VILLANOVA, Pa. — Villanova field hockey continues BIG EAST play when the team hosts Temple on Friday, September 25 at 12 p.m. from Snell Field at Ursinus. The game will serve as the team's annual Whiteout Game as well as Parent and Family Day. 

The 'Cats are coming off a tough weekend where the team dropped both of its matches to fall to 5-3. In Friday's matchup on the road against then-No. 10 UConn, VU fell 3-1 where it was Ava Borkowski who tallied the lone goal of the contest. The goal pushed her total to eight on the season, which leads the BIG EAST. 

Villanova then dropped the following contest, 2-0, to Drexel at home. The loss marked the first home loss of the season for the Wildcats. Maddi Sears impressed in the action. Tallying 14 assists across the two matches to earn a .775 save percentage across the 18 shots that she faced. 

As mentioned earlier, Friday's action against Temple will be the team's Whiteout game. VU is 3-1 in its last four Whiteout games, including a 3-2 win over Temple in 2022. Last season, the team fell 2-1 to UConn in its Whiteout game. 

The Owls enter the contest with an overall record of 5-3 and have been winners of their past three games. The win streak started with a 5-0 win at home over Rider, followed by a 2-1 win over Georgetown and then a 4-2 win over Hofstra. On the other hand, the Owls are 1-2 on the road this season with losses to then-No. 13 Maryland and Lafayette but have a win over Wagner. 

Historically, both teams have faced off a total of 29 times across their two programs histories. Temple currently holds the series record 10-19, however, the Wildcats have won three of the past four matchups with the Owls including last season's 2-0 win on the road. 

Offensively, Temple is led by its pair of Rozlyn Maciejewski and Lucia Magro who each led the team with 11 points on the season. Magro leads the team in goals with goals while Maciejewski is tied with Lonneke Kerkhof and Mina Uezbe for the team high in assists. As a whole, 10 different Owls have scored a goal this season while 11 different players have tallied at least one point on the season. As a team they average 2.62 goals per game, good for sixth in the BIG EAST.

In net, the Owls are led by Alex Lepore in net who has played all but 15 minutes for Temple this season. In the action, she recorded a .681 save percentage,  1.94 goals allowed average and a 5-3 record.  

Temple is led by head coach Michelle Vittese who enters 2026 in her sixth year at the helm. This past season (2025), she led Temple to a 12-6 record overall but fell short of the BIG EAST tournament. The previous year, Temple advanced to the BIG EAST Final but fell to UConn, 1-0. 

Friday's match up will be streamed on Villanova Athletic's YouTube starting at 12 p.m..