UTICA, NY- The Utica College women's lacrosse team travels to Hoboken, NJ this weekend for the Empire 8 Conference Tournament.  The Pioneers will take on top-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology in the opening game Saturday at 11 a.m.
 
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Utica wrapped up the regular season with a 10-6 record overall and earned the No. 4 seed in the E8 tournament with a 5-3 record in conference play… UC enters the tournament winning four of its last five, including three conference wins.
 
HISTORIC SEASON: The Pioneers, who are making their first conference tournament appearance since 2006, finally cracked the top-four after finishing in fifth in the league standings in each of the last four seasons… Utica set a new program record with five conference wins this season, and it also matched its program-best single-season win mark of 10. 
 
FRESHMAN PHENOM: Freshman Stephanie Husnay (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) leads the team with 23 assists and 55 points… She also ranks second on the squad with 32 goals… Her 55 points rank sixth in the E8 and she leads all freshmen in the conference in scoring… Husnay is the first freshman to lead the Pioneers in scoring since 2008, when Tammy Kohanski (Syracuse, NY/Corcoran) netted 89 points (69 goals, 20 assists) in her first season of collegiate lacrosse.
 
COUNT ON MILLER: Senior Brooke Miller (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) leads the team and ranks seventh in the conference with 36 goals… She is second on the Pioneers in scoring with 42 points… Miller ranks seventh on the College's all-time list with 112 goals… She is also 10^th all-time with 137 points… Miller has been held without a point just once this season and she has a 13-game scoring streak.
 
SCORING FROM EVERYONE: The Pioneers have eight players with at least 14 goals on the season… The last time eight players scored at least 10 goals in a season was in 2009… Freshman Lauren Wolff (Peabody, MA/Peabody) is third on the team in scoring with 34 points (22 goals, 12 assists) and she has been held scoreless just twice this season… Sophomore transfer Kaitlynn Palmer (Verona, NY/VVS) ranks third in goals (25) and fourth in points (32), followed by Hailee DuMont (Wilkes-Barre, PA/James M. Coughlin) (21 goals, seven assists), Katie McDowell (Wynantskill, NY/Averill Park) (19 goals, six assists), Natalie Capriglione (New Milford, CT/New Milford) (20 goals, two assists), and Noelle Capriglione (New Milford, CT/New Milford) (14 goals, three assists).
 
MANAGING THE MIDFIELD: Sophomores Kaitlynn Palmer (Verona, NY/VVS) and Hailee DuMont (Wilkes-Barre, PA/James M. Coughlin) as well as junior Natalie Capriglione (New Milford, CT/New Milford) have been all over the field this season… Palmer leads all field players with 32 ground balls and she is second in draw controls (53)… DuMont is having a banner year as she has career-highs in goals (21), assists (seven), and points (28)… She also leads the team with 24 caused turnovers; she is second in ground balls (30), and third in draw controls (40)… Natalie Capriglione (New Milford, CT/New Milford) has also had the best season of her career, reaching the 20-goal mark for the first time and she also has a team-best 54 draw controls.
 
IN THE CREASE: Sophomore Hali Vandermeulen (Walden, NY/Valley Central) ranks third in the conference with a .486 save percentage and an average of 8.40 saves per game… Vandermeulen's eight wins this season are tied for third on the College's single-season wins list. 
 
SCOUTING STEVENS: The nationally ranked No. 24 Stevens Ducks (13-4) picked up the top seed in the conference tournament after going unbeaten (8-0) in Empire 8 play… Sophomore Kyra Bednarski leads the team in goals (54), assists (38) and points (92)… She ranks second in the conference with 3.18 goals per game… Stevens defeated Utica 16-8 in its meeting earlier this year… Brooke Miller (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy), Lauren Wolff (Peabody, MA/Peabody), and Hailee DuMont (Wilkes-Barre, PA/James M. Coughlin) each had two goals for UC.
 
LOOKING AHEAD: The winner of Saturday's semifinal will take on the winner of the St. John Fisher-Nazareth semifinal in the Empire 8 Championship game on Sunday.  Game time is 12 p.m.