Utica, NY - The Utica College field hockey team will host Washington & Jefferson in its first Empire 8 matchup on Saturday at 12 p.m.

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: The Pioneers dropped their last game in an overtime loss to Brockport on the road. Junior Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) continued a stellar start to her 2019 campaign, notching the first goal of the game (assisted by Josie Sgarlata (Canastota, NY/Canastota)) to give UC a 1-0 lead. Sophomore Megan Chamberlain (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) posted 15 saves on the evening, but it was not enough for a Utica win as Brockport scored the final goal of the game in overtime to break the 1-1 tie and secure its fifth win of the season.

Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Week: Chamberlain fell just short of her season-high in saves against Brockport, as her best performance of the year came in a 17-save showing against Rochester last Friday. This performance earned her Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Week honors, making her the first Pioneer Field hockey player to earn a conference award in 2019.

Scaccia's offense: Junior Sydney Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) is having a breakout year, as she leads the team with three goals while also adding one assist en route to a team-best seven points. Scaccia has already matched her goal total from 2018, and is already more than halfway to 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 four points (one goal, two assists) this year.

Defensive Prowess: The only other player on the roster besides Chamberlain to play all 310 minutes this year for the Pioneers is senior Makenzie Stevens (New York Mills, NY/New York Mills), who has served as the nucleus to the UC defensive unit all season.

Scouting Washington & Jefferson: Washington & Jefferson is coming off a very successful 2018 season, where it finished with an 18-2 record, won the Empire 8 championship and notched a win in the NCAA tournament before falling to sixth-ranked Salisbury in the second round. This year the presidents have a 2-3 record heading into this contest, and have lost their last two games to Kenyon and SUNY Geneseo, respectively.

Even History: These two teams have met a total of 16 times dating back to 2006, and the Presidents hold a slight advantage with nine wins against UC over this time span.

Up Next: UC heads back on the road to face St. Lawrence on Tuesday at 6 p.m.