Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 11/21/16
From Press Release
Villanova Men’s Lacrosse has announced its 2017 schedule. The upcoming season will feature seven home games, five games against 2016 NCAA tournament teams, and seven teams that were ranked or received votes in the final USILA Coaches Poll of the 2016 season. Following the conclusion of the regular season, the Wildcats will have their sights set on the BIG EAST Men’s Lacrosse Championship slated to begin on Thursday, May 4th for the beginning of the 2017 postseason. The location of the BIG EAST Tournament is still TBA.
The Wildcats start off the 2017 season with a strong out of conference schedule beginning with a three game home stance that will open up on Saturday, February 11th against Monmouth. The following two weekends, Villanova Stadium will host Yale and Penn State. Villanova will wrap up the month of February with their first away game at Drexel on the 28th.
In March, Villanova will open up hosting the Delaware Blue Hens on the 4th following by a weekday trip to Providence to take on Brown. The Wildcats will return to Villanova Stadium for a Tuesday afternoon matchup against Bucknell. The month wraps up with back to back road games; first the Wildcats will travel to College Park to take on Maryland and then will travel to Connecticut for a game against the Fairfield Stags.
BIG EAST action will dominate April with the Wildcats opening up conference play against the defending BIG EAST champions Marquette on the 1st in Villanova Stadium. Next, Villanova will hit the road playing at Denver on the 8th and then to Washington D.C. against the Georgetown Hoyas April 15th. The Wildcats return home for Senior Day on April 22nd when they host St. John’s. To wrap up the regular season Villanova will travel to Providence to take of the Friars on the 29th for their last tune up before the BIG EAST Tournament.
The top four teams in the league will advance to the BIG EAST Tournament which is set to begin on Thursday, May 4th and will conclude two days later on Saturday, May 6th. The winner claims the all-important NCAA automatic bid.
Villanova is coming off a 2016 season where they were 9-5 overall and 3-2 in conference play. At the end of the March, the Wildcats were ranked #5 by the USILA, the best ranking ever for Villanova. Leading the Wildcats offense last season was Jake Froccaro, a transfer, in his first season had a team high 56 points on 40 goals and 16 assists. Jack Curran was named Co-BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year, the captain who is returning for his fifth year dished out a team high 23 assists while adding 21 goals. Other strong contributors last season were junior attacker Devin McNamara, midfielder Joey Froccaro, and faceoff specialist Luke Palmadesso. The Wildcats are returning goalkeepers Dan Willis and Nick Testa, who shared time in net.
02/11/17 vs. Monmouth N.J. Monmouth N.J. Villanova, Pa. 12:00 p.m. ET
02/18/17 vs. Yale Yale Villanova, Pa. 12:00 p.m. ET
02/25/17 vs. Penn State Penn State Villanova, Pa. 1:00 p.m. ET
02/28/17 at Drexel Drexel Philadelphia, Pa. 7:00 p.m. ET
03/04/17 vs. Delaware Delaware Villanova, Pa. 3:00 p.m. ET
03/07/17 at Brown Brown Providence, R.I. 4:00 p.m. ET
03/14/17 vs. Bucknell Bucknell Villanova, Pa. 4:00 p.m. ET
03/18/17 at Maryland Maryland College Park, Md. 1:00 p.m. ET
03/25/17 at Fairfield Fairfield Fairfield, Conn. 1:00 p.m. ET
04/01/17 vs. Marquette Marquette * Villanova, Pa. 1:00 p.m. ET
04/08/17 at Denver Denver * Denver, Colo. 2:00 p.m. ET
04/15/17 at Georgetown Georgetown * Washington D.C. 1:00 p.m. ET
04/22/17 vs. St. John’s St. John’s * Villanova, Pa. 3:00 p.m. ET
04/29/17 at Providence Providence * Providence, R.I. 1:00 p.m. ET
05/04/17 BIG EAST Semi-Finals * TBA TBA
05/06/17 BIG EAST Championship TBA TBA