Villanova, Pa. – Villanova volleyball (20-6, 11-3) won its seventh straight match thanks to a straight-sets victory over Providence (6-21, 1-13) Saturday night in Jake Nevin Field House.
 
Sophomore right-side hitter Sanaä Barnes returned to the lineup and made a big impact, leading the team with 10 kills at a .318 clip. Allie Olsonoski and Kathleen Johnson also made big contributions on offense, adding nine and eight kills, respectively.
 
Villanova had to regroup after last night's upset of No. 9 Creighton, and came out without missing a beat. Emma Decker and Regan Lough strong as usual, with Decker posting 30 assists and 10 digs, while Lough had a match-high 20 digs.
 
Barnes made her presence felt early, with a kill on the first point of the match and helped Nova jump out to a 4-0 lead. After Lough hit the deck for a pancake dig to fuel a Wildcat point, the Wildcats had built a 10-3 lead. Providence battled back and cut the lead to just 18-15, but Villanova then hit the gas. The Wildcats scored the final seven points of the set to take it 25-15. The 7-0 run featured two aces by Anna Morse, as well as a pair of kills from Barnes.
 
The second set was similar to the first. Providence hung around throughout the set, but Villanova was able to pull away late to win the set 25-18. Remy Fairchild helped build the lead early in the set with a pair of aces during a 6-0 run. After the run, Olsonoski led the 'Cats with five kills on just eight attacks in the set.
 
After going down 2-0, Providence refused to quit and played it's closest set of the match in the third. The Friars stayed close early and took their first lead of the match at 14-13 in the third set. The match stayed tied through 18-18, but a great dig from freshman Maddie Schieder to help set up a block by Decker helped generate some momentum to propel Villanova to the finish line. Providence did retake the lead at 23-22, but a kill by Olsonoski and a pair of errors closed out the match for the Wildcats at 25-23.
 

"That's a good win for us," head coach Josh Steinbach said. "A 2-0 weekend is a big deal and we're excited to have beaten Providence. They play really hard to the end every night and any team that does that is a hard team to beat."

 
The seven-match win streak is the longest for Villanova since the 2015 team won eight in a row on two separate occasions.
 
The Wildcats will try and match that mark in their next match, as they take the road to visit DePaul on Friday Nov. 15 at 8 p.m., before swinging up to Milwaukee the following day to take on No. 10 Marquette on Saturday at 7 o'clock.