UTICA, NY — The Utica College women's lacrosse team hits the road Saturday as it heads to Elmira College to take on the Soaring Eagles. The Empire 8 Conference match up is set to start at 3 p.m.

Current Record: The Pioneers currently hold an overall record of 5-3 and they are 1-0 in E8 play.

Last Time Out: UC opened up conference play against the visiting Gators of The Sage Colleges on Wednesday and came out victorious in blowout fashion, winning 21-8... The Pioneers were up 2-1 early thanks to two goals scored by Natalie Capriglione (New Milford, CT/New Milford)... UC went into halftime up 11-5 after senior Brooke Miller (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) broke the game open with three consecutive goals... Utica also had contributions from Kaitlynn Palmer (Verona, NY/VVS), Hailee DuMont (Wilkes-Barre, PA/James M. Coughlin), Kristi Pearage (Bear Creek Township, PA/James M. Coughlin), Brittany Nowak (Eden, NY/Eden) and Hannah Nordstrom (Fairhaven, MA/Fairhaven), who all scored at least once in the victory... Freshman Stephanie Husnay (Canastota, NY/Whitesboro) led the way for Utica with a career night as she totaled six points, including five goals, four caused turnovers and eight ground balls, setting new career highs in each statistic... Sophomore goalie Hali Vandermeulen (Walden, NY/Valley Central) played 47:01 minutes and earned her fourth win of the season, improving her record to 4-3.

Fire At Will: The Pioneers lead the Empire 8 with 37.25 shots per game… Utica also is atop the E8 with 112 goals scored and 14.00 goals per game… UC has scored at least 14 goals in each of its five wins this season, while the Pioneers have lost each game where they have scored less than 10 goals.

There is No "I" In Team: The Pioneers continue to use a balanced attack towards their success this season... They currently have seven players who have hit double digits in points thus far... Husnay has scored 14 goals and has eight assists for a team-high 22 points, while Lauren Wolff (Peabody, MA/Peabody) has 19 points on 10 goals and nine assists... Miller has scored a team-high 17 goals this season and she has added one assist and Palmer's 15 points (13 goals, two assists) put her at fourth on the team in scoring…. Natalie Capriglione (New Milford, CT/New Milford) (14,) Katie McDowell (Wynantskill, NY/Averill Park) (14), and Hailee DuMont (Wilkes-Barre, PA/James M. Coughlin) (12) all combine for 40 points to round out the seven double-digit scorers.

Ball Hawk: Junior Natalie Capriglione (New Milford, CT/New Milford) leads the conference with 18 caused turnovers and an average of 2.25 caused turnovers per game… Capriglione is having a breakout season as she already has career-highs in goals (12), points (14), ground balls (20), caused turnovers, and draw controls (20).

Scouting Elmira: The Soaring Eagles are currently 1-5 overall with their only win coming in conference play against E8 foe Alfred University... Elmira is led by junior Hayley Baker, who has a total of 15 goals and six assists this season for 21 points… In the win against Alfred she recorded a career-high of six goals and nine points… Baker currently ranks seventh in the conference in goals per game (2.50,) and she is fifth in points per game (3.50.)

Last Year Against Elmira: UC came out on top in the last meeting between the Soaring Eagles and the Pioneers by a score of 15-6... Miller scored three goals in the win while Vandermeulen stoped 9-of-12 shots in 46 minutes of work to pick up the win.

Looking Ahead: The Pioneers will return to the Charles A. Gaetano Stadium on Tuesday to host the St. John Fisher in another Empire 8 Conference showdown. Game time is set for 4 p.m.