|
Wildcats Travel to Sacred Heart on Monday Night for Season Opener
Nov. 15, 2009
VILLANOVA, Pa.--Villanova (0-0) goes on the road for its 2009-10 season opener, as the Wildcats will face Sacred Heart (0-1) on Monday evening at the Pitt Center. The teams have met just once before, as Villanova defeated the Pioneers in a home game last season by a 69-52 score.
Continue reading below for news and notes about the Wildcats as they enter Monday night's game against Sacred Heart. For complete game notes related to the game, click on the PDF link at the top of this release.
Villanova Notebook
SEASON OPENERS: Villanova will tip-off its 2009-10 season on Monday, Nov. 16 at Sacred Heart. The Wildcats are 24-16 (.600) all-time in season openers. Villanova is 19-14 in season openers under head coach Harry Perretta.
LIMITED HISTORY: Sacred Heart and Villanova will be playing for just the second time when the two teams meet on Monday in Fairfield, Conn. The series began last year when the Wildcats registered a 69-52 home win over the Pioneers.
FAMILIAR FACE: It is a good bet that the Villanova Wildcats will look to assistant coach Heather Vulin for a scouting report on Sacred Heart in preparation for Monday's game. Vulin, who is in her second year on the Wildcat staff, came to Villanova from Sacred Heart where she was an assistant from 2002-08.
NEC HISTORY: Sacred Heart is the only NEC opponent on Villanova's schedule this year. Over the years, the Wildcats have had a great deal of success versus NEC competition. Villanova is 22-1 all-time against teams from the NEC. The 22-1 record includes 10-1 versus Monmouth, 6-0 against Fairleigh Dickinson, 3-0 versus Mt. St. Mary's, 1-0 against Quinnipiac, 1-0 versus Saint Francis (Pa.) and 1-0 against Sacred Heart.
HIT THE ROAD: The Wildcats will start the 2009-10 season playing most of their games away from home. Villanova will play just one of its first six games at home. That lone home game is on Wednesday, Nov. 18 when the 'Cats host Big Five rival Penn. Following the Penn game,Villanova will play at Massachusetts (Nov. 22), at the Tennessee Chattanooga Tournament (Nov. 27-28) and at Lehigh (Dec. 5). Last season, Villanova was 9-5 at home, 8-5 on the road and 2-4 in neutral site games.
EXPERIENCED BACKCOURT: Villanova has three fifth-year seniors on the roster and all three are backcourt players. The three include Maria Getty, Tia Grant, and Kyle Dougherty. All three of these fifth-year seniors are expected to start in a three-guard line-up when the Wildcats open the season at Sacred Heart on Monday, Nov. 16. Last season, Getty averaged 8.3 ppg., Grant averaged 4.9 ppg., and Dougherty averaged 1.6 ppg.
MIGHTY MARIA: Entering the 2009-10 season, Villanova's leading returning scorer is senior guard Maria Getty. As a junior last year, Getty averaged 8.3 points per game which ranked second on the team. She also led the team last season in three-point field goals made with 50 and ranked second in steals (27) and assists (65).
TRADING RED FOR THE BLUE AND WHITE: Three Villanova players will become active this season after redshirting last year as true freshmen. The three include Megan Pearson, Laura Sweeney and Emily Suhey. Pearson was a standout at nearby Archbishop Carroll High School where she earned first team All-Catholic League honors as both a junior and a senior. She was also a first team All-State performer as a senior. Sweeney attended Cherokee High School in Marlton, N.J. A first team All-State selection, Sweeney scored 2,037 career points and grabbed 1,285 career rebounds. Suhey is a native of Boalsburg, Pa., where she attended State College High School. A second team All-State honoree as a senior, Suhey is the second all-time leading scorer at her high school with over 1,500 career points.
EXHIBITION PLAY: Villanova earned a 66-45 win over West Chester in an exhibition game on Sunday, Nov. 1. The game was tied 25-25 at halftime, before the Wildcats started the second half on an 18-2 run to take control of the game. In the win, senior guard Tia Grant scored a game-high 12 points, while senior guard Kyle Dougherty added 11 points.
PERCENT OF SCORING LOST: Entering the 2009-10 season, Villanova will be faced with the challenge of replacing 57.8 percent of its scoring from a year ago. The team graduated three of its top four scorers from 2008-09, including Laura Kurz, a first team All-BIG EAST selection. Kurz led the squad with 17.4 points per game while shooting .452 from the field and ranked third on the team with 44 three-pointers. The other top scorers that graduated include Siobhan O'Connor (8.3 points/game) and Lisa Karcic (6.5 points/game).
STRONG SHOOTING EYE: From the standpoint of three-point field goal percentage, Tia Grant was the top three-point shooter for the Wildcats last season. In the team's 33 games, Grant connected on .402 of her attempts from behind the arc. She made 33-of-82 triples overall and was even a shade better in regular season BIG EAST play. Grant hit 15-of-37 (.405) three-pointers against league foes.
THREE AT A TIME: Villanova's reputation for being a dominant three-point shooting team continued last season, as did the Wildcats ability to prevent their opponents from connecticut regularly from long distance. In 2008-09, Villanova averaged 7.8 three-pointers per game and shot .303 (257-849) from behind the arc. Meanwhile, the Wildcats limited their opponents to making just 3.2 triples per contest. The opposition shot .308 (105-341) from three-point territory. For the season, the Wildcats ranked 10th in the entire nation in three-pointers made per game.
PROTECTING THE ROCK: The Wildcats always place a strong emphasis on not turning the ball over, and they once again succeeded in this area during the 2008-09 season. Villanova turned the ball over just 13.3 times last year and ranked sixth in the country for fewest turnovers per game. Samford (12.1) led the nation in this category.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF FREEBIES: Although Villanova may not always get to the free throw line as much as its opponents, the Wildcats do an excellent job of converting their chances from the foul line. Last season, Villanova ranked sixth in the entire country in team free throw percentage, making .786 (301-383) of its shots from the charity stripe. The leading free throw shooter among returning players to the team this year is senior guard Maria Getty, who hit on .796 (43-54) of her free throw attempts last season.
BIG EAST PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH: At the annual BIG EAST Women's Basketball Media Day at ESPN Zone this morning, the results of the Preseason Coaches' Poll were released, with Villanova being chosen to finish 13th in the BIG EAST standings in the regular season. The Wildcats received 78 points in the poll.
Villanova is coming off a 2008-09 season in which it finished 19-14 overall and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats went 10-6 in regular season BIG EAST play last year and finished in fourth place in the regular season conference standings. The results of the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches Poll are below.
BIG EAST PRESEASON COACHES POLL
1. Connecticut (225 Points) (15 first-place votes)
|
Villanova University
- TEAMS
-
- INSIDE ATHLETICS
-
- STUDENT ATHLETES
-
- NOVA NATION
-
- MULTIMEDIA
-
- SHOP
-
