City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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Lucy Olsen and Kaitlyn Orihel go way back.

Well, kind of. And not necessarily in a good way.

“I actually hated Kaitlyn,” Olsen told CoBL by phone earlier this month. 

Orihel isn’t shy either, when describing the way she felt about Olsen for the majority of time they’ve known of one another.

“There’s this friendly rivalry between the two of us,” she said. “I always hated playing against (Lucy).”

All in, though, you couldn’t really blame either of them. From their early teens to high school graduation, Orihel and Olsen knew each other, mainly, as one thing — that really good player on the other team.

Having both grown up in southeastern Pennsylvania, the two talented athletes, both members of the high school Class of 2021, came up through the ranks on successful area high school teams — Orihel in the Catholic League, at Archbishop Wood, and Olsen in the Pioneer Athletic Conference, at Spring-Ford.

“We’ve been playing against each other since, like, fourth grade,” Olsen said. “I actually did hate (Orihel) for a while — because she was so good, and she always beat us.”

But in 2021, the switch flipped.

In some senses, it had to; the two Philadelphia-area products, within just a handful of days of one another, both made the decision to keep their talents local and play at Villanova.

“When we both committed, I was like, ‘Oh, great, I have to be teammates with her,” Olsen said sarcastically. “But once I knew I was playing with her, I was like, ‘This is great, we finally can come together and play on the same team.’”

“Ever since we got here, we’re good friends,” she added.

What was once an adversarial relationship has evolved into a freshman tandem that’s already seen plenty of success at the college level, on a ‘Nova squad that’s experiencing plenty of success.

Kaitlyn Orihel (above) and her former adversary have teamed up to make a key impact right away for Villanova. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Despite a road loss to Seton Hall on Sunday, Villanova sits at 17-7 on the season, 11-4 in the Big East, tied for second in the loss column with Creighton (13-4) and DePaul (12-4), a game ahead of Marquette (10-5). 

Of the two, Olsen has seen a decent bit more playing time (28.1 mpg), but both freshmen see the floor for double-digit minutes on average. So far as freshmen, Olsen contributes 6.2 ppg, 2.6 rpg, and a nearly team-leading 2.7 apg; Orihel has added 3.7 ppg and 1.6 rpg in, on average, 14.8 minutes.

Ultimately, that kind of production and floor time has been the case since day one for Orihel and Olsen, who have made their mark — in varying degrees — on all 24 of Villanova’s box scores this season (23 for Orihel, who missed Nova’s game against Oregon State in December). Even back in November, they were already seeing significant time, averaging a combined 48 minutes in the Wildcats’ first five games. 

“I've always wanted to play all four years of college,” Olsen said. “And luckily coming into Villanova, it kind of worked out that way. Villanova gave an opportunity to find minutes early, instead of coming into a college that had, like, five seniors that all started. It opened it up a bit to give us the opportunity to play right away.”

Olsen has started all 24 games for Villanova, with a season high of 22 points against Lehigh in December. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

The way the two freshmen describe it, there’s an often unspoken level of trust that comes from the Wildcats’ coaching staff, and it’s been on display all year.

It’s not never spoken, but it’s spoken most loudly in the consistent level of playing time they each receive. That level of tangible trust and support goes beyond the authority figures in the program; it’s expressed — on the floor — by fellow players, too.

According to Olsen, the early trust she and Orihel received out of the gates as freshmen made settling into the college game all the more manageable.

“So, the coaches put you in there, and they trust you. And then the team, they're encouraging you, they're passing you the ball,” Olsen said. “I feel like that really builds the trust and the confidence out on the court.”

On Villanova’s entire playing roster, there’s just one individual designated as a senior or older, and that’s redshirt senior Brianna Herlihy. Beyond Herlihy, there are three juniors, including the nation’s second-leading scorer, Maddy Siegrist (26.4 ppg), but as a whole, the Wildcats’ team is a young one. 

It’s largely for that reason that Villanova’s success in 2021-22, especially in the latter half — the Wildcats have ripped off eight wins in a row, catapulting them back into the national conversation after a sluggish start — is such an encouragement; many of the team’s contributors still have plenty of time ahead of them to improve, both as individuals and as a unit.

Ultimately, since opening up at a disappointing 3-5, Villanova has been near unbeatable and one of the nation’s hottest programs, winning 14 of 15 games before its loss Sunday. The Wildcats’ tear reached new heights last Wednesday in a 72-69 win at No. 8 Connecticut that snapped the Huskies’ 169-game conference win streak, launching ‘Nova’s women into the national spotlight.

Olsen pitched in a key 11 points and seven assists in Villanova’s marquee victory in Hartford.  

“I think the team's just really coming together,” Orihel said, prior to the Wildcats’ win over UConn. “Everyone just brings their effort and energy and we all just want each other to do well. So, I think we found a little rhythm. We're communicating. We're playing with energy, playing together.”

Riding such a strong wave of success on a noticeably-young and rapidly-improving roster, the hope is, for Orihel and Olsen, that after years of opposing one another, they can and will continue to play major roles in the bright future of their shared college program.  

“With not a lot of upperclassmen, it kind of forces us to get our feet wet a little bit right away, which I think will help us in the long run,” Orihel said. “I think this year, looking forward, will help us a lot, because we had to jump right into it from the beginning.”