Last week, Villanova women\u2019s soccer (8-0-3, 3-0 Big East) took down two Big East teams, holding off Creighton, 2-1, on the road, then, on Saturday, achieving a historic 1-0 win against Georgetown (3-4-3, 0-2-1 Big East) for the first time in 14 years.<\/p>\n
With Wednesday\u2019s win, Villanova already matched its last season\u2019s winning output, as Creighton (4-4-3, 0-1-2 Big East) marked the Wildcats\u2019 seventh win of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was also head coach Samar Azem\u2019s 100th career win and her 29th win with Villanova. The last time Villanova was still unbeaten through its first 11 matches was in 2007.<\/p>\n
Wednesday was Villanova\u2019s first road game since late August. Sophomore Kaydee Amorosa put Villanova up in the 14th minute off a corner from senior Gabby Koluch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Junior Isabella Chukwu secured the win with a 39th-minute goal. Creighton answered with a single goal in the last 10 minutes of play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to Creighton, and that\u2019s not an easy trip,\u201d Azem said. \u201cThat was such a physical game, and we walked out with three points, and then came out and played a totally different team, a super sophisticated team. And to come out with a win. I was just so proud; I feel so happy for our players.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the Wildcats earned their eighth shutout of the season and overcame a 12-match losing streak against the Hoyas, dating back to 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saturday was the 34th matchup between Georgetown and Villanova in their series since 1983.<\/p>\n
In the 11th minute on Saturday, Villanova\u2019s Dez Zapata sent a cross across the net for a tap-in from sophomore Avrie Nelsen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nelsen\u2019s goal brought her to a team-high six goals, building on an stellar freshman campaign with a great goalscoring start to season two.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That goal was the first in nearly 10 years that the Wildcats scored against the Hoyas. The last time was on Oct. 12, 2016, when Villanova fell 5-1 to Georgetown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge win,\u201d Azem said. \u201cSo much respect for this Georgetown team. I think we haven\u2019t beaten them in 15 seasons. And haven\u2019t scored on them in 11. So to get the shutout against them is a big deal. This is a team who was in the Sweet 16 last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going into the Georgetown matchup, Azem and the team were prepared for a defensive-minded battle against the Hoyas.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorgetown has a lot of talented attacking players,\u201d Azem said. \u201cWe knew that we were going to have to defend hard and smart and together today. And then we were also going to create counterattacks, and adapt a little bit of our style.\u201d<\/p>\n
Azem emphasized junior Meredith Palmer for her defensive performance, along with the entire back line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also highlighted sixth-year Bella Panaccione as holding midfielder and junior Dez Zapata for her assist.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeredith Palmer was phenomenal today,\u201d Azem said. \u201cThat last 20 minutes, I think she frustrated them so much. But honestly, our whole back line was just outstanding today. And Bella, our holding midfielder, did a really, really good job today. And then Dez Zapata. I mean, to create the goal, obviously Avrie finished it, but Dez was the one who created it, and it was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s soccer team will play against Xavier (8-2-1, 2-0-1 Big East) at the Higgins Soccer Complex on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, the team will head back on the road and travel to Providence (2-2-7, 0-1-1 Big East) on Saturday, Oct. 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are recovering hard,\u201d Azem said. \u201cFor us it\u2019s just continuing to get better and better at what we do. It\u2019s a gauntlet with these three games we have in a row. We\u2019ve got Wednesday, Xavier, and then we go to Providence on Saturday. And so for us, it\u2019s, \u2018let\u2019s recover right now, and then let\u2019s go watch some video and see where we can get better and tune up some things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Villanova\u2019s next match against the Musketeers is set to begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, Villanova women\u2019s soccer (8-0-3, 3-0 Big East) took down two Big East teams, holding off Creighton,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-924066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}