Utica, NY - The Utica College field hockey team is set to host the SUNY Geneseo Knights in a non-conference matchup on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Follow Along: Live video and stats will be available at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/utica/. The broadcast of Wednesday's match will also be on the Empire 8 apps available through Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and AppleTV platforms. The apps make watching even easier for fans who have those devices connected to their television, and will also routinely carry Utica's away matches against Empire 8 opponents. The apps are available free of charge.

Coming In Hot: The Pioneers notched an impressive 3-2 overtime victory over Empire 8 opponent Nazareth College on Saturday night by a score of 3-2. UC dominated possession early on, but was unable to record a single goal and faced a 1-0 deficit heading into halftime. Utica was finally able to get on the board at 41:20 when senior Ricki Haab (Stowe, VT/Stowe) buried a rebound for her third of the year. Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) was credited with an assist on the equalizer. Nazaraeth took the lead once again in the 50th minute, but junior Sabrina Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich) knocked in a rebound goal off her own shot with under two minutes left to play to force overtime. Whitehouse added one more goal in overtime to secure the win for UC on a feed from sophomore Lexi Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro). This advanced the Pioneers to 5-7 on the season and 3-1 in conference.

Riding Momentum: After dropping the first five games of the season, the Pioneers have turned things around with five wins in their last seven matches while currently riding a three-game winning streak.

Chasing First: Utica sits in a two-way tie for second place in the Empire 8 with Washington & Jefferson. Both teams have a 3-1 record in the E8 and sit right behind the first-placed St. John Fisher, which has a perfect 3-0 record in conference.

Catching Fire: Whitehouse leads the team with 17 points on five goals and seven assists this season. This marks the first time that Whitehouse is the team point leader, as junior Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) held the top spot all season up until the Nazareth match. The 2018 second-team Empire 8 selection is the only Pioneer to record a point in eight of the team's 12 games and has posted an impressive 10 points over her last three matches en route to being named the E8 Offensive Player of the Week for the second week in a row.

Scaccia's Offense: Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) is having a breakout year, as she currently has the second-most points this season with 15 on six goals and three assists. Scaccia has already broken her single-season point record of 13 from her freshman year, and she is one goal away from breaking her single-season goal record as well.
 
Chamberlain's Net: Sophomore goalie Megan Chamberlain (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) remains atop the the Empire 8 leaderboard in both saves (116) and saves per game (9.67). 

Defensive Specialists: Outside of Chamberlain, who has played all 740 minutes for the Pioneers this season, senior Makenzie Stevens (New York Mills, NY/New York Mills) and junior Katherine LeRoy (Cicero, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) lead the team in minutes played with 733 minutes and 701 minutes, respectively. These two have served as the nucleus of the Pioneer defense all season, and Stevens is ranked second in the Empire 8 in defensive saves with seven. This ties her for first on the College's single-season record list.

Scouting Geneseo: The Knights sport an impressive 12-2 record thus far in 2019, with their only two losses coming on the road at Vassar and St. John Fisher. They are currently riding a nine-game winning streak heading into this matchup, and they have outscored their opponents by a whopping 42-5 margin in this time span.

Even History: UC holds a slight advantage over Geneseo with a 6-5 all-time record against the Knights. As of late Geneseo has had the upper hand, as it has won the last three matches against Utica.

Up Next: Utica will start its four-game road trip this Saturday in Elmira at 12 p.m., before going to Hamilton, Hartwick and Skidmore over the next two weeks.