VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova women's lacrosse put up a battle on Saturday afternoon with the No. 12 Denver Pioneers, but eventually fell 11-8 to the reigning BIG EAST champions.

Sydney Pappas found the twine a game-high four times for Villanova (6-8, 2-3 BIG EAST), while Mary Moore contributed a goal and two assists on the day. 

Four other players appeared on the scoresheet for the 'Cats as freshman Makenzie Fisher made eight saves between the pipes in her fourth start of the year.

The Wildcats were dominant in the first half, going up 7-3 on the conference leader at halftime. 

VU started the scoring with a Pappas tally off a Moore feed, then Denver answered not even a minute later. A freshman-to-freshman connection got the lead back for the Wildcats as Moore finished off a Corretjer pass, then Pappas did it herself with 16 seconds left in the quarter to send VU ahead 3-1 after 15 minutes.

The Pioneers struck shortly into the second to pull within one, but Ashlyn Hickey answered on a free position shot a few minutes later. After DU struck at 6:50, the rest of the frame was all Villanova as Bella Piselli scored an FPG, Sami Carey turned around a pass from Moore and Pappas put home a Piselli feed for a 7-3 edge at the half.

Denver strung together four straight in just over four minutes to start the second half and tie up the ballgame before Pappas finally stopped the bleeding with an unassisted tally to keep VU ahead 8-7.

The Pios were the only team to find the net in the final quarter, scoring four times for an 11-8 final score at Villanova Stadium.

UP NEXT: The regular season comes to an end with a critical BIG EAST battle, with the Wildcats traveling to Marquette to decide who gets the final seed in the league playoffs.