UTICA, NY- The Utica College field hockey team travels to Washington and Jefferson College this weekend for the 2017 Empire 8 Conference Tournament.  Utica, which earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament, will face second-seeded St. John Fisher College in the semifinals on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
 
GAME COVERAGE: Live stats and video are available courtesy of W&J… Links to game coverage are available on the field hockey schedule page at ucpioneers.com… Fans can also access the game coverage at the following links: Live Stats and Live Video.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Utica is coming off a 3-2 overtime loss at Union on Saturday… Freshman Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) and sophomore Joanna Gaertner (Schuylerville, NY/Schuylerville) each had one goal, while Jessica Belt (Webster, NY/Webster-Schroeder) notched two assists… Senior Samantha Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich) made 15 saves in the loss. 
 
LEADING THE WAY: Junior Rylee Meelan (Clinton, NY/Clinton) leads the team in goals (nine), assists (six), and points (24), all of which are career highs…  She has scored six points (two goals, two assists) in the last three games… Utica is 5-3 this season when Meelan scores at least one goal.
 
FRESHMEN STEPPING UP: First year players Sabrina Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich) and Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) rank second and third on the team in scoring, respectively… Whitehouse has seven goals and three assists for 17 points… She is just the second player in the last six years to score at least 15 points as a freshman… Scaccia has six goals and one assist for 13 points… She has scored 11 points (five goals, one assist) in the last five games.
 
HELPING OUT: Sophomore Joanna Gaertner (Schuylerville, NY/Schuylerville) ranks fourth on the team in both goals (four) and points (10)… Melissa Koch (Syracuse, NY/East Syracuse Minoa) rounds out the top five scorers as she has totaled nine points on two goals and five assists. 
 
BETWEEN THE PIPES: Senior Samantha Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich) ranks second in the conference with 155 saves this season… In her career, Whitehouse has racked up 369 saves, which puts her at third on the College's career saves list.
 
TOURNAMENT HISTORY: This marks Utica's sixth trip to the conference tournament and first since 2014… The Pioneers won three straight Empire 8 titles from 2012-2014.
 
SCOUTING FISHER: The Cardinals finished the regular season with an overall record of 15-3 and 6-1 mark in E8 play to earn the No. 2 seed… Fisher's only loss in the conference came to W&J… Senior Emily Markarian leads the league in goals (23) and points (50)… The Cardinals used three second half goals to defeat Utica 4-1 in their previous match up this season… Maria Orsino (Sauquoit, NY/Sauquoit) scored the lone goal for the Pioneers, while Samantha Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich) made eight saves. 
 
THE OTHER SEMIFINAL: The winner of the Fisher-Utica game will take on the winner of Washington & Jefferson and Houghton… W&J earned the top seed in the tournament after going 11-4 overall and 7-0 in Empire 8 play… The Highlanders are making their first ever conference tournament appearance after picking up the fourth and final seed with a conference record of 4-3… The Championship game will be played on Saturday at 1 p.m.