UTICA, NY – The Utica College women's hockey team is ready for a busy weekend. They will host back-to-back UCHC contests. They will meet William Smith College on Friday, and No. 3 Elmira College on Saturday. Friday's matchup will start at 3:30 p.m. and the puck is slated to drop at 2 p.m. in Saturday's contest. Both games will be held at the Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium.
FOLLOW ALONG: Live video and stats for the game will be available at portal.stretchinternet.com/utica/. Sports Information Assistant Ray Biggs '13 is back for a ninth season with the Pioneers as the team's primary play-by-play announcer, with Utica College student David J. Cooney on color commentary on Friday, and UC Student Abin Boris joining in for Saturday's game. Home games, along with road contests at Elmira and Nazareth, can be viewed via the free Empire 8 Conference app available for Roku, AppleTV, and Amazon Fire devices.
ON THE BALLOTS: The 3-1 Pioneers are starting to generate some national attention to their program. Utica has received two votes in the latest US College Hockey Online Women's Poll released on Monday. It is the first time since mid-January that the Pioneers are receiving votes. At that point, the Pioneers were off to a 12-3 start to the season.
LAST TIME OUT: The Pioneers defeated Wilkes University on Saturday by a final score of 2-1. Sophomore Maddie Paydos (Simsbury, CT/Vermont Academy) got the ball rolling for Utica early in the contest as she netted her first goal of the season. Freshman Holly Silva (Boston, MA/Worcester Academy) was credited with the assist. The score remained 1-0 until the third period when freshman Carolyn Whitney (Raleigh, NC/Milbrook School) scored a big insurance goal that kept Utica ahead for the remainder of the contest. She has now scored at least one goal in her last three outings.
ON FRIDAY: The Pioneers throttled King's College by an 11-2 score in Pittston, Pennsylvania. Maggie Rylott (Cobourg, Ontario/West Northumberland) and Erica Sloan (Potsdam, NY/St. Lawrence Steel) each had four point evenings, with Rylott netting a hat trick. Savannah Gutierrez (Huntington Beach, CA/Anaheim Lady Ducks) got the win in goal.
OFFENSIVE POWERHOUSE: Utica put a total of 49 shots on the goal frame in Saturday's contest, the most shots in a contest so far this season. They were held to just four penalties totaling 8 minutes in the game. In their last three outings, Utica has outscored its opponents 17-4. The last time Utica outscored its opponents in a three-game span was back in early November of 2018, outscoring King's and Chatham by 17 points or more. The Pioneers are currently ranked sixth in the nation in offensive scoring averaging 4.5 goals per game.
LEADING THE WAY: Freshman Erica Sloan (Potsdam, NY/St. Lawrence Steel) leads the Pioneers with four goals, four assists and eight points on the year. Sophomore Georgiana Santullo (Woburn, MA/Boston Shamrocks/Woburn High School) also has four assists. 10 Pioneers have now scored at least one goal this season while 12 have acquired at least one assist. Carolyn Whitney (Raleigh, NC/Milbrook School) leads the team in shots with 22.
MAKING AN IMPACT: Freshman Erica Sloan (Potsdam, NY/St. Lawrence Steel) exploded with eight points (four goals, four assists) in three games last week to earn UCHC Player of the Week Honors. Sloan ranks 13th in the conference in goals. Sloan is tied for first in the country in points per game as a freshman averaging two points per contest.
DEFENSIVE POWERHOUSE: Utica allowed only eight shots from the Colonels throughout the game on Saturday. This is the first time this season the Pioneers held a team under ten shots in a contest. The last time it happened, it also happened against Wilkes in a 3-0 win on February 16th, 2019.
IN GOAL: Senior Bria Reilly (Hamden, CT/Brewster Academy) has been strong in the net, saving seven shots while only allowing one against Wilkes. She has recently been named the United Collegiate Hockey Conference Women's North Division Goaltender of the Week due to her outstanding performance against Nazareth as she rejected 43 of 44 shots. She has two wins in the past week, and has collected 50 saves so far this season. Reilly is currently ranked 11th in the country with a .962 saving percentage.
SCOUTING WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGE: The 5-1 Herons are led by Mia LaPlante and Alison Weiss, who each have four goals each. Gina Scibetta leads the team with seven assists and 10 points on the year. The Herons were the UCHC Runner-Up last season.
SCOUTING ELMIRA: The No. 3 Soaring Eagles are led by Eliza Beaudin, who leads the team with five goals so far this season. Emma Crocker leads the team in assists with eight and also leads the team in points with 11. Elmira has yet to let up a goal this season, outscoring their opponents 25-0. They are set to play Nazareth on Friday. Elmira has won both UCHC regular season and tournament titles in the conference's short history.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Pioneers will travel to Amherst, Massachusetts on Saturday to face Amherst College in a non-conference matchup. The puck is set to drop at 7 p.m.
