UTICA, NY - The Utica College women's hockey team will play a home-and-home series this Friday and Saturday against conference rival, Elmira College. Game times are set for 2 p.m. in Utica on Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday in Elmira.
 
Last Time Out: The Pioneers are coming off a 0-1-1 weekend against conference foe, William Smith College… Utica erased a two-goal third period deficit to salvage a tie against the Herons at home on Saturday… Olivia Hirschy (Fort Wayne, IN/Culver Academies) had a hand in all three UC scores, with two goals and an assist… Georgiana Santullo (Woburn, MA/Boston Shamrocks/Woburn High School) scored the tying goal with 53 seconds remaining in regulation… Senior Kayla Dion (Colchester, VT/Boston Shamrocks) had two assists on the day, while Danielle Haasbeek (Grand Forks, ND/Balmoral Hall), Elizabeth Dohner (Highlands Ranch, CO/Colorado Selects) and Ricki Haab (Stowe, VT/Stowe) each had one helper… Freshman Savannah Gutierrez (Huntington Beach, CA/Anaheim Lady Ducks) made 21 saves in her first collegiate start… The Pioneers dropped a 2-1 decision in the series finale on Sunday… Haab scored the lone goal for the Pioneers, with Dion picking up the assist… Ryann Stripp (Holland Patent, NY/Clinton Warriors) made 33 saves in the loss.
 
Playoff Position: The Pioneers have qualified for the conference tournament for the 17^th time in the program's 18-year history… The playoff seeding's are still very much up for grabs as six points separate second through fifth place.
 
Leading the Way: Sophomore Lexi Stanisewski (Lawrence, MA/Boston Shamrocks) leads the team in assists (13) and total points (21)… Junior Rebecca Brown (Steamboat Springs, CO/Norwich University) is second on the squad with 19 points and she is tied for the team-lead with 11 goals. 
 
Heating Up: Junior Olivia Hirschy (Fort Wayne, IN/Culver Academies) and senior Kayla Dion (Colchester, VT/Boston Shamrocks) each have five points in their last four games… Hirschy has netted three goals and added two assists in that span, while Dion has totaled one goal and four assists. 
 
Stingy D: The Pioneers rank third in the conference allowing just 1.62 goals against per game… Senior Kirsten Johnson (Brockville, Ontario/RSL Midget Thunder AA) is tied for the team-lead with a plus/minus rating of +17… She also leads UC with 23 blocked shots and she has a career-best eight assists this season.
 
Scouting Elmira: Elmira College, which is ranked No. 1 in both the USCHO.com and D3hockey.com national polls, holds an 18-2-1 overall record and a perfect 14-0-0 conference record entering the weekend... Elmira has the number two ranked offense in the country, averaging 5.00 goals per game… Senior Katie Granato is second nationally with 1.81 points per game and her 1.10 goals per game lead the country.
 
Against The Soaring Eagles: Utica is 1-6-1 against Elmira in the last three seasons… The last time Utica defeated the Soaring Eagles was on March 5, 2016 when UC came away with a 5-1 victory in the ECAC West Conference semifinals.
 
LOOKING AHEAD: The Pioneers will play Wilkes University in another home-home series starting Friday, Feb. 15. Friday's game is scheduled for 5 p.m. in Wilkes-Barre, while Saturday's contest will be at 3 p.m. in Utica.