Fort Worth, Texas – The Villanova Wildcats volleyball team kicks off its 2019 campaign tomorrow when they take on Lipscomb at 5 p.m. in the Cowtown Classic, hosted by TCU in Fort Worth Texas. Over the weekend, Villanova will also square off with High Point and TCU.
"We're looking forward to playing somebody else. We spent a lot of time playing each other so seeing somebody in a different colored jersey is going to be fun," said head coach
Josh Steinbach.
In the opening weekend, Villanova will look to build on what they learned in the preseason and tap into the depth of this team, a real strength according to Coach Steinbach.
"The first thing you hope is the things you spend a lot of time on in preseason show up on the floor. We've spent a lot of time working on defensive systems. We want to see those things manifest themselves clearly and with focus on Friday. While our seniors are ready to step up for one last go-round, we're hoping to see a balanced effort and that everybody can be a contributor."
Friday's match will be the first ever meeting between the Wildcats and Bison. Last season, Lipscomb posted an 18-12 record en route to a third-place finish in the ASUN conference. Notably, this is the third consecutive season opener against a team that starts with the letter L, after facing La Salle to begin last year, and Liberty in 2017. Both of those games turned into Ws for the Wildcats, who have won their last five season openers, and are 9-3 in openers under Coach Steinbach.
Lipscomb returns Morgan Elmore, who led the team with over 1,000 assists last season, as well as Megan Kuper, who finished second in kills for the Bison. After finishing third in the ASUN regular season, they dropped their conference semi-final match to the No. 2 seed Kennesaw State by a 3-2 score. Lipscomb was picked to once again finish third in this year's ASUN preseason poll.
The match against High Point is slated for Saturday at noon and is a potential revenge match for the Wildcats, after the Panthers took last year's meeting 3-0 in Nevin Fieldhouse.
Clare Delaplane led that match for the Wildcats with eight kills, while
Emma Decker dished out 16 assists.
High Point also returns some notable players from last season, bringing back two setters, Jenna Smith and Mackenzi Thornburg, that both logged over 500 assists, and Madison Smith who had 250 kills. High Point went 21-10 a year ago to take home both the Big South regular season and tournament championships, granting them berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers were bounced by Marquette in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Villanova will conclude its time in Fort Worth by facing the host TCU on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Wildcats are 0-2 all-time against the Horned Frogs. They last met in 2011, when TCU defeated Villanova 3-1 at Villanova. TCU went 15-12 last season and finished sixth in the Big 12.
TCU brings back Élan McCall, who put up 370 kills as a freshman last season and was eighth nationally while leading the Big 12 in kills per set. TCU will be an incredibly young team this season featuring eight freshman and just one senior on the roster.
This weekend will be a homecoming for
Remy Fairchild, who hails from Southlake, Texas and Sanaä Barnes, from Keller, Texas, each less than an hour from Fort Worth. Additionally,
Kathleen Johnson from Houston and
Mallory Potts from San Antonio also get the chance to play in their home state. This is the program's first trip to Texas since participating in the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islander Classic in 2010. The Wildcats swept all three of those matches and did not drop a single game.
"We're excited to be playing where we are. Getting those kids home is a great experience for them," Coach Steinbach said.
Be sure to follow along this weekend and throughout the year, with @NovaVolleyball on both Twitter and Instagram for the most current information, live match updates and behind the scenes footage.
