UTICA, NY- The Utica College women's basketball team (9-13, 5-8 Empire 8) heads to western New York this weekend for two Empire 8 matchups against Nazareth College and Houghton College ... The Pioneers will face the Golden Flyers of Nazareth College Friday evening at 6 p.m. and the Highlanders of Houghton College Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.

DOWN TO THE WIRE: The Pioneers have only three games left on the regular season schedule ... Currently the team sits as the number five seed in the conference with a 5-8 mark.

LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK: UC is looking to bounce back after suffering a 44-38 loss to Hartwick College on Tuesday evening ... The last time the Pioneers met both Nazareth and Houghton on the court the games ended in UC's favor ... The Pioneers defeated the Golden Flyers last month, 64-40, after also beating the Highlanders, 65-45 ... Freshmen Ashelyne Babb (Lynn, MA/Winthrop) and Ashley Mayo (Nanuet, NY/Nanuet) led the Pioneers in points with 13 and 11 against Houghton in the first game of the weekend … Against Nazareth, junior Mary Miceli (New Rochelle, NY/New Rochelle) led the team with 16 points while senior Samantha Stayer (Allegany, NY/Allegany-Limestone) chipped in with 15 points.

PAVING THE WAY: Junior guard Mary Miceli (New Rochelle, NY/New Rochelle) leads the team while 11^th in the conference in points per game with 12.1 and in free throw percentage (.813) … Miceli is ninth in the conference with 254 total points and became the sixth player in program-history to register 100 or more career 3-pointers earlier this season … She currently ranks fourth all-time at UC with 117 career 3-pointers made and she needs seven more to surpass Alicia Taranto '01 for third all-time.

Ball Recovery Leaders: Utica's Bridget Greenwald (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills) leads the team and is third in the conference with 9.2 rebounds per game… She is also second in the league for total rebounds with 202 … Greenwald ranks third on the team with 200 total points averaging 9.1 per game … Greenwald is fourth all-time at UC with 778 career rebounds and leads the team with six double-doubles this season … Utica's Samantha Stayer (Allegany, NY/Allegany-Limestone) currently ranks second on the team in points (10.0) and rebounds (6.2) per game … She currently has 746 points and 410 rebounds in her career.

SCOUTING NAZARETH: Junior Lindsey Kelly leads the Golden Flyers with 318 total points, averaging 15.9 points per game … She also leads the team in field goal percentage (.609), free throws (2.5 per game), total rebounds (191) and blocked shots (21) ... Nazareth sits in fourth place in the Empire 8 with an overall record of 13-7 and a conference record of 8-3.

LET'S MEET HOUGHTON: The Highlanders are led by junior Maisie Pipher who leads the team with 353 total points while averaging 16.0 points per game … Pipher also leads the team in total rebounds with 236, good enough for an average of 10.7 per game … Houghton carries an overall record of 4-18 and is 1-12 in the E8 play.