I Bleed Blue and White

The past few weeks have been nothing short of spectacular for the various Villanova teams. Maybe it was the soft non-conference schedule that each team stole from the basketball program, or maybe it was just one of those weeks. Now that conference play has begun all across the country, things are only going to get tougher.

It was still a good though as the ‘Nova athletics program record of 4-3-1 for the week.

Football (4-0, 1-0)

• It was all smiles Saturday as the football team demolished Northeastern 56-7. A week after being benched, QB Chris Whitney split time with Antwon Young and both performed well in the rout. They’ll be hosting William & Mary next week in a nationally televised game.

Men’s Golf

• The team traveled to North Carolina for the Sea Trails Intercollegiate and came away with a 6th place team finish in the 16 team field. Junior Brendan Kelly led the team with a 13th place individual finish.
• Assistant coach Jake Moran received the GCAA Meritorious Service Award. Moran is in his 2nd season as assistant coach after stepping down from the head coaching spot after 15 years.

Men’s Soccer (5-3-1, 2-2)

• An early goal was all Georgetown needed as it held on to defeat ‘Nova 1-0 last Friday.
• The team rebounded nicely with a 4-1 victory at Seton Hall on Sunday. Mike Seamon had a career-night with 2 goals and 2 assists in the victory.

Field Hockey (6-2, 1-0)

• In a midweek contest, Villanova defeated Penn 4-0 to continue their winning ways. Emily Donaldson and Meg Ryan both recorded 3 assists in the team’s 4th consecutive win.

Women’s Soccer (8-1-2, 1-1-1)

• The women took advantage of two goals from Heidi Sabatura in the 1st half and cruised to a 3-1 win over visiting Seton Hall on Friday afternoon. Kelly Eagan had the other goal for ‘Nova.
• Two overtimes couldn’t separate Villanova and Rutgers on Sunday as the teams finished in a 1-1 deadlock. Rachel Schuyler scored her first career goal on 25 minutes for ‘Nova in the draw.

Women’s Volleyball (11-4, 0-2)

• Things came crashing down for the volleyball team this week as they began BIG EAST play. After a string of 6 consecutive wins, the team fell 3-0 to Cincinnati in their conference opener and then again 3-1 to Louisville.

In a great New York weekend where the Jets punished the Patriots and the Giants spoiled Jerrah-World’s grand opening, the Villanova athletics scene was too bad either. Villanova athletes took home 3 awards this past week, in another successful week all across the ‘Nova Sports landscape.

• WR Matt Szczur was named the CAA Special Teams Player of the Week after returning the opening kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown. That’s 1.
• Krista Andersen was named the BIG EAST Freshman of the Week after she helped the volleyball team to a championship over the weekend. That’s 2.
• Megan Goelz and Meredith Sabatini were named to the Big East Honor Roll after solid weeks for the field hockey team. That’s 3 and 4.

See, I wasn’t kidding. Now let’s get to the teams and recap their weeks.

Football (3-0)

• If you hadn’t heard yet, they beat Penn 14-3 at Franklin Field on Saturday night. Not the prettiest win, but we’ll take it. They are currently ranked #2 in the country. They’ll open their CAA slate next week at home vs. Northeastern.

Women’s Basketball

• Not playing until November, but they announced their schedule today. Check it out.

Field Hockey (4-2, 1-0)

• In their first home game, and BIG EAST contest of the season, the ladies dismantled Rutgers 7-1.
• They continued their winning ways on Sunday by beating Bucknell 4-2 on goals from Sabatini, Meg Ryan, Lauren Wuzzardo and Dana Ramsden.

Women’s Soccer (7-1-1)

• In their first setback of the season, the ladies got smoked in their BIG EAST opener at Georgetown when they lost 4-0.
• Katie Ryan was the savior on Sunday when she scored in the 90th minute to hand her team a 1-0 win over Fordham.

Men’s Soccer (4-2-1)

• Jordy Griffith staked the team to a 1-0 lead over UConn, but it wasn’t enough as the Wildcats fell 2-1 in their BIG EAST opener.
• Kyle Soroka scored just over 4 minutes into the match, and the team held on to beat Providence 1-0 on Sunday.

Men’s Golf

• The team finished 12th out of 18 teams at the McLaughlin Invitational hosted by St. John’s.

Women’s Volleyball (11-2)

• The women traveled to Virginia for the Marriott Cavalier Invitational and they came away the big winner. First, they defeated Albany 3-2 behind 18 kills from Krista Andersen.
• The next day, senior Amy Gulyas and Andersen both posted double-doubles as the ladies won again, defeating hosts Virginia 3-1.
• Later in the day Villanova won yet again as they defeated Virginia Tech 3-2 as Gulyas and Andersen shined again.

If you’re keeping score (I am), then you’ll know that Villanova sports cruised to a 8-2 overall record, and a 12th place finish for the golf team. Good times, keep on comin’.

Time to look around campus and check in on the other sports programs again. This past week was a particularly good one for the Wildcats, as they compiled an overall record of 7-2 and a 4th place finish. And the Giants won too. So all is good.

Let’s take a closer look.

Football (2-0)

• After their victory over Lehigh, the football team moved up one spot to #2 in the country in the Sports Network Top 25.

Men’s Soccer (3-1-1)

• They started off the weekend by beating Binghamton 2-1 behind goals from Stephen Paresi on 36 minutes and Kevin Garica on 80. It was a crappy, rainy night and the ‘Cats were able to pull out the win. Kudos.
• They finished things off in similar fashion on Sunday when they beat winless Fordham 3-1. Adam Amann scored just under 6 minutes into the contest and goals from Kyle McCarthy (29′) and Will Ogden (78′).

Women’s Soccer (6-0-1)

• Katie Ryan scored a goal with just over 4 minutes remaining in regulation to give the ‘Cats a 1-0, but Vermont equalised 2 minutes later. It wasn’t until the 103rd minute that Ryan hit home the winner to give the Wilcats a 2-1 victory.
• Sunday was much less frantic as goals from Ryan and Heidi Sabatura gave Villanova a 2-0 victory over Deleware.
• Ryan’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed as she was named to the Big East Honor Roll for the 2nd time this year.

Field Hockey (3-2)

• Nobody said facing the country’s #2 ranked team would be easy, and the ladies fell 7-0 to North Carolina in their first game of the weekend.
• They rebounded nicely however, with a 7-1 victory over Appalachian State behind a career-high 4 goals from Meredith Sabatini.

Men’s Golf

• The men’s golf team opened their season at The Navy Fall Classic in Annapolis, MD. Junior Brendan Kelly secured a 3rd place finish for himself and led the team to 4th place overall.

Women’s Volleyball (7-2)

• In their first home match of the season the team took care of business, sweeping UMBC 3-0 behind strong performances from Maggie Mergen and Kim Maroon.
• The final game of the Villanova Classic was a little tougher, but the team prevailed again by beating Princeton 3-2 behind Maggie Mergen and freshman Krista Andersen.
• Another accolade for a ‘Nova athlete as Kim Maroon makes the Big East Honor Roll.

And because this really hurts my head to read (I’m not a big tennis guy), I’ll just say that both the men’s and the women’s tennis teams opened up their seasons. Sounds like the men won. The women did not fair as well.

Brian Lynch was a bit before my time, but a few friends have been talking about him at the U.S. Open this week. For those of you who don’t know, Lynch married tennis star Kim Clijsters and has been all over the TV this week during his wife’s matches.

For those who do not follow women’s tennis, Lynch changed the landscape will a single question. This is the man who took Clijsters out of professional tennis after their marriage following her winning the U.S. Open in 2005. Yep, that’s right. Brian Lynch has took a tennis star in her prime out of the game for 4 years. Only a Villanova man.

Lynch took his game to Europe after 'Nova.

So if you’ve been missing Brian Lynch, or just want to find out who exactly this man is, turn on CBS this Friday.

• VUHoops is all over the Brian Lynch phenomena by noticing he is #11 on Google Trends. No, seriously. He really is.
• Sticking with the alumnus theme, Mike from VUHoops let us know that former Villanovan Andrew Sullivan is captaining Great Britain at Eurobasket 2009.
• Villanova By The Numbers is looking into Scottie Reynolds’ bid to become the all-time leading scorer at Villanova. He is 623 points shy of Kerry Kittles’ record of 2,243. According to stats-guru greyCat, he would need to average roughly 20 points per game in his final year to hit the mark.
• VUHoops has posted the recap of their Wisdom of Crowds experiment for the guards. It’s an interesting look into things, although like Ed suggests over there, I have a hard time figuring out how the masses figure Reggie Redding’s minutes per game will decrease by nearly 5 minutes.
• Villanova Golf Coach Will Reilly and sophomore Eddie Ryan are helping inner-city youths learn life skills through the game of golf. The pair teamed with the Northeast Philadelphia Boys & Girls Club to create the program.
• Field hockey players Steffi Caniglia and Dana Ramsden were selected to the Big East Honor Roll for their performances over the weekend.
• Goalie Chris Bresnahan was selected the Philadelphia Soccer Six Player of the Week.
• And for the second time in the season’s first three weeks, freshman Heidi Sabatura was named the Big East Rookie of the Week for women’s soccer.