WASHINGTON, D.C. – The No. 4 seed Villanova Wildcats saw their 2021 season come to an end on Thursday evening with a 16-9 loss to the No. 1 seed Denver Pioneers in the semifinal round of the BIG EAST Tournament. With the setback, Villanova finishes the year with a 6-11 record.
 
Denver improves to 14-1 on the year and will advance to Saturday's championship game against the second seeded Connecticut Huskies.
 
Senior Brittany Bruno (Rumson, N.J.) got the Wildcats going early scoring her team's first two goals of the game. After Bruno's second tally tied the game at 2-2, Denver's Eliza Radochonski gave the Pioneers a 3-2 advantage off an assist from Kailey Conry.  Villanova came right back and scored back-to-back goals from Caroline Curnal (Ridgefield, Conn.) and Libby McKenna (Fairfield, Conn.) to take a 4-3 advantage with 11:23 to play in the opening half.
 
Denver dominated play over the next four minutes scoring four straight goals to take a 7-4 lead with 3:26 on the clock. Radochonski led the charge for the Pioneers scoring two of the four goals.
 
Each team added one more first half score sending the game to halftime with Denver leading 8-5. Bruno scored her third of the game for the Wildcat goal, while Denver's Julia Gilbert scored with just seven seconds remaining until intermission.
 
The Pioneers scored four of the first five goals of the second half to take control of the game with a 12-6 lead.  Following a Katie Comerford (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) goal that sliced the Denver advantage to 12-7 at the 16:54 mark, Bea Behrins tallied back-to-back goals to help the Pioneers take a commanding 14-7 lead with 8:26 left on the clock. Comerford and Curnal added two late goals for the Wildcats.
 
Villanova goalie Alexa Moro (Westport, Conn.) registered six saves in the loss, while Denver goalie Amelia Cole was credited with nine stops.
 
Denver out shot Villanova by a 30-26 margin, while the Wildcats held a 19-16 advantage in groundballs.