Villanova women make first NCAA Tournament since 2018, will play No. 6 BYU

Nerves were coursing through the players on the Villanova women’s basketball team as they awaited to hear their fate on Selection Sunday. That anxiety turned into relief around 8:30 p.m., when the Wildcats finally heard their name called as the No. 11 seed in the Wichita Region.

Villanova (23-8, 15-4 Big East) will play No. 6 seed Brigham Young on Thursday in Ann Arbor, Mich. Going into the selection show, Villanova was firmly on the bubble, and the Wildcats were made to wait until the final few selections.

So when it was announced that Dayton and DePaul would be facing each other in the second play-in game, the Wildcats let out a breath of excitement. Later, when Florida Gulf Coast received the No. 12 seed in the Spokane bracket, there was disappointment. When it was finally confirmed that the Wildcats would be continuing their season in the NCAA Tournament, Finneran Pavilion erupted in cheers.

This past week, senior forward Brianna Herlihy talked about the anxiety that came with being on the bubble at this time of year. She said she checked the projection brackets every day to keep up with changes.

“We’re always texting each other in group chats, like, ‘Oh this person says this, this person thinks that’” Herlihy said. “It’s definitely a lot of anticipation and a lot of nervousness throughout the team.”

Now that they have secured a spot, Villanova will turn its focus to BYU, which received at an at-large bid out of the West Coast Conference. The Cougars (26-3, 15-1 WCC) enter the tournament ranked No. 15 in the AP poll. The Cougars are one of the top offensive teams in the country, as they rank eighth in the nation in scoring (77.8 ppg) and fifth in field goal percentage (46.7%).

That said, former Olympic gold medalist and current ESPN basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo likes the Wildcats’ chances.

“One of the teams that is always very difficult to play against is Villanova. First of all, they’re not afraid of the moment — we saw that a couple of weeks ago when they beat UConn in Hartford,” he said “And they also have Maddy Siegrist, who’s second in the nation in scoring. They play a very difficult style to defend. That’s a team to keep an eye on.”

» READ MORE: Villanova's Maddy Siegrist continues to score at a historic rate

Villanova will lean on the leadership of Herlihy and the aforementioned Siegrist. Siegrist was named the Big East player of the year on March 3, and at 25.9 points per game, ranks second in the nation behind only Iowa’s Caitlin Clark (27.4 ppg). Herlihy is the Wildcats’ top inside presence, chipping in around 11 points and eight rebounds a night.

The Wildcats are led by Big East coach of the year Denise Dillon and have been on a tear of late, having won 15 of their last 17 games. They were second in the Big East regular season behind UConn, and lost the Big East Tournament title game to the Huskies. Now, it is time for the Wildcats to show they can continue their success in tournament play.

For the graduating Herlihy, this is the last chance to make a statement in the NCAA Tournament.

“Everyone’s been playing like every game is the last of the season,” she said. “But for me and the seniors, these are the last games of our college career. You just play as hard as you can, give it your all no matter what, because you never know when your last game is going to be, you never know when the last play is going to be.”