Villanova 2024

[10stone5]

12.6 would be an added bonus to Mike Corrado's ability recruit All American players and consistently competitive teams.

The Cats put on another solid performance at Lehigh on Saturday. I saw the Colgate game at Villanova Stadium and watched the Lehigh game on ESPN Plus. Nova has eight contributing offensive players, with Licatta and Michner scoring a combined 21 points in three games, and Reale and Holy Cross transfer McIntire leading the assists category with 7 each.

Anthony Wilson is very solid in goal. Coppola is a bull at FOGO and the defense is strong despite graduating AA Chet Camizio and LaPorte.

There’s not much confidence in the media polls for Villanova. The Wildcats beat Colgate 15-9, but USA Lacrosse Magazine ranked Colgate #21 and excluded Nova from the top 25. Similarly, Quint Kessenich ranked Colgate at #21 Colgate and has Drexel at #24, but Nova is not in his top 25.
Nova faces Drexel Tuesday night.

Tomorrow night's game,
Drexel Villanova 5:00 pm free Webstream

https://streamstak.com/lacrossetv/

————————

Way way too early for Drexel to appear on any rankings.
They’re still looking up to other CAA teams, the Hens, the Tigers. We’ll have to wait and see how they do over this coming four game stretch, which includes UVA.

But, they are getting some solid production, good contributions from their past two recruiting classes.

Liam Kammar is one player who I would point out, a transfer-in with still one more year of eligibility - a very solid all-conference level, physical, quick SSDM.

[NovaLax17]

12.6 would be an added bonus to Mike Corrado's ability recruit All American players and consistently competitive teams.

The Cats put on another solid performance at Lehigh on Saturday. I saw the Colgate game at Villanova Stadium and watched the Lehigh game on ESPN Plus. Nova has eight contributing offensive players, with Licatta and Michner scoring a combined 21 points in three games, and Reale and Holy Cross transfer McIntire leading the assists category with 7 each.

Anthony Wilson is very solid in goal. Coppola is a bull at FOGO and the defense is strong despite graduating AA Chet Camizio and LaPorte.

There’s not much confidence in the media polls for Villanova. The Wildcats beat Colgate 15-9, but USA Lacrosse Magazine ranked Colgate #21 and excluded Nova from the top 25. Similarly, Quint Kessenich ranked Colgate at #21 Colgate and has Drexel at #24, but Nova is not in his top 25.
Nova faces Drexel Tuesday night.

Tomorrow night's game,
Drexel Villanova 5:00 pm free Webstream

https://streamstak.com/lacrossetv/

————————

Way way too early for Drexel to appear on any rankings.
They’re still looking up to other CAA teams, the Hens, the Tigers. We’ll have to wait and see how they do over this coming four game stretch, which includes UVA.

But, they are getting some solid production, good contributions from their past two recruiting classes.

Liam Kammar is one player who I would point out, a transfer-in with still one more year of eligibility - a very solid all-conference level, physical, quick SSDM.

Thanks for the Drexel update and link 10stone5.

Tuesday games are generally less predictable than Saturday games, and Drexel always brings a top effort to Nova. These teams have been playing consistently for at least 40 years. As you know well, the prior CAA configuration had some competitive, long term rivalries.

[10stone5]

Too bad for DU, they came close to stealing a game,

but Villanova was/is the better team, did better in all the main statistical categories in this game.

[faircornell]

Too bad for DU, they came close to stealing a game,

but Villanova was/is the better team, did better in all the main statistical categories in this game.

I watched part of the game. I thought that Drexel looked good. They were noticeably bigger than Villanova, and seemed to control most of the game. Nova seemed to have a slight advantage in their stick work.

[xxxxxxx]

Gritty win in a tough Philly rivalry game. Nova never gave up and kept playing hard. Sets up the Cats for a big game with Penn Saturday. After a bad opening day loss to Penn St they have played well.

[NovaLax17]

Gritty win in a tough Philly rivalry game. Nova never gave up and kept playing hard. Sets up the Cats for a big game with Penn Saturday. After a bad opening day loss to Penn St they have played well.

One heck of a hard hitting, back and forth game.

The double OT game winner by Holy Cross transfer attackman, Tom McIntire:
https://twitter.com/NovaLacrosse/status ... e-overtime

[10stone5]

Too bad for DU, they came close to stealing a game,

but Villanova was/is the better team, did better in all the main statistical categories in this game.

I watched part of the game. I thought that Drexel looked good. They were noticeably bigger than Villanova, and seemed to control most of the game. Nova seemed to have a slight advantage in their stick work.

They did look solid most of the game, Villanova made the critical plays at the end - Drexel overall somewhat better than I expected at this point.

Drexel’s Voelker, he does a lot of non-mainstream recruiting - and when he does bring in those types of recruits from out of state, he and the coaches generally go with size.

[10stone5]

Good write up from IL on game,
credit to Coach Connor with drawing up the game winning play,

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... exel/62753

[NovaLax17]

.
The Nova-UPenn game at Villanova yesterday lived up to the expectations of this great rivalry, despite the rain that picked up in the fourth quarter. True to form, Penn’s win yesterday tied this match-up at 5-5 in the past ten meetings.

Watching the game live, both teams appeared evenly matched overall, but Penn goal Emmet Carrol had an AA quality game and was the difference maker. He made some huge saves when Nova had the momentum and trailed by one goal, 8-9 after Licata scored an unassisted goal to start the 4th quarter.

Checking the stats at home after the game, both teams took 36 shots, but Nova had more shots on goal and dominated the X. Justin Copploa won 17 of 22 for 77% of the draws.

Tough loss, but Nova seems be getting better each game.

Hats off to the coaching staff’s continued success with the transfer portal: Ohio State LSM transfer Stephen Zupirich had some highlight film-quality CTO’s, plus an assist

[Henpecked]

.
The Nova-UPenn game at Villanova yesterday lived up to the expectations of this great rivalry, despite the rain that picked up in the fourth quarter. True to form, Penn’s win yesterday tied this match-up at 5-5 in the past ten meetings.

Watching the game live, both teams appeared evenly matched overall, but Penn goal Emmet Carrol had an AA quality game and was the difference maker. He made some huge saves when Nova had the momentum and trailed by one goal, 8-9 after Licata scored an unassisted goal to start the 4th quarter.

Checking the stats at home after the game, both teams took 36 shots, but Nova had more shots on goal and dominated the X. Justin Copploa won 17 of 22 for 77% of the draws.

Tough loss, but Nova seems be getting better each game.

Hats off to the coaching staff’s continued success with the transfer portal: Ohio State LSM transfer Stephen Zupirich had some highlight film-quality CTO’s, plus an assist

Zupicich was unbelievable. The best LSM performance that I’ve seen all year. I couldn’t believe how good he was. Villanova defense was spectacular. The offense…not so much. Room for improvement I guess.

[NovaLax17]

.
The Nova-UPenn game at Villanova yesterday lived up to the expectations of this great rivalry, despite the rain that picked up in the fourth quarter. True to form, Penn’s win yesterday tied this match-up at 5-5 in the past ten meetings.

Watching the game live, both teams appeared evenly matched overall, but Penn goal Emmet Carrol had an AA quality game and was the difference maker. He made some huge saves when Nova had the momentum and trailed by one goal, 8-9 after Licata scored an unassisted goal to start the 4th quarter.

Checking the stats at home after the game, both teams took 36 shots, but Nova had more shots on goal and dominated the X. Justin Copploa won 17 of 22 for 77% of the draws.

Tough loss, but Nova seems be getting better each game.

Hats off to the coaching staff’s continued success with the transfer portal: Ohio State LSM transfer Stephen Zupirich had some highlight film-quality CTO’s, plus an assist

Zupicich was unbelievable. The best LSM performance that I’ve seen all year. I couldn’t believe how good he was. Villanova defense was spectacular. The offense…not so much. Room for improvement I guess.

Zupicich has done amazing in his transition to Nova; an AA type season, continuing the LSM tradition set by players like Brian Karalunas. He already has 18 CTO's.

From Big East Conference website:

Stephen Zupicich, Villanova, 5th-Yr., LSM
Zupicich recorded six caused turnovers against Penn, the most by a Villanova player since 2016 and tied for the fifth most in a single game. Against Drexel Zupicich caused three turnovers and picked up seven ground balls.

https://www.bigeast.com/news/2024/3/11/ ... onors.aspx

From Villanova website:

Zupicich has had a historic start to the season as he is currently tied for the most caused turnovers in the nation with 18 and is third with three per game. Against Penn he scooped up five ground balls and caused a career-high six turnovers, tied for the fifth most in a game by a Villanova player ever and the most since 2016. Against Drexel he started the rally late by scoring his second goal of the season in the fourth quarter as well as causing three turnovers and picking up seven ground balls.

[https://villanova.com/news/2024/3/11/me ... d-for-3-11

.

[NovaLax17]

Weekday games are challenging for teams in general and particularly so for Villanova. They face a strong Navy team, coming off the Hopkins upset this Tuesday, then face Brown in Providence the following Monday. Then Big East play opens at home against Denver on March 30th.

Obviously, the Wildcats want to obtain a bid to the tournament. The best chance starts with winning the pre-Big East games. The Penn game (an 11-8 loss) was a missed opportunity to pick up a quality win.

As the season has progressed, Nova’s defense has done well, holding Lehigh to 8 goals (Cornell and Rutgers gave up 13 and 14 points respectively) and Colgate to 9 goals.

Nova dominated Colgate offensively as well, putting up 15 goals.

However, the Nova offense needs to generate a more consistent performance and cannot afford the typical Tuesday-night-slow start against the Midshipmen. The double overtime victory against Drexel and a close victory against Monmouth appear to have hurt the evaluation of their “body of work.” In fact, the eight goal performance versus Penn is clearly not the kind of output the coaches want, nor sufficient to return to return to post-season play.

Hoping the Cats deliver Tuesday at all levels.

[10stone5]

Colgate and Lehigh are both good wins, top 20 RPI teams.

[Farfromgeneva]

Licata might be the most underrated player in the big east. (My other vote for that would be a Denver kid named michael Lampert)

[gymman1031]

What a performance by Nova at Navy last night! They were clicking all around!

[10stone5]

Licata might be the most underrated player in the big east. (My other vote for that would be a Denver kid named michael Lampert)

Licata was VG last night.

[xxxxxxx]

Justin Coppola goes 14-22 he is one of the toughest lacrosse players I have ever see. Absolute beast.

[NovaLax17]

Villanova faces Brown today (Monday), continuing a series since 2016 (except covid seasons in 2020 & 2021) that has been dominated by the Bears and defined by a series of close wins and disappointing losses for the Wildcats: Brown has been able get the best out of the Wildcats in four of the last six encounters. Brown seems to have Nova’s number when the Cats are doing well.

In 2016, Villanova faced Brown while the Cats were riding a six game winning streak, including victories over Penn State, Drexel, Delaware and Penn, but lost at convincingly at home to the Bears, 8-19.

In 2017, after losing to Monmouth, Yale, Penn State and Delaware, Nova beat Brown 17-15.

In 2018, Nova beat Penn State, Yale, Hofstra, Drexel, Delaware, and Penn, but lost to Brown 9-12.

In 2019, after an early-season victory over #1 ranked Yale 11-10 in an OT at New Haven, the Cats lost to Penn and Drexel, but beat Brown by a goal, 10-9 in Providence.

In 2022, Villanova lost to Brown by a goal, 14-15 in Providence.

In 2023, Nova had a decisive victory against Navy, before facing Brown. The Cast at lost at home 11-13.

Like 2023, the Wildcats again beat Navy this year leading up to the Brown match-up. However, the Bears have momentum after defeating UMass on Friday, 11-10.

While Nova beat Navy by a wide margin last week, the first quarter was notably a sloppy affair by both the Cats and Midshipmen. The Nova offense put up 14 goals, but also had too many turnovers. As far as the defense goes, the game today must have be a better showing than the below average defensive performance of this Bear/Wildcats series.

The history of the series predicts a close game today unless Nova finds a way to get all the working parts to deliver for four quarters.
Despite wins over Colgate, Nova is not getting the benefit of a top-20 ranking. So if the Wildcats want some credibility, this is another must win game IMO.

[joewillie78]

#15 in my poll.

Gobigred
Joewillie78

[NovaLax17]

Thank you Joewillie! Duly noticed.

Dare I say as a biased Nova lax alum, you are a voice of reason among the less astute observers? I hope the men deliver today against Brown.