Villanova women open in Rome, with LSU and Kansas State waiting

Villanova's women start their season about as far from home as a college team can, and the schedule only gets harder from there. The Wildcats play Notre Dame at noon ET on Sunday on FS1 at Rome's Palazzo dello Sport, right after the two schools' men's teams meet in the same building.

The opener is the first of 11 non-conference games. Villanova says five of those opponents played in last season's NCAA Tournament. That is a deliberate choice for a program that wants its November results to mean something in March It starts against Notre Dame on a neutral court overseas.

The trip home is quick. Villanova visits Princeton on Nov. 10, then plays its home opener against Merrimack at Finneran Pavilion on Nov. 12. Fairfield is next on the road on Nov. 15, followed by home games against Towson and La Salle. Those dates give a new rotation a chance to settle after a long flight. The Rome tip is 6 p.m. local time, a more familiar hour for the players than the noon Sunday start is for viewers in the United States, where clocks fall back that morning.

The real test comes at Thanksgiving. Villanova plays LSU on Nov. 27 and Kansas State on Nov. 28 at the Fort Myers Tip-Off Classic. Back-to-back games against two programs of that level are a fair measure of where the Wildcats stand, and everything before them is preparation.

That makes Rome more than a novelty. A strong showing against Notre Dame would give Villanova a résumé win before most teams have played a game that counts. A loss would not sink anything, but it would raise the stakes on that Florida weekend, where the Wildcats would need to beat at least one of LSU or Kansas State to show the schedule was worth taking on.

The Wildcats return to the Philadelphia area for a Dec. 1 game after Fort Myers.

Sources checked October 30, 2026.

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