No. 3 St. John’s Set to Face No. 6 Villanova in First Round of the BIG EAST Volleyball Championship

Wednesday, November 22

Milwaukee, Wis. (Al McGuire Center)

4 p.m.

St. John's University

No. 6 Villanova

No. 3 St. John’s Set to Face No. 6 Villanova in First Round of the BIG EAST Volleyball Championship

11/21/2023 3:34:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

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The Johnnies finished the regular season with a 13-5 BIG EAST record

QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's volleyball team will gear up for the first round of the BIG EAST Volleyball Championship Presented by JEEP, where they will face sixth-seeded Villanova.

The Red Storm's battle with the Wildcats is set for 4 p.m. on Wednesday inside the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee. The first round of the tournament will be streamed on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloSports, with live stats available on GoMarquette.com.

Tickets for the BIG EAST Tournament are available here.

St. John's comes into the BIG EAST Tournament as the three-seed after finishing the regular season with a 13-5 BIG EAST mark. The Johnnies clinched their second straight BIG EAST Tournament bid and their fifth in the last six years.

The Red Storm's 21-9 overall finish this season also marks the second straight 20-win season and the 13^th overall in program history for Joanne Persico's squad.

Last weekend, St. John's finished off its regular season slate with a weekend split, falling to RV Marquette, 3-0, but besting DePaul, 3-1.

In the final round of regular season awards, Erin Jones and Ludovica Zola were tabbed to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll, on Monday afternoon.

On Friday night, Jones earned her 12^th double-double of the season against the Golden Eagles. The sophomore registered 12 kills at a 33.3 percent clip with 11 assists and five digs. The next day she backed up her performance with 19 more kills and nine digs in the team's victory over DePaul.

Across the weekend, the Albuquerque, N.M. native was second in the BIG EAST in points and kills per set, averaging 5.07 points per set and 4.43 kills per set.

Zola continues to dominate at the net, racking up a league-best 11 total blocks last weekend. The sophomore tallied five blocks against Marquette. On Saturday, the middle blocker logged six blocks, two of which were solo, against DePaul.

Rashanny Solano Smith posted match-highs in digs against both the Golden Eagles and the Blue Demons. The talented freshman tallied 12 digs, averaging four digs per set against Marquette. Against DePaul, she collected 15 digs across four sets.

The Johnnies will battle Villanova for the second time this season. The squad fell to the Wildcats, 3-1, inside Jake Nevin Fieldhouse on Oct. 21. Giorgia Walther paced her team with 13 slams while Lucrezia Lodi and Jones recorded 12 and 10 kills, respectively.

Villanova finished the regular season with an 8-10 BIG EAST mark and a 17-13 overall record which earned them a six-seed in the BIG EAST Tournament. The Red Storm and the Wildcats will match up in the postseason for the first time since 1996. The Johnnies fell to Villanova, 3-0, in the opening round of the tournament that year.

The Wildcats are led by freshman Abby Harrell. The outside hitter has logged a team-best 382 kills with 249 digs, 39 blocks and 38 aces. Andrea Campos serves as Villanova's setter and ranks third in assists in the BIG EAST with 1137 helpers at 9.89 per set.

With a win on Wednesday, the Red Storm would advance to the Semifinal round of the BIG EAST Tournament where they would play two-seeded Marquette at 1:30 p.m. in the Al McGuire Center.