UTICA, NY - The Utica College Field Hockey team had its three game winning streak snapped on Wednesday. The Pioneers rallied out of an early 0-2 deficit with three consecutive goals, but visiting Geneseo poured in the tying goal and a late game-winner by Cara O'Shea with under two minutes left to go as the Knights topped Utica by a 4-3 score at a rain soaked Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.

The Pioneers (5-8, 3-1 Empire 8) produced a firm effort against a Geneseo team with double digit wins, but took their first loss in the month of October with the one-goal defeat, on the heels of back-to-back overtime wins. Geneseo has now won ten straight matches. The match was the twelfth all-time meeting, with the all-time series now standing even at 6-6. 

Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) led the way for the Pioneers with two goals and now has a team-leading eight for the year. She sits in a tie atop the Utica points list this season alongside Sabrina Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich), who contributed a goal. Both players have points in their last four contests. Jeslyn Files (Weedsport, NY/Weedsport) and Ricki Haab (Stowe, VT/Stowe) picked up assists. Geneseo got a pair of goals from Maggie Phipps.

The Utica penalty corner unit came up huge with a two goal showing in the weeknight affair.

The Pioneers were outshot on the goal frame by a 15-10 margin. Megan Chamberlain (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) made nine saves on thirteen shots on goal faced, and Jenny Robbins (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) was credited with a pair of defensive saves. 

Geneseo got the jump on the Pioneers early with a pair of goals, as Julia Kim and Maggie Phipps each scored to give the visitors a 2-0 lead after the first quarter.

The persistence of Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) helped the Pioneers pull back within a goal before halftime. With under seven minutes to go in the second quarter, the Pioneers drew a penalty corner. After the ball came to the top of the battery, it found its way to Scaccia, who continually hammered at the ball only to be thwarted by the keeper.

While that opportunity stalled, her efforts helped the Pioneers draw a second consecutive corner, and this time, Scaccia cashed in. A long shot by Files came leaping to almost the exact same spot Scaccia was shooting from previously, and the junior thrusted the rebound behind Geneseo netminder Natalie Chojnacki to cut the Knights lead in half.

The Pioneers would go on to pull ahead in the third quarter. Just after the break, Sabrina Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich) pasted her own rebound to the back of the net to knot the score at two goals apiece. A long entry pass by Haab that deflected off multiple players was key to putting Whitehouse in position for the finish on her sixth goal of the year.

The penalty corner unit came through again to put the Pioneers in front as Scaccia netted her second on an assist by Haab, and the Pioneers led 3-2 less than two minutes after tying the match. That lead held into the fourth quarter, when Phipps and O'Shea each recorded a marker for the Knights, and Geneseo pulled out the 4-3 win.

The Pioneers are on the road for their next four matches, a trip that begins on Saturday at Elmira College.