Utica, NY (10/16/14) – The Utica College field hockey team will travel to Washington, PA Saturday afternoon for an Empire 8 Conference contest against Washington and Jefferson College. The game is set to start at 1 p.m.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Utica is coming off back-to-back Empire 8 Conference wins last weekend… The Pioneers defeated Ithaca College 3-2 on the road Saturday before returning home to top Stevens Institute of Technology 4-1 on Sunday… Hannah Mackey (Locke, NY/Moravia Central) had three goals on the weekend while Alaina Stojkovski (Liverpool, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) netted two goals, and Colleen Dowling (Fairport, NY/Fairport) and Louise Steele-Norton (Avondale, PA/Millbrook School) each scored once on the weekend… Freshman Samantha Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich) had 11 saves in nearly 115 minutes of work. 
 
WHERE WE SIT: The Pioneers (12-1, 6-0 Empire 8) remain just outside the top-20 of the NFHCA national poll, released Tuesday … Utica picked up 67 votes, placing it second in the "receiving votes" category behind Muhlenberg College … UC is just ten votes shy of Muhlenberg's 77 and 15 votes behind No. 20, SUNY Cortland … The Pioneers are undefeated in conference games and at home … Utica is on a program-best ten game winning streak; during that streak the Pioneers have three shutouts and a win over then No. 3 ranked Skidmore (9/21/14)… UC also holds the nation's best winning percentage at .923. 
 
EMPIRE LEADER: Senior Hannah Mackey (Locke, NY/Moravia Central) has been dominant this season… She leads the Empire 8 in seven statistical categories and set new conference records for goals (28) and points (61) in a season… Mackey's 2.15 goals per game rank first in the entire NCAA (Divisions I, II, or III) and she also leads the country with 4.69 points per game … She has been named the Empire 8 Player of the Week four times, and ECAC Mid-Atlantic Region Player of the Week three times this season. 
 
HERE TO ASSIST: Senior Nikki Kieffer (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) leads the team and ranks second in the conference with nine assists… She is also 14th nationally in assists per game (.69)… Kieffer racked up a school-record four assists against Hamilton College (10/1/14).
 
SHOT TAKER: Louise Steele-Norton (Avondale, PA/Millbrook School) has nine goals and five assists and she has collected at least one point in ten games this season… Steele-Norton's .932 shots on goal percentage is the best on the team … She has 44 shots and 41 on goal.
 
SCOUTING THE PRESIDENTS: The Presidents are 9-5 overall (5-0 Empire 8) with a 5-1 home record … Eight of their fourteen games have been decided by one point …  W&J is one of two other teams that are unbeaten in the E8…The Presidents have ten players with at least one point on the season… Utica is 3-4 against the Presidents in the last five years and 0-2 at W&J.
 
LAST TIME AGAINST WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON: The Pioneers shut out the Presidents 1-0 at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium last year (10/26/13) … Now senior, Alaina Stojkovski (Liverpool, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) scored the lone goal in the second half … UC had eight shots on goal and had twelve total shots … Kells Casey (Sandwich, MA/Kimball Union Academy) had four saves on the day.
 
NEXT TIME OUT: The Pioneers will travel to take on No. 15 University of Rochester next Wednesday... The non-conference game is set to start at 6 p.m.


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