VILLANOVA, Pa. – It's been a fairly quiet week for the 6-3-1 Villanova Wildcats, who last saw action in Saturday's 1-0 BIG EAST triumph over DePaul. Recovery and academic work have been the focus but that's about to change in a big way.
On Saturday, the Wildcats face another key moment in a conference clash with Xavier (3-2-5 overall, 1-1-1 BIG EAST) that gets underway at 7 p.m. at the XU Soccer Complex. VU brings a 1-2 record in league play into what looms as another key match in the quest for points.
"You go on stretches where you have two games a week, midweek and weekend, and you can only really do it for so long without getting tired," stated Villanova head coach Tom Carlin during an office conversation Thursday. "I would say it's more a case of mental fatigue than anything. This break has given us the chance to set ourselves up for the rest of the schedule."
Seven regular season games remain for the Wildcats, with valuable non-conference wins over William & Mary, Loyola and Penn State already in the bank. Six of those games will be within the BIG EAST, starting with Saturday night's matchup against the Musketeers.
Villanova has done its best work on the home pitch at Higgins Soccer Complex this season, posting a 5-1 mark there. But it won't play a game there until Oct. 20 (Butler at 1 p.m.) with three straight road trips on the immediate horizon.
"Xavier has always been good at home so we know the challenge we face," Carlin stated. "This is a tough, physical team that plays a similar system to ours. In some ways we're almost an exact replica of one another. It could come down to a 50-50 ball or a physical encounter that decides the game. We have to be ready for that."
To their credit, the Wildcats have thrived in close matches this season. Another example came last Saturday, when VU found itself level at zero in the 75th minute before collecting the go-ahead goal scored by senior forward Kian Zapata.
"This team is resilient and it has a lot of fight in it," Carlin said. "At the DePaul game, at our training sessions, pregame meal, it's been there. They are very tuned in and persistent. It shows in games, especially when we score first."
Zapata, who picked up his first college goal Saturday, has impressed in his senior season after spending more of his minutes on defense earlier in his career.
"Kian's been around the program and he knows the way," noted Carlin. "He's a hardworking kind of nuisance to the other team, a tough kid to defend. If you look at Kian where he excels is that he runs hard and embraces physicality."
Zapata isn't the only unheralded contributor to what has transpired to this point.
"Sean Teixeira is doing a fantastic job in his role. When he enters the game, he changes it for the better. He's started for us in the past who has accepted his role.
"I think Andres Camacho is doing the same kind of thing – coming into the game and influencing it positively. Those two really stand out to me."
