NEW YORK — Villanova field hockey earned two BIG EAST weekly awards after beating Providence and Wagner this weekend. Forward
Colleen Finnan and goalkeeper
Maddi Sears were both selected to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll, the conference announced on Tuesday.
The two nominations move the 'Cats to 13 total Weekly BIG EAST Awards this season. Additionally, the pair of seniors marks the 23rd pair of Wildcats to be selected to the Weekly Honor Roll in the same week. The most recent pair was Finnan and Gemma Lysaght, who were both selected following the team's contest with Old Dominion and Hofstra.
For Finnan, the award selection marks the fourth straight week being named to the Weekly Honor Roll as well as the sixth nomination of her career. With the selection, she becomes the sixth player in program history to be named to the Weekly Honor Roll four times in the same season. The most recent player to do so was Maddi Sears in 2024.
The award selection comes following a strong weekend that helped Villanova pick up a crucial win over Providence and Wagner. Against the Friars, Finnan had a huge impact and cashed in on the game-winning goal to give Villanova the pivotal 2-1 victory. The goal marked the senior's ninth of the season and her fourth straight game scoring a goal. In Sunday's contest, she followed that with two shots on goal for a perfect 1.000 shot-on-goal percentage across the weekend.
Finnan now ranks second on the team in goals and third on the team in points with 22. The marks also rank her highly across the BIG EAST, as she sits tied for fifth in both goals and points, as well as being Top-10 in both shots (41) and shots on goal (24).
As for Sears, this marks her second selection to the Honor Roll this season and sixth of her career. In the contest with Providence, Sears was stellar with six saves on seven shots faced for an .857 save percentage. The senior kept the game scoreless with an impressive diving save in the third quarter to give Villanova the win. On Sunday, Sears made three saves and posted a .750 save percentage for her career-best 10th win of the season.
Sears exited the weekend with an .818 save percentage and nine total saves to go with a 2-0 record over the weekend. Those marks move her season total to a BIG EAST-best .766 save percentage and 72 total saves on the season, second in the BIG EAST.
Sears and Finnan, along with the entire Villanova field hockey team, will be back in action on Friday, October 30, at 12 p.m. with a pivotal BIG EAST contest against Liberty from E.F. Snell Field at Ursinus. The game will be streamed on Villanova Athletics' YouTube channel.
