Road Trip: The Wildcats hit the road for eight games this season, taking them to six states outside of the Keystone State. With head coach Samar Azem at the helm, Villanova has gone 11-17-7 away in road games. Villanova has not started on the road since a trip to Boston College kicked off the 2022 season, resulting in a 2-0 loss. When opening the year on the road, Villanova is 6-9-2 all-time. The squad's last season-opening road victory was a 4-2 win at Temple on August 20, 2010. Since then, the Wildcats have fallen in four such games.

Familiar Faces: Villanova returns 23 players from the 2025 team, nine of those being starters led by All-BIG EAST selections Hannah Dickinson, Avrie Nelsen, Gabby Koluch and Meredith Palmer. Eight of its 10 point-scorers from a year ago are back, garnering 47 of Nova’s 56 points last year with 16 goals and 15 assists.

Preseason Projections: The BIG EAST coaches slated Villanova at fifth in their preseason poll with 66 points, marking the highest projection for the team since 2013 when they were picked third in the preseason poll. They were slated to finish second in the East Division when the league was split into two divisions for the 2020-21 spring season. Villanova finished fifth in the BIG EAST this past season with a 4-5-1 record. going 9-8-1 overall. Those nine wins and their .528 winning percentage marked the best for the program in six seasons, also logging their best conference finish in that time with a fifth-place showing on the conference table. Hannah Dickinson, Avrie Nelsen and Gabby Koluch all landed spots on the Preseason All-BIG EAST Team, as well.

• Villanova has a 6-2-1 lead in the series with Syracuse that dates back to 1996, holding a 15-8 scoring advantage. This is the first meeting between the two teams since 2011 when Villanova fell 1-0 at Syracuse, snapping a five-match unbeaten streak against the Orange.
• This is the fourth straight season that Villanova is taking on an ACC opponent. All-told, Villanova is 18-48-3 against the ACC, falling in each of the last 15 meetings with teams from the league since 2013.
• Villanova is 0-4 against the ACC under head coach Samar Azem. The last such meeting saw the Blue and White fall at No. 10 Wake Forest on August 21, 2025, 0-2.
• Syracuse was 5-9-4 in 2025 after a strong 4-1-3 start to the campaign. The Orange lost its three leading goal scorers from last year who accounted for 15 of the team's 22 goals, but they welcome back key defenders on defense in Jasmine Nixon and Bree Bridges.

• Sunday is the 16th meeting between Villanova and Lehigh since the series 1983 with Villanova leading 9-3-3 overall and boasting a 36-10 scoring advantage. The Wildcats are 2-1-2 when playing in Bethlehem and have not played there since facing a 1-0 loss on Sept. 8, 2017. Before that, Villanova had posted a 8-3 scoring advantage when playing the Mountain Hawks on the road.
• Against Patriot League sides, Villanova is 34-13-6 all-time and 3-1-2 under Azem. It won both of its meetings against the league in 2025, taking down Bucknell on August 31, 1-0, and Lehigh on September 7, 4-0.
  Lehigh opens its season on August 13 at Binghamton before hosting Villanova on Sunday.
• The Mountain Hawks went 3-11-3 in 2025, 1-7-1 in league action. They closed their season with three consecutive losses. They have not seen a win on their home field since a 3-2 result over Holy Cross on Oct. 12, 2024. Since then, they have gone 0-7-2 at home.
• Senior forward Aminah Baruwa returns as one of the leading point scorers from last season, scoring six points on a goal and four assists. R'reeyah Mabry-Francis is back in net for the team this year after going 3-6-3 last year in nine starts, logging the team's lone shutout.

Villanova 0, Butler 0 | November 1, 2025 - Villanova, Pa. - Higgins Soccer Complex
 

Despite strong scoring chances in the second half, Villanova battled to a 0-0 draw with Butler for its ninth shutout of the season as the curtain closed on the 2025 campaign at Higgins Soccer Complex. Villanova was outshot 22-11 in the draw but led shots on goal 6-5. Alex Little led the team with four chances, three of those on frame. Butler's Talia Sommer led all players with five shots, three on goal. Dickinson was called into action early with a save near the bottom right post on a shot from Sommer just two minutes into the contest. Avrie Nelsen had the first solid chance for Villanova in the 26th minute from point-blank range in the middle of the penalty box, but Butler goalkeeper Addison Ash got a hand on it to push it above the net. Both teams opened the second with unsuccessful chances until Butler's Alyssa Carlson forced Dickinson into another save in the 64th minute with a shot from well outside the box that Dickinson leaned over to grab in the air near the left post. The senior picked up two more saves in the 71st and 74th minutes on transition plays.Villanova applied immense pressure in the 89th minute to put momentum on its side late. Nelsen played a ball in toward the net from right of the 18-yard box that hit off a Bulldog in the box and back into play where Gabby Koluch tried a short shot at the six-yard box that Ash fell to grab. Just 20 seconds later, Little went one-on-one with Ash inside the box, but Ash used a sliding effort to save the shot with her leg.

Read the full recap here.