UTICA, NY - The No. 14 Utica University women's hockey team begins its hunt for the program's first-ever UCHC title this Wednesday as the second-seeded Pioneers welcome the seventh-seeded Chatham University Cougars in the quarterfinals on Feb. 21. Puck drop from the Utica University Nexus Center is set for 4 p.m.  
 
Follow Along: Live video and stats can be found here. 
 
Last Time Out: The No. 14 Utica University women's hockey team captured its 20th win of the season to enter the UCHC Tournament hot following a 6-1 win over the King's College Monarchs last Saturday afternoon. In the win, Erica Sloan (Potsdam, NY/St. Lawrence Steel) put her name atop the program's all-time goals leader book with her 74th and 75th career scores. She surpassed Deana Wiegand '06 and Megan Myers '13 who were previously tied for the most in program history with 74. Callie McLaughlin (Centerport, NY/New Hampton School), Carolyn Whitney (Raleigh, NC/Millbrook School) (Raleigh, NC/Millbrook School), Autumn Mish (Long Lake, NY/University of New Hampshire (NCAA DI)) (Long Lake, NY/University of New Hampshire (NCAA DI)) and Carly Stefanini (Framingham, MA/Brooks School) also scored in the game. Along with her record 75th career goal, Sloan notched a pair of assists for four total points. Emma Corbett (Rochester, NY/Adrian College (NCAA DIII)) had three assists in the win while Stefanini had a pair as well. Angela Hawthorne (Santa Clara, CA/Meijer) earned the win with seven saves and one goal allowed. As a unit, the Pioneers outshot the Monarchs 51-8 including 21-1 in the second period. Utica also won 42 of the game's 65 faceoffs. Although Utica controlled the puck for nearly the entirety of the first period, it took until the 17th minute of play to break the scoreless tie. Shorthanded, Whitney found the back of the net on a breakaway at 16:48 while Sloan followed-up with her first of the game at 17:34 to take the team into the intermission up 2-0. Despite 21 shots in the second, the Pioneers wouldn't score until 18:57 when Sloan and Stefanini connected with Mish to go up 3-0 after two full. The third saw four combined goals, three of which coming for the Pioneers. At 6:55 and on the power play, Sloan wrapped one in for the all-time goals record, her second of the afternoon, and a 4-0 Utica lead. Then at 11:28, Stefanini scored with assists by Sloan and Corbett. King's got on the board on a power play at 14:37 before McLaughlin made it a five-goal lead yet again at 18:06 to put the game away. 
 
In the Polls: The Utica University women's hockey team remained No. 14 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 38 points this week to hold the No. 14 spot in the poll. Utica swept King's in its final regular season series this past week with a 10-1 win on Feb. 14 as well as a 6-1 victory on Saturday. The entire Division III women's poll can be found at https://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-iii-womens-poll/.
 
A Look at the Bracket: The eight-team 2024 UCHC Women's Hockey Championship Tournament will take place with quarterfinal action on Wednesday, Feb. 21, Semifinals on Saturday, Feb. 24 and the Championship game on Saturday, March 2. The UCHC Champion receives an automatic berth into the 2024 NCAA Division III Women's Ice Hockey Championship Tournament. Aside from the Pioneers hosting (7) Chatham on Thursday, other quarterfinal games include top-seeded Nazareth University hosting eighth-seeded King's College at 7 p.m. in Rochester, NY, third-seeded Manhattanville College hosting sixth-seeded Alvernia University at 6 p.m. in Rye, NY, and fourth-seeded Arcadia University matching up with fifth-seeded Wilkes University at 7 p.m. in Wilkes-Barre, PA. 
 
Playoff History: The Pioneers qualified for their seventh straight UCHC Tournament, having made each postseason trip since the conference began in 2017-18. Utica owns a 4-6 overall record in the UCHC Tournament with three wins coming over the past two seasons. The team's most recent playoff game came against Nazareth University in the 2022-23 UCHC Championship, falling in double OT, 3-2. Prior to that game the Pioneers defeated seventh-seeded Lebanon Valley 4-0 in the quarterfinals and third-seeded Manhattanville 7-1 in the semifinals. 
 
How we Enter: The team is on a six-gaming winning streak, out-scoring its opponents 34-5 since February 2. The only three losses of the 2023-24 season came against Hamilton College and Nazareth University (two losses). The team enters postseason play as the league's top-scoring offense with 4.56 goals per game, which ranks third amongst DIII. The team also comes into the postseason as the league's second ranked defensive unit, allowing just over one goal per game. Utica's 1.04 goals against average ranks ninth in Division III.  
 
In Her Own Club: Erica Sloan (Potsdam, NY/St. Lawrence Steel) made program history against King's on February 17. She now leads the program in goals with 75 after surpassing Deana Wiegand '06 and Megan Myers '13 who previously tied for the most in program history with 74. Sloan ranks fourth in the UCHC with 14 goals and eighth with 1.08 points per game. She currently has six goals in four straight games. 
 
About Chatham: The Chatham University Cougars enter Wednesday at 10-10-3 overall and 8-10-2 in the UCHC. The team finished seventh overall in the conference standings. Chatham is coming off two straight losses to Arcadia University on February 16 (6-1) and February 17 (3-0). The Cougars finished the season with 56 goals and 52 goals against while posting 6.04 points per game. Senior forward Ally Nolan leads the team with 29 points (9g, 20a) and right behind her is leading goal scorer Allie James-Corser with 11 goals and 12 assists. Goaltenders Lindsey Batz, Lilly Rogers and Samantha Brophy each split time in net during the season. Batz posted a 4-2-1 record and a .948 save percentage, Rogers collected a 3-3-1 record and a .925 save percentage and Brophy went 3-3-1 with a .919 save percentage. 
 
Season Slate: Utica and Chatham last played on February 2 and 3. The Pioneers won both contests by a combined score of 12-1. Five different players scored a goal during the February 2nd game and the February 3rd game saw Whitney register a hat-trick. Utica is 34-0-1 all-time against Chatham. This will be the first-ever postseason contest between Utica and Chatham. 
 
Up Next: With a win, the Pioneers will host the second-lowest remaining seed in the UCHC Semifinals at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24 from the Utica University Nexus Center.