From the edge of their seat to pure joy

From the start, the game was wonderful, awful torture for the student fans, a back-and-forth struggle that led to shouts and then moans, to excitedly batting beach balls high into the air, to sitting on hands.

When it was over, and Villanova had beaten Pitt by the closest of margins and at the latest of moments, the crowd of 300 gathered in the student union had the lung power of 3,000. Surely, they must have heard the roar out there in their cars, whizzing by on Lancaster Avenue.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I'm freaking out," shrieked Katarina Mayers, 21, a communications sophomore from Los Angeles, leaping to her feet and running from the Belleair Terrace dining area of the Connelly Center.

She cried. She hugged strangers. She got on her phone to her dad and laid down the law. "I'm going to Michigan; I don't care what classes I miss," she said - meaning Detroit and next weekend's Final Four round of the men's national basketball championship.

For the first time since 1985, before almost all of today's Villanova students were born, the Wildcats are going to the semi-final round.

It was almost enough to give a 20-year-old a heart attack, said Eric Grabowski, a sophomore business administration major from Robbinsville, N.J.

"Awesome," he said. "This was awesome."

All of this was at the "watch party" organized by the university, a non-drinkers party. Projection screen TV. Several other TVs around the room. Free fountain drinks. And a DJ to keep the crowd alive at half-time.

It wasn't quite a full house, but the fans did everything they could to help their team, several hundred miles away in Boston. They shouted "Let's go, Villanova" and "Defense! Defense." When Pitt players went to the foul line, they waved their arms and shouted to distract the shot.

"A lot of people I know went to Boston," said Emily Wakelin, 21, a junior majoring in electrical engineering.

While some tickets were available to students, many traveled the six or seven hours to Boston on spec -- hoping to somehow to buy a ticket, even if from a scalper outside the arena there.

Wakeline, who is from the Boston area, said that during the team's run to the Final Four, it has been "a great time to be at Villanova."

"Oh, my God, I want nothing more than for us to go all the way," she said. "Anytime in my life, for Villanova to win, it would be incredible. For it to happen while I'm in school, it would be so awesome."

Villanova spokesman Jonathan Gust said that the university's 75-member public-safety team had put extra staff on duty "in preparation for post-game celebration."

During the week, men's basketball coach Jay Wright and the athletic department staff had video-taped a message sent to students by email. The message "stressed the importance of celebrating responsibly," Gust said.

Twenty-four years ago, after Villanova won the national basketball championship over arch-rival Georgetown University, the celebration got out of hand, with some students engaging in vandalism in the area of the Main Line campus. The incidents damaged the school's reputation for years.

About 1,000 students made their way onto Lancaster Avenue shortly after the game ended. while most were well behaved, according to police, some became rowdy and at least one traffic speed sign was knocked over.

For three high school students, on a "college weekend" visit to Villanova, the Connelly Center environment was a thrill to behold.

"The environment is, like, awesome," said Mike Reynolds, a junior at Malvern Preparatory School, not 15 minutes away by car.

Wherever he goes to college, he said, he'll make sure it's a good basketball school. For now, he's a big Nova fan.

With the game going back and forth, the only emotional rest came with the frequent, long commercials, which were like putting a cork in a bottle of bubbly -- or, something like that in this alcohol-free college.

When Villanova took its first lead in ages with 2:12 to go, the room suddenly seemed more full. Students from all over must have coming running to the sounds of excitement.

As the final seconds ticked away --and Villanova kept holding onto a narrow lead -- the joy turned to pandemonium.

When Scottie Reynolds broke the last tie - 76 all - and scored the clincher with less than a second to go, the noise was like a game on campus.

Ellen Kraft, 21, a junior management major from Princeton, said that her father, a Villanova grad of the early 1980s, had almost wanted the win more the she did.

"I still can't believe it," she said. "I still can't believe it."