Box Score | Photo Gallery vs. Lehigh 9-13-16

VILLANOVA, Pa. - For the 13th straight home-match, the Villanova Wildcats left the Jake Nevin Field House victorious, opening the 2016 home schedule with a 25-17, 25-14, 25-20 sweep against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.

The Wildcats (7-3) dominated the majority of the match, only trailing once during the duration of the match when they trailed Lehigh (3-7) in the beginning of the second set. As a whole, Villanova hit .389 with only 10 attack errors the entire match.

Claire Crutchfield (Falls Church Va./Bishop O'Connell) hit a career-high .522 in the match, tallying 13 kills on 23 attempts with just one error. She contributed six kills in the first set, to pace Villanova to an early 1-0 lead over Lehigh.

The senior outside hitter thought the match went as planned and was happy that the Villanova faithful were out in full force to support the Wildcats.

"The match went really well. It's really exciting for me as a senior since we got a win in our last home opener," said Crutchfield. "It was really great to see everyone out here, and it helps our team when we have a lot of fans out here supporting us."

Crutchfield noted that the home-court advantage is in team's mindset every time they step on the court.

"We were undefeated (at Jake Nevin Field House) last year, so it's almost like a safety blanket when we play here," Crutchfield continued. "We think that we are unbeaten when we come here to practice every day, so when we play here in a match, we come to win."

Allie Loitz (Bonita, Calif./Bonita Vista) added 12 kills on 21 total attempts for the Wildcat offense, hitting .524 on the night. She also added seven digs on the defense.

Villanova was able to keep the bakers dozen home-winning streak alive by playing stout defense, only allowing the Mountain Hawk offense 20 kills on 104 attempts (.048 attack percentage) through the three sets. Allison Fitzgerald (St.Louis, Mo./Visitation Academy) led the way with 16 digs, including eight in the second set alone. Allie Olsonoski (New Orleans, La./Ben Franklin) blocked six total attacks to combat Lehigh's offense.

It was all Villanova to start the first set of the match, taking a commanding 8-2 lead before Lehigh called a timeout. The Wildcats increased the advantage to 11-3 after a Loitz kill and a Lehigh attack error. The Mountain Hawks fought back to clip the lead to five with the score at 18-13, but Lehigh could not recover from the early deficit, falling 25-17 in the first set.

The second set started even between the two teams, as Lehigh earned the first point of the match for an early advantage. A Loitz kill to tie the match at 3 apiece sparked a 6-3 run as Villanova took a 10-6 lead. The run featured several Lehigh errors and kills by Crutchfield, Olsonoski, and Loitz. Lehigh would narrow the gap to 13-12, but the Wildcats stormed on a 12-2 run to break open and take the second frame 25-14. The Wildcats earned the last eight points of the set, featuring two kills from Crutchfield, a kill from Olsonoski, and an ace on set point by Ashley Knight (Omaha, Neb./Elkhorn South) to finish the stanza on a high note.

Villanova started the final frame on a 11-4 run to give the Wildcats some breathing room in the third set. The Mountain Hawks slowly caught up with Villanova, cutting the deficit to 18-15 in hopes of extending the match to a fourth set with an 11-7 run. The Wildcats did not let that happen, as kills from Darcy Wolf (Allentown, Pa./Central Catholic), Loitz, Olsonoski and Crutchfield's 13th kill of the match on match point gave Villanova's its fourth sweep in a row.

The Wildcats will play in Philadelphia this weekend at the Big 5 Challenge. Villanova is slated to play Temple at the Paelstra on Penn's campus at 4:30 on Friday. On Saturday, the Wildcats will go head-to-head with Penn and La Salle with both matches being hosted at La Salle's Tom Gola Arena to round out the three-match tournament.