VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Villanova volleyball swept the Xavier Musketeers 3-0 on senior night at Jake Nevin Field House. With the victory the Wildcats qualified for the BIG EAST Tournament which will be played next week in Omaha, Nebraska.
Head coach Josh Steinbach, "we are super excited to be back in the conference tournament. It is the first goal on list of things for us so we are happy we got it. I'm glad that the seniors played well tonight, it was a great win for us and we are excited for those kids to play well and be a part of it. Darcy (Wolf) and Amanda (Pedersen-Henry) were unbelievable tonight."
The Wildcats had three players with double digit kills. Senior middle blocker Amanda Pedersen-Henry and freshman right side hitter Sanaä Barnes led the Wildcats with 11 kills.
Senior outside hitter Darcy Wolf had 10 kills which was her second game in a row with 10 kills.
Sophomore defensive specialist Sarah Allman had 13 digs and junior libero Regan Lough had 11 digs.
Junior Emma Decker dished out 37 assists. It was her second game in a row with 32 or more assists.
Xavier jumped out to a 2-0 lead to start the match but kills by Remy Fairchild and Sanaä Barnes after trading points the Wildcats extended their lead to 6-3 after an Ashley Knight service ace. The Wildcats then led 11-9 and went on a 3-0 scoring run to lead 14-9. After a kill by Allie Olsonoski gave Villanova a 20-15 lead and causing Xavier to call timeout. After a block by Pedersen-Henry and an attack error by the Musketeers the Wildcats led 23-18 and Xavier used their final timeout. Villanova then won the set 25-20 after a kill by Mallory Potts. Pedersen-Henry had five kills and Decker had 16 assists in the first set.
After losing the first two points of the second set the Wildcats went on a 4-0 run to lead 4-2. The set went back and forth and the score was tied at nine. Villanova went on another 4-0 scoring run to lead 13-9 causing Xavier to use a timeout. Xavier came out of the timeout and ended the Wildcats' run but then Villanova went on another 4-0 run to lead 17-11. The closest Xavier would make it was 20-15 Villanova. The Wildcats would go on to win the set 25-18. Darcy Wolf had four kills and Regan Lough had five digs.
The third set was back and forth between the two teams with the score tied at five. Then the Wildcats went on a 3-0 scoring run to lead 12-7 causing Xavier to use their first timeout. After a kill by Pedersen-Henry the Wildcats led 16-11. Xavier used their second timeout after the Wildcats were on a 3-0 scoring run to lead 21-16. The Musketeers went on a 3-0 scoring run to make it 22-19 Wildcats. Villanova then used a timeout and out of the timeout Xavier scored the next point to make it a two point set. After a kill by Barnes and an error by Xavier the Wildcats had match point at 24-20. Villanova would win the match after a kill by Pedersen-Henry.
The Wildcats will play against the Creighton Bluejays on Friday, November 23 in the first round of the BIG EAST Tournament. Fans can keep up to date on the latest information by following Villanova Volleyball on Twitter at @NovaVolleyball.
