Utica, NY (4/18/13) – The Utica College women's lacrosse team is gearing up for a back-to-back conference weekend as it welcomes Alfred University (3-4, 0-4 Empire 8) to the turf of Charles A. Gaetano Stadium on Friday afternoon (4 p.m.) and a day later, Elmira College (6-5, 2-2 Empire 8) for a 1 p.m. match up. UC (7-4, 1-3 Empire 8) currently sits in sixth place in the conference and is looking to snap its 1-3 record in the last four games.

Scouting Alfred: Alfred is currently coming off a three-game slide... The Saxons are led by junior Ashley White and sophomore Kaitlyn Button... Button has a team-best 30 points on 19 goals and a team-high 11 assists... White has tallied 25 points this season on a team-high 22 goals and three assists... Alfred has yet to snag a conference victory... UC has won eight of the nine games against Alfred dating back to 2003... Their last win came just a season ago as the Pioneers defeated the Saxons 14-4.

Scouting Elmira: The Soaring Eagles head to Utica on a two-game win streak after defeating conference rivals Hartwick and Alfred 13-10 and 11-8, respectively... Elmira is led by senior Marki Michaels and freshman Moorea Spoljaric… Michaels is second on the team with 22 points (16 goals and six assists). Freshman standout, Spoljaric has a team-high 29 goals and 31 points… The Pioneers are 7-3 against Elmira dating back to 2003... UC has defeated the Soaring Eagles the last five years by an average margin of 5.2 goals.

Leading The Way: Sophomores Megan Kane (Staten Island, NY/Tottenville) and Morgan DuPont (Wynantskill, NY/Averill Park) are alongside freshman Courtney Wheeler (Ava, NY/Rome Free Academy) in leading the Pioneers so far this season... DuPont leads all players with 36 points on 20 goals and a team-high 16 assists, which ranks her fourth in the conference... Kane has tallied 32 points this season with a team-high 31 goals to go along with a solo assist... She also leads the team in groundballs (28), draw controls (29) and caused turnovers (16)... Her 31 goals rank her fifth in the conference. Wheeler sits right behind Kane with 30 points off 16 goals and 14 assists, which ranks her fifth in the conference behind DuPont in assists... The freshman standout is also second on the team in groundballs (25) and caused turnovers (14) and third in draw controls (17).

Saving It All Away: Senior goalkeeper Stephanie Belanger (Lewiston, ME/Lewiston) is ranked in the top five of all four goalkeeping categories for the conference... She leads the E8 in goals against average (7.22), is second in save percentage (50.9%), fourth in goals against (78) and fourth in total saves (81).

On The National Level: UC ranks in the top 100 of three categories for all of NCAA Division III including caused turnovers (17th), scoring defense (18th) and win percentage (68th)… Belanger is currently ranked in the top 20 of two goalkeeping categories nationally including goals against average (13th) and save percentage (22nd)…All rankings are thru April, 14.

Looking Ahead: UC will travel to Keuka College on Wednesday before wrapping up the regular season with an Empire 8 Contest at Stevens Institute of Technology next Saturday… Wednesday's game is scheduled for 7 p.m. while Saturday's contest will be at 11 a.m.


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