UTICA, NY - The Utica College women's ice hockey team seeks its first win of the 2019-2020 season on Tuesday as it opens United Collegiate Hockey Conference play against Nazareth College. The away contest will be played at the Bill Gray's IcePlex on the campus of Monroe Community College in Rochester, with an opening puck drop of 7 p.m.

Follow Along: Live Video of the game will be available at portal.stretchinternet.com/nazareth. Fans can also view the game via the free Empire 8 Conference Apps available for AppleTV, Roku, and Amazon Fire devices.

Last Time Out: Visiting Morrisville scored two goals in each period as they topped the Pioneers by a 6-1 score on Friday at the Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. The Mustangs scored the first five goals in the game. Morrisville's top line did a significant amount of damage on the scoreboard as top line center Kylie Cameron had four points on two goals and two assists, Maddison Devlin had four assists, and Mackenzie Lombardi had a hat trick. The Pioneers got their lone goal from freshman Morgan Leib (Farmington Hills, MI/Little Caesars), who scored the first goal of her career in the third period. Classmate Holly Silva (Boston, MA/Worcester Academy) recorded her first career point with the assist on the play. Savannah Gutierrez (Huntington Beach, CA/Anaheim Lady Ducks) made her third career start in goal and made 28 saves. The Utica penalty kill finished 2-for-2. The Pioneers were out-shot 34-13. 

The Series: This will be just the third All-Time meeting between Utica and Nazareth. Nazareth debuted its program last season and won both games 3-1 on their way to the second overall seed in the conference tournament. In their first meeting on January 18th, Hailey Redders had two assists for Nazareth, while Becky Brown had the goal for Utica. The second meeting was re-scheduled from January 19th due to inclement weather, and was played on January 30th. Shots on goal in the second meeting narrowly favored Nazareth by a 32-31 margin. Olivia Hirschy (Fort Wayne, IN/Culver Academies) scored off an assist from Ricki Haab (Stowe, VT/Stowe) in the game.

In The Preseason Polls: Utica was picked to finish fifth in the United Collegiate Hockey Conference in the annual UCHC Women's Coaches' poll released two weeks ago. The Pioneers were one of five teams to receive over 100 points in the voting. Elmira topped the poll for a third straight year, followed by William Smith in second.

Preseason Watch List: In addition to the preseason poll, forwards Georgiana Santullo (Woburn, MA/Boston Shamrocks/Woburn High School) and Lexi Stanisewski (Lawrence, MA/Boston Shamrocks). and defender Becky Brown were named to the UCHC Preseason Watch List. The player watch list is an annual preseason honor roll of players expected to make an impact on their teams, and on the conference picture.

Note The Changes: With its recent growth in membership, the United Collegiate Hockey Conference coaches have decided to experiment with some changes this season. The conference membership has expanded the conference tournament from six teams to eight, and the regular season will be conducted under a new divisional format where teams will play two conference games against teams in its own division, and a single conference contest against the opposite division. Utica and Nazareth are both in the North division along with Elmira, William Smith, King's, and Wilkes. Manhattanville, Neumann, Chatham, Lebanon Valley, Stevenson, and Alvernia make up the South Division.

Youth Movement: Of the eighteen Utica players to dress for Friday's game, eight of those players were freshmen as Holly Silva (Boston, MA/Worcester Academy), Ava Suda (Cheektowaga, NY/Buffalo Bisons), Hannah Beckman (North Plainfield, NJ/Rice Prep), Morgan Leib (Farmington Hills, MI/Little Caesars), Abby Lillis (West Seneca, NY/Buffalo Bisons), Maggie Rylott (Cobourg, Ontario/West Northumberland), Erica Sloan (Potsdam, NY/St. Lawrence Steel), and Carolyn Whitney (Raleigh, NC/Milbrook School) all appeared in their first collegiate regular season game. As a contrast, just three seniors saw playing time.

A Silva Lining: Holly Silva (Boston, MA/Worcester Academy) finished friday's game at a +1 to lead the Pioneers on the plus/minus.

Last Year: Utica had a conference record of 11-6-1 last year. They out-scored opponents 60-32 in those contests. They averaged 3.33 goals per game in conference games. 

On Special Teams: The Utica power play finished 15-of-91 last season, good for a percentage of 16.5 percent. The penalty killing unit killed off 86 penalties in 102 chances for a success rate of 84.3 percent.

Experience Matters: Utica returns four of its top five scorers from last season. Lexi Stanisewski (Lawrence, MA/Boston Shamrocks) shared the team points lead with 26, and had a team-best 18 assists. Georgiana Santullo (Woburn, MA/Boston Shamrocks/Woburn High School) had eleven goals and twelve assists for 23 points. Rebecca Brown (Steamboat Springs, CO/Norwich University) had 12 goals and 8 assists for 20 points as a junior, and Olivia Hirschy (Fort Wayne, IN/Culver Academies) had twelve goals and four assists for sixteen points in her third season with the team.

The Big 5-0: With an appearance on Tuesday, senior Kyra Borsoi (Brossard, Quebec/Holderness) will skate in the 50th game of her career.

Scouting Nazareth: The Golden Flyers are currently 4-0 with three players at nine points each to lead the charge. Freshman Makenna Wiljanen has six goals and three assists for nine points. Former William Smith Heron Abbey Luth has transferred to Nazareth and also has nine points on three goals and six assists. Keeley Rose rounds out that triumvirate as the lone returner among the three, and has two goals and seven assists. Adrianna Brehm returns in goal for the Golden Flyers.

Up Next: Utica continues a three-game UCHC road trip with games at King's College and Wilkes University on Friday and Saturday. Utica is unbeaten against both opponents in the all-time series.