VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova volleyball kicked off a crucial BIG EAST weekend with a bang on Friday, taking down the Xavier Musketeers in four sets (25-20, 18-25, 27-25, 26-24) at Jake Nevin Field House.

"I always say it's great to get wins when you don't play your best volleyball and that was certainly the case tonight, but we were able to gut it out for an important win," head coach Josh Steinbach said. "I was really proud of our right sides tonight, Taylor Lewis had a career match and Riley Homer was awesome. I thought our setters really gutted it out tonight as well, Alyssa Nelson particularly was outstanding for us."

Abby Harrell paced Villanova (14-10, 7-6 BIG EAST) with 15 kills while Lewis added 11 terminations on a career and match-best .556 hitting. 

Campbell McKinnon contributed nine kills and a match-best five blocks, Ozzie Ozonoh tied a career-high eight kills and six terminations came from each of Homer and Marly Smith, a season-high for the sophomore in addition to a pair of aces.

Elizabeth Feczko had a match-high 21 digs, the most in a match this season by a Villanova player, while Nelson put up 27 helpers with 23 assists as well from Taylor Jakubowski.

With the victory, Villanova both secures the postseason tiebreaker over Xavier with a sweep of the season series and draws within one game of even all-time, now trailing the Musketeers 12-11 historically.

It was a dead-even first frame with five lead changes and 11 ties up until 19-all when a 4-0 VU scoring run gave the 'Cats the separation they needed. Jakubowski's rotation came up with a four-point edge, and the Illinois native served up the first ace of the day to finish off a 25-20 victory.

Xavier grabbed an early advantage in the second stanza, going up 7-1 and moving to 15-8 to induce both Villanova timeouts. The Musketeers kept up the momentum and weathered a 5-0 VU stretch to pick up set point, winning 25-18 for their first set victory over the Wildcats this year in five contested.

XU jumped on the 'Cats again in the third, going up 4-0 and seeing it balloon to 15-7 before a Villanova pause. The Wildcats responded with a seven-point stretch of their own, evening it at 17-all on a Smith ace. The sides traded runs up until Xavier had the hosts on the ropes at set point, but Villanova staved off a pair of those and used three straight to take the third 27-25 and seize control of the match again.

The Wildcats used a seven-point run to establish some early distance in period four, but Xavier answered with a trio of 3-0 strings to even it at 13. Neither side would lead by two the rest of the stanza, and VU finally got the last laugh thanks to a pair of Homer kills and a smash by Harrell for a four-set W.