UTICA, NY—The Utica College men's lacrosse team will host Alfred University in a pivotal Empire 8 Conference contest on Saturday at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.  Face-off is set for 4 p.m.

DIVISION III WEEK: Utica College is celebrating Division III Week throughout its home games on Saturday … The goal of Division III Week is for an institution to hold and promote an activity in order to raise local and national attention to build greater awareness and understanding of Division III athletics … Utica College's SAAC is rallying support from the campus community to attend all of UC's home games on Saturday … Fans are asked to wear ORANGE in support of the Pioneers at the men's home tennis match (1 p.m.), the women's lacrosse game (1 p.m.) and the men's lacrosse game (4 p.m.) … SAAC is also hosting a poster contest that will take place at all three sporting events …  The top two posters will be posted on the UCPioneers Instagram account at halftime of the men's lacrosse game, and the poster with the most likes over the course of a two hour time frame will win a prize courtesy of SAAC.

LAST TIME OUT: The Pioneers are currently on a three game losing streak… They dropped Wednesday's Empire 8 contest to 14th ranked Ithaca College 12-5… Patrick Mulligan (Commack, NY/Commack) led the way for the Utica offense by pumping in two goals and Andrew DiOrio (Greenlawn, NY/CW Post) made 11 saves in net… UC is currently 6-5 overall and sits in the sixth spot in the Empire 8 with a record of 1-2.

ALL-TIME AGAINST ALFRED: The Pioneers are 9-6 all-time against Alfred University … UC has won three straight in the series, outscoring the Saxons 36-18 over the course of the streak … Seven of the 15 meetings between these two programs have been decided by four goals or less. 

TOUGH D: Utica has been creating havoc on the defensive end causing an average of 10.27 turnovers per game (Second in the Empire 8) … They are also making it hard to score as they rank fourth in the conference in goals against average at 7.73 goals per game… Tom Byrne (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) has been stellar on defense for Utica so far this season as he leads the team and ranks sixth in the Empire 8 in groundballs with 53 and has caused a team-best 29 turnovers … Byrne has 229 career ground balls and needs five more to move into fifth place all-time at UC.

BETWEEN THE PIPES: Andrew DiOrio (Greenlawn, NY/CW Post) has been tough in net for the Pioneers this season… The senior has racked up 92 saves, and has all six of Utica's wins… He is currently in the top five in the Empire 8 in save percentage (.541) and goals against average (7.96) … DiOrio has 13 career wins and needs one more win to tie Bruce Wright '04 for second on the College's all-time wins list.

200 CLUB: Zack Stevenson (Elbridge, NY/Jordan-Elbridge) recently became the seventh player in program-history to record over 200 ground balls in a career … Stevenson now ranks seventh all-time with 201 career ground balls.

KICK-STARTING THE OFFENSE: Over the past three games, UC's offense has struggled only scoring nine times… Stevenson currently leads the team in goals with 15 goals and is tied for the team lead in points with 19… Alex Finnegan (Bay Shore, NY/Islip) leads UC with 10 assists and is tied with Stevenson for the team lead with 19 points… Utica currently has six players who have tallied at least 10 points and four players who have scored at least 10 goals.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Make sure to follow live updates of the game on the Pioneers official Twitter feed: @UCPioneers… If you are at the game and on Twitter, or talking about the game on Twitter, make sure to use #UCMoose… You can also "Like" the Pioneers on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UCpioneers ... Fans can also follow the Pioneers on Instagram: UCPioneers.
 
PIONEERS ALL-ACCESS: If you can't make it out to Gaetano Stadium to watch the game in person, Pioneers All-Access is the place to be on game day, providing live video, audio (WPNR 90.7 FM) and stats for all UC home games on the turf … Pioneers All-Access is a completely FREE service provided for those members of the Pioneer nation that might not be able to make it out to the game … Recent stories and social media are fully integrated into the Pioneers All-Access site for the most comprehensive viewing experience …  Make sure to check out Pioneers All-Access at www.ucpioneers.com/watch.

MEET THE SAXONS: Alfred is 10-1 overall and sits in third place in the Empire 8 with a record of 3-1… They are 4-0 in games on the road or at a neutral site… They are led offensively by Nicolas Wood and John Winchell who have 53 points each… Alfred also has two players with at least 30 goals and five players with at least 25 points.

LOOKING AHEAD: Following Saturday's home contest, Utica will hit the road for back-to-back Empire 8 road games as they travel to Stevens Institute of Technology on Wednesday and Elmira College next Saturday.