“Cats Set to Soar: Aiming for Back-to-Back League Dominance!”

NEW YORK, N.Y. – For the second consecutive year, the Villanova Wildcats are anticipated as the league contenders based on a preseason survey of BIG EAST softball coaches published on Friday afternoon. 

The current conference champions and victors of three out of the last four titles, head coach Bridget Orchard, in her seventh year, saw her Villanova squad receive top accolades in the 2025 BIG EAST Softball Preseason Poll. The ‘Cats captured six of the eight available first place votes and accumulated a total of 61 points, surpassing Connecticut for the leading position by four points.

The league’s head coaches indicated their anticipated order of finish for the upcoming season’s standings, excluding their own teams. With a solid record of three titles and two runner-up finishes in just five complete seasons under Orchard, VU secured two-thirds of the overall first place votes while the Huskies (two) and Creighton (one) also received recognition for top honors.

The coaches foresee competitive balance across the top of the league with four teams accumulating over 40 points, including UConn (57), St. John’s (46) and Creighton (43), alongside Villanova, while Seton Hall just missed that mark (39). The remaining teams in the poll are Butler (28), Providence (27), DePaul (14) and Georgetown (nine).

Villanova embarks on its pursuit for a repeat conference title with a challenging non-conference schedule, commencing the season in February at Texas A&M and making further non-league visits to Florida Atlantic, Clemson, and Virginia Tech.

BIG EAST play will commence on March 7 for the Wildcats, who will host fellow frontrunner Connecticut from Mar. 7-9 and then welcome last season’s runner-up Creighton the following week. The remainder of the home conference slate includes DePaul (Apr. 11-13) and Providence (May 2-4), while the ‘Cats will travel to Georgetown (Mar. 21-23), Seton Hall (Mar. 28-30), Butler (Apr. 17-19) and St. John’s (Apr. 25-27).

The top six regular season teams in the BIG EAST will qualify for the 2025 BIG EAST Softball Championship, which will be hosted this year at the Villanova Softball Complex from May 7-10. The tournament champion will secure an automatic entry into the NCAA Championship field.

2025 BIG EAST Softball Preseason Poll

1. Villanova         61 (6)

2. UConn             57 (2)

3. St. John’s         46

4. Creighton         43 (1)

5. Seton Hall        39

6. Butler               28

7. Providence      27

8. DePaul            14

9. Georgetown     9