UTICA, NY - The No. 13 Utica University women's hockey team will open up its 2023-24 regular season in style with a star-studded field making their way to the Utica University Nexus Center. The Utica University Kickoff Tournament will feature No. 6 Adrian College taking on No. 12 Elmira College on Friday before the No. 6 Pioneers face Suffolk University at 7 p.m., who received votes outside of the USCHO Top-15.
Follow Along: The video and stats for all four tournament games will be provided through
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/utica/.
Last Time Out: The team hosted SUNY Canton in its final exhibition contest last Friday evening. Canton came away with a 3-2 win. The Pioneers featured their entire roster on ice tonight for what was their first game in front of the hometown crowd. Utica's goals came from
Carolyn Whitney (Raleigh, NC/Milbrook School) (18:49 first period) and
Molly Pedone (Trinity, FL/Shattuck-St. Mary's) (3:20 second period).
Cortney Staniszewski (Buffalo, NY/Niagara Jr. Purple Eagles) assisted on Whitney's goal while
Callie McLaughlin (Centerport, NY/New Hampton School) and
Angelina Garganese (Winter Springs, Fl/Florida Alliance) assisted on Pedone's. Canton's first goal came at 14:30 in the second before netting two in the third for the difference makers. In goal for Utica,
Angela Hawthorne (Santa Clara, CA/Meijer),
Maddie Esposito (Ashburn, VA/Boston Shamrocks) and
Lauryn Brown (Eden, NY/Syracuse Valley Eagles) split time and combined for 19 saves.
In the Polls: The team will open the 2023-24 season as the No. 13 ranked team in this week's US College Hockey Online Women's Top 15. The poll was released Monday by the national college hockey website. The Pioneers received 60 points in lock in this week at No. 13. The team will open its regular season against Suffolk University, who received nine votes this week, at 7 p.m. on Friday. They will then meet either Elmira, who sits one spot ahead of Utica at No. 12, or Adrian, who is ranked No. 6, on Saturday. The entire Division III women's poll can be found at
https://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-iii-womens-poll/. In the UCHC coaches preseason poll, Utica is picked to finish right behind Nazareth, with 94 total points and four first place votes. The Pioneers won a program-record tying 22 contests last season and finished 17-1-2 in UCHC play, while advancing to the league championship game.
History on the Horizon: Graduate student
Erica Sloan (Potsdam, NY/St. Lawrence Steel) will be in the pursuit of some career milestones this season in her final year with the team. Sloan currently sits fourth all-time in program history for goals with 61 and sixth all-time in assists with 65. She will look to become the all-time leader in goals scored this season as she sits 14 away from the record at the moment. With 126 career points, Sloan sits fifth all-time with a chance to become the program's all-time leader in points scored. She scored 45 points last season and will need to reach that same mark this year to become the program's all-time leader in points scored. If she were to break the previous program record of 170 points, she would become 11th all-time in points scored ever in division III hockey across the nation. With an already-remarkable career resume as one of the nation's top active leading scorers, Sloan has a chance to cement herself as one of the program's all-time greats this season. Between the pipes,
Angela Hawthorne (Santa Clara, CA/Meijer) is on track to become the program leader in several categories as well. With 32 wins, Hawthorne currently is tied for fourth all-time, and needs only nine more wins this season to become the all-time leader. She is also tied for first right now in shutouts with 13. Her dependability in goal over the last three seasons has helped her be the current program leader in save percentage with 94.7 percent and goals against per game with 1.23 as well. Hawthorne has been a crucial piece to the team's success over the years, and she will look to continue her strong play in her senior season.
About Suffolk: The Suffolk University Rams are entering the 2023-24 season coming off a successful season where they finished first overall in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) with an 18-8-2 overall record and a 14-2-2 mark in the CCC. The team is coached by Abby Ostrom in her first season at the helm, she is assisted by Kevin Harrington. In 2022-23, the Rams were led by two graduate student forwards, Shana Cote and Miranda Graudet and junior goaltender Lily O'Neil.
Scouting Elmira: The Elmira College Soaring Eagles enter the 2023-24 season coming off a first place finish in the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) with a 21-6 overall record and a 17-0 mark in conference play in 2022-23. Elmira is coached by Aaron Saul and Mike Grace. The Soaring Eagles finished last season with the program's second consecutive undefeated regular season against league opponents. They lost the conference championship against Norwich University, 2-0, however before that, they won 12 straight games with their last loss coming against No. 13 Hamilton College 6-3 on December 31. Last season, graduate student forward Morgan Mordini led Elmira with 31 points off 13 goals and 18 assists. Sophomore forward Erika Goleniak led the team in helpers with 20 and recorded eight goals as well. Graduate student forward Mary McCafferty registered 12 goals and 15 assists while sophomore goaltender Leonie-Louise Kuehberger started all 24 games with a .924 save percentage and a 1.34 goals against average.
About Adrian: The Adrian College Bulldogs completed the 2022-23 season 26-4-0 overall and 14-2-0 in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association. Shawn Skelly and Trevor Coykendall are at the helm for the Bulldogs. The team completed its season in the NCAA Tournament against Hamilton College where they would go on to lose 2-0 in the quarterfinals. In 26 games last season the team led the NCHA in goals (127), allowed the least number of goals (19), had highest face-off win percentage (.642%), most faceoff wins (929), highest save percentage (.956), greatest power-play percentage (.287) and most power play goals (31). Adrian's graduate student forward Jessica VonRuden and senior forward Une Bjelland led the Bulldogs in points. VanRuden registered 48 points off 28 goals and 20 assists along with ranking in the top three in goals scored in conference play. Over a four-game span she tallied 21 points off 14 goals and seven assists. Bjelland registered 46 points tallying 22 goals and 24 assists, her 46 points were good for top three in the NCHA. Senior goaltender Sophie Goldberg started 24 games recording 11 shutouts, .955 save percentage and 20 goals against.
All-Time: This will be the first time Utica and Suffolk play. Utica and Elmira met last season and the Soaring Eagles won 3-2. Last time Utica defeated Elmira was March 17, 2021 where the Pioneers won 2-1. Late in the third period,
Carolyn Whitney (Raleigh, NC/Milbrook School) scored off an assist from
Alexa Carlon (Lancaster, NY/Niagara Jr. Purple Eagles) and
Abby Lillis (West Seneca, NY/Buffalo Bisons) to give Utica the victory. Utica last saw Adrian in 2020 and the Bulldogs defeated Utica 7-2. The Pioneers are 3-4 overall against Adrian dating back to the 2007-08 season.
Up Next: The team travels to Annville, PA to compete in its first pair of UCHC games of the season against Lebanon Valley College on Friday, November 3 at 7 p.m and Saturday, November 4 at 3 p.m.
