VILLANOVA, Pa. – Coach
Mike Corrado and Men's Lacrosse will kick off the 2025 season tomorrow, Sunday, February 9, against the Penn State Nittany Lions. This will be Corrado's 19
th season at the helm and 31
st overall with the program.
In 2024, the Wildcats finished 9-7 and made a trip to the BIG EAST Championship game, defeating the #1 seed in Denver during the semi-final. The team looks ahead to more success in the upcoming year, as the roster contains 31 returners, creating a very experienced core along the attack and defensive fronts.
"First and foremost, if we could accomplish that [on winning a BIG EAST Championship being a team goal this season], Corrado said." "We've been so close the last couple of years… In the finals two of the last three years."
To start 2025, the Wildcats were chosen to finish third in the BIG EAST through voting conducted in the preseason coaches' poll. Villanova has yet to rank below the top four projected seeds in the preseason poll since joining the BIG EAST in 2013, as they would pick up their tenth straight winning season by going over .500 this upcoming year.
On January 23, graduate student attackman
Matt Licata and junior defender
Jack Shoemaker were honored by the BIG EAST Conference by being nominated to the Preseason All-BIG EAST team. Licata made the all-conference First Team in 2024 and earned six weekly awards. This was Shoemaker's second career award from the conference and first since winning a Weekly Honor Roll nod for a standout defensive performance against Colgate for the week of February 26, 2024, where he caused three turnovers and scooped up four groundballs.
Key returners for the Wildcats are comprised of many second-year players. Coming into the 2024 season, it was an unknown what the young Wildcats would bring to the table as they made up a majority of the team. Last season's team vanquished that wonder quickly, as redshirt freshman
Colin Michener scored 36 goals and goalkeeper
Anthony Wilson, also a redshirt freshman, started all 16 games while only allowing 10.35 goals per game.
Lucas Newton was another of those second-year players yet to make an appearance at the beginning of 2024, who became a vital attackman on the aggressive offense. In 2025, VU only returns four starters that are seniors or higher.
Despite losing three familiar faces in
Sam Parkinson,
Mason Reale, and
Will Wheeler in the midfield, Villanova maintains a plethora of experience with
Nicholas Lucchesi,
Tyler Boes,
Dan Martin, and
Luke Raymond, the other offensive captain alongside Licata, all returning for 2025. Those four combined for 53 goals last season and were able to help the Wildcats earn the third highest scoring offense in the BIG EAST.
The coaching staff was able to navigate the transfer portal in the 2024 offseason by signing three graduate transfers to this season's roster.
Brett Mallee,
Pete Hewitt, and
Tyler Sandoval all will suit up for Villanova in 2025 for their final year of eligibility while obtaining master's degrees. Mallee, a Philadelphia native, spent the first four seasons of his career at Yale, appearing in 35 games where he picked up 23 ground balls and caused 10 turnovers. Hewitt spent his undergraduate tenure at Cabrini University, which Villanova assumed ownership of in the summer of 2024. In his five seasons as a Cavalier defensive midfielder, he picked up 196 ground balls and caused 46 turnovers. Sandoval joins the Wildcats after playing at Princeton University from 2020 through 2024. He was the starting faceoff specialist in 2022 and the first half of 2023 for the Tigers, as he has battled injuries throughout his collegiate career. For his career, Sandoval is 307/614 on faceoff attempts, coming out to a 50.0% win rate.
When asked about having veteran leadership on the team with having four athletes in their fifth years of college with the three graduate transfers and
Matt Licata on the 2025 squad. Corrado mentioned, "As a coach, when you can put a 23-year-old in your locker room, it's really a good thing."
In the circle, Sandoval is a key addition to the group of FOGOs, headed by coach John "Woody" Derham. Last year, after a midseason injury and now the graduation of program record holder in both ground balls and face-off wins,
Justin Coppola,
Ryan Cunningham stepped up and played a greatly important role down the stretch.
George Glomb, who also spent time facing off, returns as well.
The defense suffered a key loss in defender
Stephen Zupicich, who is now with the Maryland Whipsnakes in the PLL, who caused 51 turnovers a season ago, the fourth most in a single season in program history, while also leading the nation with 3.19 per game. An experienced, strong unit will be deployed in 2025, which includes Mallee and two captains, Shoemaker and
David Evanchick, as well as seniors
Aidan Ahearn and
Tripp Robinson.
In net, the Wildcats have the aforementioned Wilson, a 2024 BIG EAST All-Tournament honoree for his stellar performance in the event, holding the two top offenses in the conference, Denver and Georgetown, to just 20 combined goals. Backing him up are two newcomers:
Denis Fargione and transfer junior
David Sadasivam. The latter of the two comes to the Main Line after starting 13 games at Hampton last season and ranking fourth in the CAA with 11.62 saves per game, including a 21-save game.
The Wildcats will play five teams that were ranked in the Preseason Top 20 Rankings by Inside Lacrosse and faced off against #4 Princeton and RV Rutgers in preseason scrimmages to tune up for the season ahead.
Coach Corrado was interviewed prior to this season by Villanova Athletics on his outlook for this season, as well as this week's matchup against Penn State. That interview can be found below.
2025 VILLANOVA MEN'S LACROSSE SCHEDULE
2.9 #12 Penn State 12:00 P.M.
2.15 Yale 12:00 P.M.
2.22 @ Colgate 12:00 P.M.
2.28 Lehigh 4:00 P.M.
3.4 Drexel 4:00 P.M.
3.8 @ Penn 3:30 P.M.
3.15 @ Saint Joseph's 3:30 P.M.
3.17 Brown 3:00 P.M.
3.29 @ Denver* 5:00 P.M.
4.5 @ Providence* 12:00 P.M.
4.12 St. John's* 12:00 P.M.
4.19 Marquette* 12:00 P.M.
4.25 Georgetown 7:00 P.M.
*denotes BIG EAST conference game
home games bolded
UP NEXT
Villanova Men's Lacrosse will return to action tomorrow, February 9 at 12:00 P.M., when they host the Penn State Nittany Lions at Villanova Stadium.
TICKETING
Season tickets and individual game tickets are available; please check
here for more information and to purchase tickets for upcoming games.
SOCIAL
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