Villanova, Pa. – The Villanova Wildcats wrapped up their three-game home stand with a win over DePaul Saturday night. The four-set victory featured a late-match comeback, as well as a major milestone for one Wildcat.
 
During the fourth set, senior setter Emma Decker picked up her 44^th assist in the match, putting her over 4,000 for her career. She is just the third Wildcat to ever hit the milestone and is closing in on the all-time record. Decker finished the match with 47 assists, just 120 shy of the program's all-time record.
 
Villanova got off to a blazing fast start to the match and put DePaul away 25-14 in the first set. The Wildcats used a run featuring four-straight kills from four different players to capture the momentum in the first and pull ahead. That was part of a 9-3 run that broke the set open. Mallory Potts led the way through one set with five kills and Villanova hit an outstanding .625 as a team for the set.
 
The tables turned in the second set, as the Blue Demons made quick work of Villanova to even the match at one set apiece.  DePaul quickly went up 7-2 to force a Villanova timeout. The timeout didn't change much, as the lead was never cut to less than three and the set finished 25-18 in favor of DePaul.
 
After each team had dominated a set, the next two sets were played nearly even. Villanova pushed the lead in the fourth set to 14-9, but DePaul quickly evened things up at 16-16. Back-to-back kills from Clare Delaplane and Sanaä Barnes were crucial in giving Nova some breathing room near the end of the set to hold on and win 25-22.
 
The beginning of the fourth set, was point-for-point, but Villanova remained a point or two behind for much of the set. It wasn't looking good for the 'Cats when they went down 21-17, But a couple of errors by DePaul gave the Wildcats some life, and they came storming back. After trailing 10-9, Villanova's next lead did not come until it absolutely had to, at 25-24. The next point was n ace from Delaplane to close out the match in style.
 
Five Wildcats finished with double-figure kills, three with 11 and two with 10. Decker dished out 47 assists, her second most in a match this season, and Lough finished with 20 digs, her sixth time eclipsing that mark this year.
 
The win for Villanova moves the team back to third place in the BIG EAST, nearing the halfway point of conference play.
 
Villanova will be back in action next week, traveling to Butler on Friday at 7 p.m.