into left center to score one, then Gray lined a single over third base to plate another.
Cites delivered as she had all weekend, belting a double all the way to the wall to score a pair and create a 7-4 game through four frames.
A pair of Arizona dingers in the fifth moved it back to a five-run game, then Smith singled in the sixth for her second of the game but VU couldn't move her anywhere.
Pellicano set UofA down 1-2-3 in the bottom half of that frame and despite a leadoff double from Cites in the next stanza, the game ended as a 9-4 Arizona W.
