Utica Heads to Empire 8 Finals with Win over Stevens
Utica, NY (11/8/14) – The top-seeded and nationally-ranked No. 20 Utica College field hockey team downed No. 4 seed Stevens Institute of Technology, 3-2, Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the Empire 8 Conference Tournament at Utica's Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.
UC improves to 17-2 overall, tying the program record for wins, which the team set last season. Utica now awaits the winner of Saturday's 2 p.m. game between No. 2 St John Fisher (11-8) and No. 3 Washington & Jefferson (10-8) for the E8 Championship Sunday at 1 p.m.
Freshman
Melissa Koch (Syracuse, NY/East Syracuse Minoa) struck first putting the Pioneers on the board just under halfway through the contest, at 30:23, as she tipped in a shot from junior
Colleen Dowling (Fairport, NY/Fairport) to give UC a 1-0 lead. Utica outshot the Ducks 8-2 in the first half and held an 8-5 advantage on penalty corners headed into intermission.
Senior
Hannah Mackey (Locke, NY/Moravia Central) extended Utica's lead at 39:30 as she fired home a penalty stroke for her conference-leading 35th goal of the season. The Ducks rebounded ten minutes later as junior Dailyn Brook put in her own rebound for her 17th tally of the season.
The Pioneers added an insurance tally at 61:27 as senior
Alaina Stojkovski (Liverpool, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) fired home a pass from Mackey for her 11th goal of the season. Stevens was able to rebound once again, this time just two minutes later as Victoria Alvarez took a feed from Brook and fired it through the legs of Utica net minder
Kells Casey (Sandwich, MA/Kimball Union Academy) for her 17th of the year.
Despite sustained pressure by Stevens in the final eight minutes of play, the Pioneers were able to hold on for the victory. Junior
Kells Casey (Sandwich, MA/Kimball Union Academy) made six stops in net for Utica, while her counterpart, Emily Stukenborg had five saves for Stevens.