Oct. 30, 2002

Last Time Out: The Wildcats went on the road to face the Connecticut Huskies on the 25 and the St. John's Red Storm on the 27. The matches were a tale of opposites seeing the 'Cats lose on Friday to the Huskies 3-0 and beat the Red Storm on Sunday 3-0. The difference in the outcomes came from Villanova's efficiency. Against Connecticut the Wildcats hit for only a .158 attack percentage. That number was more than doubled against St. Johns as the 'Cats connected on the same number of kills as the previous loss (50), however they brought their attack percentage up to .327 and made the most of every opportunity to score.

Scouting the Tigers: The Tigers are a solid team guided by junior Kellie Cramm who averages 4.22 kills/game to go along with 3.14 digs/game and freshman Jenny Senske who leads the team with 633 assists in 49 games (12.92 assists/game). Princeton currently stands at 11-4 overall and 4-3 in the Ivy League. This match marks only the second non-conference away game for the Tigers, with the first time resulting in a Princeton victory 3-0 at Rider University.

Cracking the Top Ten: Two Wildcats have found their way onto the Big East leaderboard. Junior Jennifer Edwards currently stands at 10th in the assists/game category with 6.18/game. In the service aces department sophomore Jenny Badran-Grycan is tied for 9th with .35/game and tied for third with 33 total. As a team the 'Cats highest ranking statistically is in digs, where they lead with 1520 total and are 7th with 16 digs/game.

Big East Update: Villanova is smack in the middle of their Big East conference schedule. Currently the 'Cats stand at 2-6 in the league and have five Big East battles remaining. Games to go against Big East opponents for the Wildcats are Georgetown, Providence, Boston College, Seton Hall, and Rutgers which combined have a conference record of 11-24. Villanova has beaten Syracuse and St. Johns in conference play this season and have lost to five of the top six teams.

Up Next: The Wildcats next foe is Georgetown on November 2. Villanova travels to Washington D.C. for the match where the city is still recovering in the wake of the sniper attacks. Now there is no danger in the road trip, however prior to the sniper's arrest many Wildcats felt the worry associated with the attacks. Senior captain Leah Mathews felt, "we are kind of worried, but we are traveling in a group so it helps us feel safer." Luckily the Big East match can be played without any outside distractions and the Wildcats can concentrate on winning their second conference match in a row.