UTICA, NY – The Utica College women's hockey team opens its United Collegiate Hockey Conference schedule this weekend as it heads to Wilkes-Barre, PA to face King's College in a two game conference series. The games are scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Revolution Ice Centre.
Follow Along: Live video and stats will be available for the contests as provided by King's College Athletic Communications. They can be found at https://kingscollegeathletics.com/
Staking Their Claim: Utica will go in search of a 4-0 start for the second time in the last four years this weekend. The last time the Pioneers were 4-0 was in the 2015-16 season when they started 5-0-1 in their first six games on their way to a conference title game appearance and a school record 19 wins.
A Great Start: The Pioneers are 2-0 this season as they won their first two games of the season last weekend. UC won 4-2 against Becker College on Saturday and 6-1 against New England College on Sunday. Freshman
Georgiana Santullo (Woburn, MA/Boston Shamrocks/Woburn High School) and sophomore
Lexi Stanisewski (Lawrence, MA/Boston Shamrocks) had four points, while junior
Rebecca Brown (Steamboat Springs, CO/Norwich University) scored three goals last weekend. Senior
Elizabeth Dohner (Highlands Ranch, CO/Colorado Selects), junior
Olivia Hirschy (Fort Wayne, IN/Culver Academies), sophomore
Katrina Cornick (Mason City, IA/Rocky Mountain Roughriders) and freshman
Caley Susitti (Hartland, WI/Milwaukee Jr. Admirals) each scored a goal last weekend as well. Sophomore
Ryann Stripp (Holland Patent, NY/Clinton Warriors) got her second career win in goal on Saturday with 17 saves on 19 shots. Junior
Bria Reilly (Hamden, CT/Brewster Academy) got the start on Sunday and turned away 17 of 18 opportunities from New England College. The Pioneers outscored opponents 10-3 and outshot them by a 76-37 margin.
The Wild Card: The NCAA approved a measure to permit a nineteenth skater into the lineup in all of college hockey for this season, and Utica has utilized two different options for that extra lineup spot this season.
Noelle Capriglione (New Milford, CT/New Milford) and
Lindsey Winter (Minneapolis, MN/Armstrong Cooper) have both been slotted into that position on the line chart through two games.
Leading the Way: Georgiana Santullo (Woburn, MA/Boston Shamrocks/Woburn High School) and
Lexi Stanisewski (Lawrence, MA/Boston Shamrocks) lead the Pioneers with four points each. Santullo had two goals and two assists and Stanisewski had one goal and three assists. Brown currently leads the team with three goals.
Elizabeth Dohner (Highlands Ranch, CO/Colorado Selects),
Katrina Cornick (Mason City, IA/Rocky Mountain Roughriders), and
Caley Susitti (Hartland, WI/Milwaukee Jr. Admirals) also had multiple points in the team's opening weekend.
Balanced Attack: After two games in the season, seven UC players scored at least one goal and 13 players have at least one assist. A total of 15 players on the roster hold put up at least one point during the opening weekend.
Quick Strike: The Pioneers scored first in both of their matchups this weekend, and scored four times in the opening period to give themselves some fast developing breathing room against their opposition last weekend.
A Solid Start For Special Teams: The Pioneers got a strong collective effort on their special teams on opening weekend as the power play finished at 2-for-7, and the penalty killers thwarted 11 of 12 opportunities for a 91.7 percent success rate while a player down. Last year the Pioneers had a 13.2 percent power play, and added on an 86.2 percent penalty kill rate.
Guarding the Goal: Junior
Bria Reilly (Hamden, CT/Brewster Academy) and sophomore
Ryann Stripp (Holland Patent, NY/Clinton Warriors) had split time for the Pioneers. Both players have 17 saves with Reilly having a 94.4 percent save percentage and Stripp stopping 89.5 percent as Reilly has one goal against and Stripp has allowed a pair. Reilly is the team's incumbent starter and ended last season with a 5-5-1 record and a 92.1 percent save percentage. She is 1-0 against King's College in her career and has six career victories.
Scouting King's College: The Monarchs are currently 1-1 this season under second year head coach Jennifer Kindret. They are coming off a 10-1 defeat against SUNY Oswego last Saturday, which was preceded by their first-ever victory by a 3-1 score over neighboring rival Wilkes University. The Monarchs currently have four different players scoring a goal this season as returners Kellie Munro, Mary Deyell, and Raeann Clancy, and freshman Maggie Gould have all scored. Gould has the team's lone power play score for the season. Munro, Clancy, Gracen Mahoney and Josee Aitken all share the team lead with two points, with Mahoney and Aitken holding a pair of assists. Kiva Sierra Stoltz and Emma Zeveney both made starts this past weekend in goal, with Stoltz stopping 25 of 26 in the team's win.
Against King's College: The Pioneers are currently 2-0 against the Monarchs after last season's matchups. UC won 8-0 and 6-0 in the two game series at the Aud. Hirschy scored a hat trick in the second game, and
Carlie Smith (Grimsby, Ontario/St. Catharine's Chaos) had two goals and two assists for the weekend to pace UC as
Bria Reilly (Hamden, CT/Brewster Academy) and
Amanda Lupo (Auburn, NY/Skaneateles) each got a share of time in net.
Looking Ahead: The Pioneers will host their first regular season home game as they meet Chatham University in a UCHC series on Friday, Nov. 9, and Saturday, Nov. 10. The game time is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Friday at the Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium, and Saturday's game will take place at 1 p.m. at the Whitestown Community Center Ice Rink.
