Villanova 2023

[10stone5]

Penn State ties it late
but 1st team Midfielder Matt Campbell - Delbarton NJ,
closes the game out,
14-12 Villanova.

[sinman6]

Great game. Matt Campbell is a difference maker. Villanova appears to have a few of those.

[gymman1031]

Great game. Matt Campbell is a difference maker. Villanova appears to have a few of those.

He sure is. And, on this day, Nova's goalie may have been the biggest difference-maker.

[NovaLax17]

Great game. Matt Campbell is a difference maker. Villanova appears to have a few of those.

He sure is. And, on this day, Nova's goalie may have been the biggest difference-maker.

Vitton was a wall in the goal with 18 saves, including two game winners at the end of the 4th!

I watched the second half on the stream broadcast. A few observations on the victory: Nova came up big with veteran leadership after Penn State clawed back from a four goal deficit and tied the game 12-12. Penn State had the momentum. But Daly scored goal #13 on an assist from Fraser and Campbell sealed it with goal #14. Both veterans had 4 goals each.

A big bonus is junior attackman Matt Licata who had a bunch of assists, filling the spot left by 2022 assist leader Luke Keating.
Coppola and Bohn matched up very well last season. Today, they battled to a tie at the x, but Comizio came up with the ground balls on the wing to set Nova up on offense for the two last goals. Freshman defenseman David Evanchick was also impressive on his first game as a Wildcat.

Refs called a lot of penalties on Nova. Since I watched the game on the live stream, I can’t say they were bad calls.

Finally, Nova alum and 6th on the all-time goal scorer Danny Seibel did a good job with his color-commentary.

[chosen1lax]

Solid win for Villanova to start the season. I thought PSU looked good, but not great.

5th years stole the show for the cats, Vitton, Daly, and Campbell all did what they were expected of doing.

Nice to see some new faces rolling out there on the second mid line. If nova can build out some depth that will be huge for them down the stretch.

Both the nova defense and psu defense were sloppy at times, but to be expected this early in the season.

PSU turned the ball over 20+ times and was still in the game WOAH.

Big test against Yale coming up, Villanova is 2-3 against them all time.

[chosen1lax]

Anyone catch the Yale game? Looks like the cats hung tough and ran out of steam.

Good chance for Nova to get a ranked win vs Delaware next week

[gymman1031]

Anyone catch the Yale game? Looks like the cats hung tough and ran out of steam.

Good chance for Nova to get a ranked win vs Delaware next week

Good fight by Nova for a good portion of the game. I won't say this after every loss. But, if they were a full-funded program and had a few more scholarships to offer, Nova would have the talent and depth to compete with such teams more often.

[chosen1lax]

Anyone catch the Yale game? Looks like the cats hung tough and ran out of steam.

Good chance for Nova to get a ranked win vs Delaware next week

Good fight by Nova for a good portion of the game. I won't say this after every loss. But, if they were a full-funded program and had a few more scholarships to offer, Nova would have the talent and depth to compete with such teams more often.

I understand the gripe, but do not think the crutch is completely valid. Doesnt Yale, and other Ivy programs, have 0 scholarships?

[OCanada]

Schollies are only part of the cost equation

[10stone5]

Anyone catch the Yale game? Looks like the cats hung tough and ran out of steam.

Good chance for Nova to get a ranked win vs Delaware next week

I put a lot of commentary in the Yale thread, more or less live.

Villanova hung 7 goals in the 1st quarter, Yale defense overplayed
Matt Campbell and that opened space for other players.
Villanova’s faceoff man did very well in the 1st half, Yale
adjusted on Campbell, went short stick on him. Yale moved to
a frenetic offense which just is not Villanova’s style, Villanova
could not keep up, Paquette made 4 straight almost point blank
great saves, deflated Villanova. Lyons was continually finding
open space and did not miss.

[chosen1lax]

Great win by NOVA. Campbell did his thing, and supporting players stepped up around him with #10 out for the game. Udel was a strong opponent and expect them to handle business in the CAA

[NovaLax17]

Campbell is a solid candidate for the Tewaaraton Award. A consistent and humble leader on a solid, but under appreciated program who consistently delivers offensive performances against some of the best teams in the country. He does not get accolades on ESPN (the BE is occasionally on FS1 and CBS Sports) and does not seek any. He just plays hard every game. His field dynamic with Patrick Daly is top notch as well.

“Villanova earned a Top 10 win Sunday, earning a dramatic 13-10 victory against No. 10 Delaware.
Matt Campbell had five goals and an assist, tying the Villanova career-goals record. He has 128 goals in 52 career games, tying Jack Ric
e (61 games) and Chris Sullivan. Patrick Daly had a hat trick.” (Inside Lacrosse, Matt Kinnear 2023).

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... rown/60801

[10stone5]

Campbell is outplaying Sam Handley and Graham Bundy, the other
two leading contenders for midfielder of the year, this year, so far.

Yale was able to shut Campbell down in the second half of that
game, in part due to some superb saves by the Yale goalie, or
Campbell would be looking even better relative to those other
two.

I had originally thought this could be a year a non-attack man
could win Player of the Year.

You’ve got Brennan O’Neill playing real well, its hard to ignore
Shellenberger with how UVA has started the season, the
defenders for the Terps and Cornell, Myers at OSU hasn’t
exactly busted out of the gate.

Georgetown does not look like the Georgetown of last year, so if
Villanova really challenges them for the top spot in the Big East
even if it just comes right down to the wire - then its going to be
hard to ignore Campbell.

[chosen1lax]

Campbell is outplaying Sam Handley and Graham Bundy, the other
two leading contenders for midfielder of the year, this year, so far.

Yale was able to shut Campbell down in the second half of that
game, in part due to some superb saves by the Yale goalie, or
Campbell would be looking even better relative to those other
two.

I had originally thought this could be a year a non-attack man
could win Player of the Year.

You’ve got Brennan O’Neill playing real well, its hard to ignore
Shellenberger with how UVA has started the season, the
defenders for the Terps and Cornell, Myers at OSU hasn’t
exactly busted out of the gate.

Georgetown does not look like the Georgetown of last year, so if
Villanova really challenges them for the top spot in the Big East
even if it just comes right down to the wire - then its going to be
hard to ignore Campbell.

I agree, Campbell playing superb through 3 games, hopefully he can keep it going. The defensemen that covered him on UDEL is well regarded as a first team AA contender, which begs the question, is Campbell a middy this season? Seems like he is playing predominantly attack (I only watched the PSU and UDEL games). Regardless of what category he falls under he will definitely garner some post season recognition as well as finish at the top of NOVA's record books.

[NovaLax17]

Full video recording of game at UDel via Lacrosse TV at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGdiLH0dsBI

[10stone5]

It was easily the most exciting game this weekend,

Navy High Point was a thriller also.

[NovaLax17]

No room for resting tomorrow against Hofstra at Hempstead. Last year, Hofstra led 5-1 in the first quarter, but managed only one more goal in the next three quarters.

Villanova leads the all time series 9-8. The first win was in 1989 on the Island when Hofstra was ranked in the top ten. Hoping the Cats play hard out of the gate Saturday.

FloSports is covering the game: https://www.flolive.tv/events/10378373- ... s-lacrosse

[gymman1031]

No room for resting tomorrow against Hofstra at Hempstead. Last year, Hofstra led 5-1 in the first quarter, but managed only one more goal in the next three quarters.

Villanova leads the all time series 9-8. The first win was in 1989 on the Island when Hofstra was ranked in the top ten. Hoping the Cats play hard out of the gate Saturday.

FloSports is covering the game: https://www.flolive.tv/events/10378373- ... s-lacrosse

This has the potential to be one of the better games of the weekend.

[10stone5]

No room for resting tomorrow against Hofstra at Hempstead. Last year, Hofstra led 5-1 in the first quarter, but managed only one more goal in the next three quarters.

Villanova leads the all time series 9-8. The first win was in 1989 on the Island when Hofstra was ranked in the top ten. Hoping the Cats play hard out of the gate Saturday.

FloSports is covering the game: https://www.flolive.tv/events/10378373- ... s-lacrosse

The only thing I’d add
Seth Tierney gets a lot of grief,
at the very least, this year anyway, in the Hofstra games I’ve observed the effort has been there for the entire 60 minutes.

For Villanova, this is yet another opportunity to set this team up
as the “class” of the Big East, heading soon into the Big East
schedule - Denver plays UNC, Georgetown plays Princeton - so
these sorts of games do matter.

And also, look at Yale yesterday - a total dismantling of a solid team - whereas a couple weeks back, Villanova was as close as
4 goals down in the 4th before Yale turned on the jets again to
close out that game.

[NovaLax17]

No room for resting tomorrow against Hofstra at Hempstead. Last year, Hofstra led 5-1 in the first quarter, but managed only one more goal in the next three quarters.

Villanova leads the all time series 9-8. The first win was in 1989 on the Island when Hofstra was ranked in the top ten. Hoping the Cats play hard out of the gate Saturday.

FloSports is covering the game: https://www.flolive.tv/events/10378373- ... s-lacrosse

The only thing I’d add
Seth Tierney gets a lot of grief,
at the very least, this year anyway, in the Hofstra games I’ve observed the effort has been there for the entire 60 minutes.

For Villanova, this is yet another opportunity to set this team up
as the “class” of the Big East, heading soon into the Big East
schedule - Denver plays UNC, Georgetown plays Princeton - so
these sorts of games do matter.

And also, look at Yale yesterday - a total dismantling of a solid team - whereas a couple weeks back, Villanova was as close as
4 goals down in the 4th before Yale turned on the jets again to
close out that game.

Video feed is slow, but Villanova is putting on a clinic. Nova lead 6-4 at halftime, scoring three in a row to end the second quarter, then continued in the third with five unanswered goals.

12-5 at the end of three. Fraser has 5 assists, Daly 4 goals, Reale 3 goals , Goodelle 2. Campbell on the board late with 1. Stevie Jones, SSDM, scored as well.

Vitton has 7 saves. Coppola winning at X, 10 of 16.