UTICA, NY- The Utica University women's lacrosse team travels to Rochester, NY this weekend for the Empire 8 Conference Tournament, hosted by top-seeded St. John Fisher College. The No. 3 seed Pioneers will take on second-seeded Nazareth College in the semifinal on Saturday at 2 p.m.
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Utica picked up the No. 3 seed in the tournament after finishing 4-2 in conference play (11-4 overall)… This is the fourth straight conference tournament appearance for the Pioneers… This year's edition of the Pioneers has collected the second-most wins in a single-season in program history… Nazareth locked up the No. 2 seed in the tournament as it finished 5-1 in Empire 8 play… Naz's lone blemish came by way of a 10-7 loss to St. John Fisher College.
NIFTY FIFTY: Graduate student
Ashley Guerra (Ionia, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima ) leads Utica with 50 points on the season and her 35 goals rank second on the squad… Guerra has scored at least one point in each of the last 12 games she has played in… She currently ranks third in the E8 with 3.85 points per game.
LEXI LEADS THE WAY: Senior
Lexi Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) leads the Pioneers with 38 goals this season and she is fourth in total points (42)… Scaccia is climbing up the ranks in the program record books… She is currently third all-time with 176 career points, four points back of 2016 graduate Megan Kane who is currently second… Scaccia is tied for sixth all-time with 128 career goals and she is second in program history with 238 draw controls to her credit.
WELCOME TO THE CLUB: With two goals in her last game, junior
Samantha DeCondo (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) reached the 100-point mark for her career… DeCondo has netted 72 goals and added 28 assists in 32 games played in her career… This season, she ranks second on the squad with 46 points (29 goals, 17 assists).
DISHING IT OUT: Senior
Emily Rossi (Verona, NY/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) leads the team and is tied for first in the conference with 23 assists and 1.53 assists per game… Rossi has reached new career highs this season in goals (20), assists, and points (43)… She has registered at least one point in 14-of-15 games played this year.
FAMILIAR FOE: Utica and Naz met last Saturday with the Golden Flyers coming out on top 17-9…
Ashley Guerra (Ionia, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima ) led Utica with four goals and six points, while
Lexi Scaccia (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) had two goals and an assist… Nazareth and Utica met in the conference semifinals one year ago with Naz coming form behind to score two late goals on its way to a 9-8 win.
SCOUTING NAZ: Emma States leads the way with 47 goals and 65 points on the year… She is one of just two players in the conference to average over 4.0 points per game… The Golden Flyers have used a goalie tandem this season with Emma Prosak and Katie Lawrence splitting time in goal… Prosak owns a 9.54 goals against average and a .447 save percentage, which ranks second and third in the conference, respectively… Lawrence meanwhile is fourth in the E8 with an average of 6.82 saves per game.
LOOKING AHEAD: Saturday's winner will meet the winner of St. John Fisher and Hartwick in the Empire 8 Championship game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
