Nov. 10, 2006

Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A flurry of goals in the first half gave Villanova (16-3-2) an early advantage and the Wildcats advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 5-1 victory over Toledo (9-9-4) on Friday night at Penn State's Jeffrey Field. With the win, Villanova sets a new school record for wins in a season.

"I am so proud of our effort tonight," Villanova head coach Ann Clifton said. "Toledo is a very talented team and we knew coming in that these two teams were going to put on a great show. I think that we rose to the occasion and were up to the challenge of playing at this level."

The Wildcats will be making their fourth appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Villanova will face host Penn State (16-4-3) on Sunday at 1 p.m. with a chance to advance to the Sweet 16. The matchup with the Nittany Lions - a #2 seed in the tournament - mirrors the 2001 NCAA Tournament, when Penn State faced tourney-newcomer Villanova in a second round contest.

The first two goals of the game came in a span of 3:46 early in the first period, with a corner-kick goal in the 13th minute opening the scoring. Junior Kayce Blandford (Columbia, Md.) sent a ball in from the right corner that was headed towards the net by freshman Kelly Eagan (St. James, N.Y.). The ball wound up in a big crowd in front of Rocket goalkeeper Jen Whipple, and junior Jenna Gordon (White Plains, N.Y.) kicked it into the right corner for her first career goal.

"On all of our corners we know that Kayce can kick it to the same spot every time and we try to have as many numbers as we can in on the play to distract the defense," Gordon said. "That is what happened on the first goal and the ball just went in."

Villanova continued to maintain possession of the ball after the goal and less than four minutes later junior Kaley Guthrie (Ogdensburg, N.J.) crossed a pass into the box from the right side in the 17th minute. From there, sophomore Erin Hardiman (Galloway, N.J.) booted the ball to the back of the net and give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

"We had a great week of practice and tonight on the field it seemed like we were reading everything exactly as we had practiced," Hardiman said. "When someone had the ball and was running down field you knew where they were going to go. I tried to be in the spot I thought Kaley would put the ball and then just tried to slide it into the goal."

The game featured outstanding set pieces from Villanova, which generated 10 corner kicks and scored on three of them. The Wildcats outshot Toledo 11-2 in the opening period and added a third goal in the 32nd minute. Blandford took another corner kick and junior Nikki Mabery (Phoenix, Ariz.) headed it in for her 12th goal of the season and first since a September 29 victory over Connecticut.

Mabery added another goal in the second half, scoring in the 67th minute on a straight shot from the middle of the box. Freshman Jessica Carnevale (Princeton, N.J.) passed a ball to Gordon, who in turn fed Mabery. After turning past a Rocket defender, Mabery scored her 13th goal of the season to move into the top five in school history for goals in a single-season.

Villanova owned a 21-5 shot advantage for the game and did not let up the lone Toledo goal until there was just over a minute left in the game. By that time the Wildcats had netted their fifth goal on yet another corner kick in the 78th minute. Blandford registered her second assist of the game when her kick was passed by junior Stacia Hartung (Rochester, N.Y.) towards the goal. Senior Megan Farmer (Middle Island, N.Y.) was there to receive the pass and slid a ball to the right side for the team's final goal.

Penn State defeated Niagara 3-1 in the evening's first game to clinch their spot in Saturday afternoon's game. The Nittany Lions broke a 1-1 tie on a goal with less than 10 minutes remaining in regulation and added another tally in the closing minutes to account for the final margin. Penn State owns a 7-3 edge in the all-time series between the two teams.

NOTES: Villanova previously had 15 wins in the 2003 season ... That was also the year that the Wildcats reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, marking the furthest the program has advanced in postseason play ... Mabery now has 13 goals on the season, matching the totals of Jean Hajjar in the 1985 and 1987 seasons ... The two players are tied for fourth in program history for goals in a single season ... The team record is 23 goals by Cathy Ford in 1984 ... The Wildcats are now 4-2-3 all-time in NCAA Tournament games and have advanced at least to the second round in four of five appearances ... The five goals scored tonight by Villanova was just one less than its combined total from its first eight NCAA contests.