VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Villanova volleyball team will travel to University Park, Pa. for the Penn State Classic and the opening of its 2015 season. The Wildcats kick the season off with a match against Stony Brook on Friday, August 28 at 5:00pm and finish the weekend on Saturday, August 29 with matches against Buffalo at 10:00am and host team the No. 1 team in the country Penn State at 7:00pm that evening.
Stony Brook and Buffalo both recorded 17-15 records while Penn State posted a 36-3 record, 18-1 at home, en route to a National Championship last season. The Nittany Lions dropped only 10 sets on the season and put together a streak of 16 matches winning 3-0.
The following weekend the Villanova volleyball team will pack their bags and travel to Denver, Colo. for the Denver Classic where they will play three matches against Air Force, UT Arlington and Denver.
Denver won the Summit League Championship with a 27-7 record last year but exited the NCAA Tournament with a first round loss. UT Arlington went 25-9 in 2014 and nearly made the national tournament, losing in the Sun Belt Championship match.
The Wildcats play their first home matches in the Villanova Classic on September 11-12. Villanova will play reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions Siena on Friday before taking on Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference favorite Howard and Colonial Athletic Association contender James Madison on Saturday.
The last non-conference matches for the Wildcats will be played in the Big Five Challenge hosted in Philadelphia, Pa. Villanova’s opponents will be Penn, La Salle and Temple. Temple finished second in the American Athletic Conference last season with a 24-8 record.
Villanova’s BIG EAST schedule starts with a pair of road matches against Georgetown on September, 25 in Washington D.C. and against conference favorite Creighton two days later in Omaha, Neb. Creighton was last season’s BIG EAST Champion and has made the NCAA Tournament the last three years.
“Creighton is the preseason pick in the conference, unanimously,” said Villanova head coach Josh Steinbach. “They’ve got one of the best recruiting classes in the country and they return a number of All-Conference kids already.”
Villanova’s conference match at home will come on October 10 against Marquette, who has made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons. Villanova will stay home on that Saturday as they host DePaul on October 11.
After an away match at St. John’s and home matches against Xavier and Butler, the Wildcats will play four straight matches on the road: the first two at Providence and Seton Hall and the second two against DePaul and Marquette as the second half of conference play begins.
“Certainly, Marquette will be tough. St. John’s looks like they can be tough this year and Xavier and Butler have been very good the past few years,” Steinbach continued. “The hard part about the BIG EAST is that everybody’s good. There’s no easy matches.”
The schedule flips in the second half of conference play as Villanova will host Creighton and Georgetown, travel to Butler and Xavier and finish the season with three straight at home: Seton Hall, Providence and St. John’s.
“One of the cool things about the BIG EAST is that we’ve developed rivalries with everybody,” said Steinbach. “I don’t think there’s one match that we necessarily circle that’s a huge match.”
The top four teams in the conference will meet in Omaha, Neb. on Nov. 27-28 for the BIG EAST Championship.
Last season the Wildcats finished 13-20 (6-12 BIG EAST) which placed them seventh in the conference. Villanova ended the season losing seven of its last nine matches and missing the postseason.
“Our expectations are to be better,” said Steinbach. “The kids have been playing hard and they had a great spring season and they’ve had a good start to preseason so far.” “I think we’ve got some new blood that’s going to help us. We want to be playing Thanksgiving weekend in the BIG EAST Tournament in Omaha and that’s the goal.”
The Wildcats return 11 players from last year’s team while losing just three. Villanova has been very young in past seasons but that youth has turned into experience this season as the `Cats have seven seniors on the roster. Steinbach thinks that will help the team get to where they want to be at the end of the season.
“I think we have some great senior leadership. They know the league. They know what is expected of them as a team. I expect some of the younger kids will pitch in with some of their leadership skills as well.”
The Wildcats have five freshman on the roster to go along with a pair of sophomores, one of which transferred in this season. A trio of juniors round out the Villanova roster of 18 players.
OUTSIDE HITTERS: Senior Lauren Carpenter has been the Wildcats leader in kills in all three of her seasons at Villanova. Last season Carpenter led the team with 347 kills while playing in 103 sets during 31 matches. Her 3.37 kills per set were seventh best in the conference and her play was recognized around the conference as she was name Preseason All-BIG EAST by the conference’s coaches. Carpenter needs 155 more kills to make her way onto the top 10 career kills list at Villanova.
Senior Colleen Hickey finished second on the team last season with 230 kills and was fifth on the team with 44 blocks. Hickey is also dangerous from behind the service line as she recorded 20 service aces a year ago, second on the team.
Junior Claire Crutchfield will also be expected to play a large role on the Wildcats front line. Crutchfield recorded 114 kills in 54 sets, giving her 2.11 kills per set, third best on the team.
Sophomore Allie Loitz, and a pair of freshman, Darcy Wolf and Emily Davine, are three players new to the Villanova program. Loitz is a transfer from Pepperdine University where she had 194 digs, 48 kills and 26 service aces as a freshman.
“We’re going to need some kids that are going to put the ball away,” said Steinbach. “I think we’ve relied on one or two kids to carry the offensive load. We just need to be able to get a balanced effort from some different sources.”
MIDDLE BLOCKERS: Middle blocker will be a deep position for the Wildcats even with the departure of their leading blocker from a season ago. Returning for Villanova will be senior Brittany Rembert and junior Michaela Berendt. Rembert (151 kills) and Berendt (209 kills) will look to help the Wildcat offense while defending the net on defense. The duo combined for 130 blocks last season: Berendt with 66 blocks and Rembert with 64 blocks. Berendt aslo led the team with 21 service aces last year.
Coach Steinbach is happy to have Gabby Pethokoukis back on the court this season. She was an All-Conference performer in 2013 but missed all of last season due to illness. Steinbach thinks Pethokoukis can be a difference maker for the Wildcats throughout the 2015 campaign.
Steinbach also likes the way freshman Amanda Pedersen-Henry has been playing this preseason.
“She’s a kid that knows how to win and is super competitive. She’s a pretty good athlete to go along with that,” said Steinbach. “She’s the kid out of that freshman class that immediately pops into mind as somebody that we expect to have an immediate contribution.”
SETTERS: Last season Villanova used a pair of setters, Emma Pettit and Allie DiBernardo, both of whom accumulated over 450 assists on the season. With DiBernardo gone, Pettit will handle the lion’s share of the setting duties as she has done in past years. Pettit’s 2,424 assists ranks her seventh all-time at Villanova. She recorded 686 assists in her freshman year, 1,131 as a sophomore and 607 last season.
The second setter on the team will be freshman Ashely Knight from Omaha, Neb., the site of the BIG EAST Championship. Coach Steinbach is encouraged by what Knight has shown in the couple of weeks that the team has been together.
DEFENSIVE SPECIALISTS: Sophomore Allison Fitzgerald will be the libero for the Wildcats this upcoming season. She played in 22 of 33 matches last season and tallied 292 digs in that time, second in that category. Fitzgerald’s 3.95 digs per set placed her amongst the top 10 in the conference.
Also in the top 10 in that category was senior Michelle Adams with 3.70 digs per set. Adams played in all 111 sets and all 33 matches last season, the only player on the team to do so. She led the team with 411 digs and finished third on the team with 84 assists while recording a dozen service aces.
Senior Anna Dwyer, and a pair of juniors, Makenzie Northrup and Jackie Greenberg, combined for 117 digs last season. Greenberg and Northrup played in 60 and 54 sets, respectively.
Michelle Mathews, an incoming freshman, is the sixth defensive specialist on the team and looks to break into the rotation in her first season with the Wildcats.
STEINBACH ON THE SENIORS: “There’s seven. Gabby expects to be back for another year. They certainly have had some ups and downs and I think they’ve got a chip on their shoulder right now, looking at the season like we’ve got something to prove. They’ve been a great part of this program and we’re proud of what they’ve done but I know that they feel like there’s a lot more to do.
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