QUEENS, N.Y. – It's a matchup of the travel partners in the Big Apple on Wednesday night as Villanova volleyball (12-7, 5-3 BIG EAST) heads up to Carnesecca Arena to take on St. John's in a 7:00 p.m. competition.

PERFECTLY BALANCED, AS ALL THINGS SHOULD BE    
It's been a highly successful Villanova attack throughout conference play, ranking second in the league for assists and third in both kills and hitting percentage (only behind nationally ranked Creighton and Marquette). One of the key reasons for that efficiency has been the bevy of options for the setters to distribute the ball to, with four hitters over 100 kills. Abby Harrell has been the focal point of the offense as she was last year, pacing the squad with 227 kills in more than 600 attempts. But while last year's team was centered around four arms, the 'Cats have gotten strong production from seven players this year, including 175 from VU's first-year middle Campbell McKinnon and just under 150 from six-rotation hitter Cat Young.

PARTY IN PROVIDENCE    
Last Saturday afternoon's match in Rhode Island was a wild one for the Wildcats, who completed their first reverse sweep of the season in just VU's third five-set match of 2024. It marked Villanova's longest match of the year at just under three hours with three of the sets going into extra points. The Friars took each of the first two periods in extras (29-27 and 27-25), then the 'Cats rallied back to dominate in the third and fourth before staving off a match point and going on to a 17-15 fifth set victory. Villanova reached new team season highs in a number of categories in the match, including kills (78), total attempts (177), assists (72) and digs (73). Individually, five players reached career bests with McKinnon converting 19 kills, Young totaling 15 kills and 15 digs, Taylor Lewis reaching double digit kills for the first time with 12, Ozzie Ozonoh rejecting a new best with seven blocks and Alyssa Nelson contributing a career-best 42 assists. 

READING INTO THE RED STORM

• The Johnnies come into the bout at 14-8 overall, holding a 3-5 record in conference play after splitting last weekend as well with a sweep of Providence and five-set loss to Connecticut. The Red Storm have one of the nation's best marks in two categories: team assists (13th, 1003) and kills (17th, 1065).
• St. John's has a mirroring BIG EAST schedule to Villanova's because the two sides take on the same opponents each week as travel partners. SJU also beat Seton Hall and Georgetown in the opening weekend, but suffered a four-match losing streak with sweeps to Xavier, DePaul and Creighton plus a four-frame setback versus Marquette.
• The leading player on the scouting report is junior Erin Jones, top three in the conference and SJU's leader in both kills (312) and aces (40) who plays six rotations, hits from the right side and sets in certain situations. 
• Giorgia Walther (eighth in conference for kills) and Lucrezia Lodi (190 kills, 142 digs) are threats on the outside, while setter Wiktoria Kowalczyk and libero Rashanny Solano Smith each rank in the BIG EAST's top 10 for their positional stats.

The match will stream at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN+ featuring statistics courtesy of StatBroadcast.