City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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The Villanova women’s basketball program is coming off a Sweet 16 trip in 2022-23 — a campaign that included multiple Top 25 matchups in the non-conference slate that helped boost the team’s NCAA Tournament resume.

While the Wildcats don’t have the same high-major power on their 2023-24 non-conference schedule, they should have another challenging slate of games that includes three NCAA Tournament teams/conference champions and a few other intriguing matchups.

There’s no Maddy Siegrist, now playing for the Dallas Wings, this season, but the likes of Lucy Olsen (12.4 ppg, 4.4 apg), Christina Dalce (7.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg) and Maddie Burke (7.1 ppg) and others will try to collectively figure out a way to maintain the success and momentum from the last two seasons.

After an exhibition at Finneran Pavilion on Nov. 1, Villanova tips off its season against reigning West Coast Conference champion Portland on Nov. 10 followed by a trip to Oregon State on Nov. 12. When the Wildcats return home, they begin Big 5 play against Temple on No. 19 and then host reigning Patriot League champion Holy Cross on Nov. 21.

A visit to Wake Forest on Nov. 26 will be followed by a home game against Richmond on Nov. 30 to close the month. The Spiders feature former Cardinal O’Hara standout Maggie Doogan, who has a few former Catholic League foes and former teammate Annie Welde on the Villanova roster, and Courtney Swider, the younger sister of Kylie Swider.

The Wildcats’ month of December is filled with matchups against the rest of the Big 5 and a trio of Ivy League contenders, starting with Dec. 3 road trip to Columbia, which advanced to the WNIT title game a season ago. Next up is a home game against Penn, a road trip to St. Joe’s and a home game Dec. 11 against reigning Ivy League champion Princeton. The Wildcats took down a nationally-ranked Tigers team, 69-59, early last season. 

After a 10-day break, Villanova finishes off its Big 5 and non-conference slate at La Salle on Dec. 21 and will hope to be in position to polish off another title by then.

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2023-24 Penn’s WBB Non-Conference Schedule
All game times TBD; bold games are home. Last year’s record in parenthesis
# = Exhibition; * = Big 5 Contest

#Wed., Nov. 1 vs. Jefferson
Fri., Nov. 10 @ Portland (23-9, 15-3 WCC)
Sun., Nov. 12 @ Oregon State (13-18, 4-14 Pac-12)
*Sun., Nov. 19 vs. Temple (11-18, 6-10 AAC)
Tues., Nov. 21 vs. Holy Cross (24-9, 13-5 Patriot)
Sun., Nov. 26 @ Wake Forest (17-17, 5-13 ACC)
Thurs., Nov. 30 vs. Richmond (21-11, 8-6 A-10)

Sun., Dec. 3 @ Columbia (28-6, 12-2 Ivy)
*Tues., Dec. 5 vs. Penn (17-12, 9-5 Ivy)
*Sat., Dec. 9 @ St. Joe’s (20-11, 9-7 A-10)
Mon., Dec. 11 vs. Princeton (24-6, 12-2 Ivy)
*Thurs., Dec. 21 @ La Salle (17-14, 8-7 A-10)