Big East Semifinals: Unbeaten UConn Face Villanova, Champions Liberty Meet Old Dominion

The Big East has saved its best weekend for last, and the team to beat hasn’t lost a league game all season.

UConn arrive in Philadelphia at 14-1 overall and 6-0 in the Big East, riding an 11-game winning streak into Friday’s first semi-final against Villanova at 1 p.m. ET (11 p.m. PKT). The Huskies have already beaten everyone in this field. They took Villanova 3-1 in Storrs back in September, edged Liberty 3-2 a week later, and shut out Old Dominion 3-0 on the road in October. Nobody has found a way past them in conference play.

Villanova are the ones with the hardest job and the least to lose. The Wildcats are 10-7 and 3-3 in the league, and they needed every bit of their run-in to get here. They beat Providence 2-1 on 23 October, coming from behind after Martu Torre Festa’s opener — Molly Zimmerman equalised before Colleen Finnan grabbed a late winner, her ninth goal of the season, and goalkeeper Sears made six saves. Then they lost 2-1 to Liberty on 30 October, Ava Borkowski scoring her 12th of the season, and still clinched their tournament spot for a second straight year. Borkowski was named to the Big East weekly honour roll this week. If Villanova are going to pull off the upset of the season, it probably runs through her.

The second semi-final, at 4 p.m. ET (2 a.m. PKT Saturday), is the tighter call. Defending champions Liberty, 12-5 and 5-1 in the league, face Old Dominion, 13-4 and 3-3. Liberty won this tournament last year, beating UConn 2-1 in overtime in the final for their third title in five seasons. They’ve already beaten Villanova 2-1 in the run-in, but they lost that September meeting with UConn, so the road back to the final almost certainly runs through the Huskies again.

Old Dominion earned their place the hard way. They beat Georgetown 3-2 on 30 October to clinch the third seed, with Madison Zalewski scoring from a penalty corner in the first quarter, and found out minutes later that Temple had beaten Providence, which sealed their spot. They’ve lost 3-0 to UConn this season, but they haven’t faced Liberty since the opening weeks, and a one-off semi-final is exactly where a team like this gets dangerous.

Both semi-finals stream on ESPN+, and the final is Sunday at noon ET (10 p.m. PKT). For our money, UConn should reach it. They’ve been the best team in this league by a clear distance. But Liberty are the champions until someone beats them in November, and that’s what Friday is for.