Utica, NY - The Utica College field hockey team will host the Sage Gators Saturday night at 6 p.m for its third Empire 8 matchup of the season.

Follow Along: Live video and stats will be available at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/utica/. The broadcast of Saturday'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.

Last Time Out: Utica dropped its last matchup to 19th-ranked Colby in a non-conference matchup by a score of 3-0 last Sunday. Senior goalie Megan Chamberlain (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) posted a career-high 25 saves in this game, and notched her fourth 10-plus save match this year.

Big Win: The Pioneers notched a key win in an overtime thriller at St. Lawrence last tuesday. Utica found themselves down 3-0 in the second quarter, but junior Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) made things a bit more manageable with an unassisted goal heading into the half to cut the deficit to 3-1. The second half was dominated by the Pioneers, as senior Ricki Haab (Stowe, VT/Stowe) and sophomore Madeline Krecidlo (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) netted goals to tie the game up at three and force overtime. The dagger came on a rebound goal from senior Fiona Shea (East Greenbush, NY/Columbia) in overtime to secure UC its second victory of the season.

Scaccia's offense: Junior Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) is having a breakout year, as she leads the team with four goals while also adding two assists en route to a team-best 10 points. Scaccia has already broken her goal total from 2018, and is closing in on breaking her career-high in points from her freshman year where she finished with 13. Senior Sabrina Whitehouse (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich) currently sits right behind Scaccia with seven points on two goals and a team-high three assists this season.

Defensive Prowess: Outside of senior goalie Megan Chamberlain (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury), senior Makenzie Stevens (New York Mills, NY/New York Mills) leads the team in minutes played with 549. With a total of 556 minutes across nine games this season, Stevens has been on the field for all but seven minutes for the Pioneers.

Scouting Sage: This is only the fourth year in program history for Sage, and as a result, this is the first season that the Gators will roster a senior. The team has improved every year since its start in 2016, and they enter this matchup with a 5-5 overall record. The Gators have been hot as of late, winning their last three games against Wells, Dean and Albertus Magnus by a 31-0 margin. Sage already evened its win total from 2019, where they finished 4-13. 

Favorable History: The Pioneers played Sage for the first time in program history last season, where they won by the largest margin of victory of the season, 7-1. Senior Ricki Haab (Stowe, VT/Stowe) led the team with two goals on the night, while senior Fiona Shea (East Greenbush, NY/Columbia) and Junior Jeslyn Files (Weedsport, NY/Weedsport) added one goal in the effort. Whitehouse was also a key contributor in this game, posting a match-high three assists.

Up Next: UC heads back on the road this Tuesday for a non-conference matchup against RPI at 7 p.m.