(Photo Courtesy of Villanova Athletics)

The Villanova Wildcats are the 11th DI program to release its 2023 schedule. The Wildcats are coming off a 2022 campaign in which they went 9-6 (3-2 Big East). Villanova saw its season come to an end with a loss to Georgetown in the Big East title game.

Villanova’s 2023 schedule features a 14-game slate with six of those games coming at home. Seven will be true road games while the Wildcats will havre one neutral site game as part of the Philly 4 Classic event. Villanova opens the season on February 12th at home against Penn State and opens Big East play at home against St. John’s on April 1st.

Wildcats’ 2023 Schedule

Date	Home	Away	Notes
2/12	Villanova	Penn State
2/19	Villanova	Yale
2/26	Delaware	Villanova
3/4	Hofstra	Villanova
3/8	Villanova	Drexel	Philly 4 Classic
3/11	Penn	Villanova	Philly 4 Classic
3/18	Monmouth	Villanova
3/21	Villanova	Navy
3/27	Villanova	Brown
4/1	Villanova	St. John’s	Big East
4/8	Denver	Villanova	Big East
4/15	Providence	Villanova	Big East
4/22	Villanova	Marquette	Big East
4/28	Georgetown	Villanova	Big East

New Opponents

Monmouth, Navy

Teams Dropped

Fairfield

Key Games

2/12 vs Penn State: Excluding the 2021 season, Villanova and Penn State have faced each other every year since 2006. The Wildcats have opened the year against the Nittany Lions every season since 2018. Last season, the Wildcats thwarted a strong second-half push from the opposition to take the 13-12 victory. Patrick Daly had six goals in that game.

2/19 vs Yale: Playing each other each year that they have been able to since 2017, the Villanova-Yale series has given lacrosse fans some interesting and exciting games over the years. Last season, Yale won the contests 17-14 in a contest that was very much a game of runs and saw the Wildcats put forth a fourth-quarter 5-1 run to end the contest.

4/8 @ Denver: The Wildcats will hit the road against a conference opponent for the first time on April 8th when they head west to face the Denver Pioneers. Villanova and Denver faced each other twice last season with the Pioneers taking the regular season meeting 12-10 before the Wildcats won the Big East semifinal meeting 15-14. It marked the first win over the Pioneers for the Wildcats since the 2019 regular season and just the second win over Denver since the two became Big East opponents. Expect this to be a battle for the second seed in the conference tournament and a conference semifinals preview once again.

4/28 @ Georgetown: Villanova ends the regular season against the class of the Big East: Georgetown. The Wildcats currently have an eight-game losing streak against the Hoyas that dates back to the 2018 regular season. In their two meeting last season, Villanova lost the regular season meeting 13-7 and the Big East title game contest 14-12. A win over the Hoyas would be massive for the Wildcats.