UTICA, NY - The No. 14 Utica University women's hockey team (22-3-2) beat Manhattanville College 5-1 on Saturday night to earn a trip to the UCHC Championship Game for the second straight season. Manhattanville has its season come to an end with a 13-12-2 mark.

Utica will travel to face top-seeded Nazareth University on Saturday, March 2 at 3 p.m. in a rematch of the 2023 UCHC Championship, in which Nazareth won, 3-2 in double overtime.
 
Erica Sloan led the team with three points tallying one goal and two assists. Abby Lillis had two points with one goal and one assist with Carly Stefanini adding a pair of assists. Kaci Ryder, Ava Suda, Cortney Staniszewski, Carolyn Whitney, Autumn Mish, and Tess Barrett each recorded one point.
 
Angela Hawthorne was fantastic in net making 14 saves and allowing just one goal to pick up the victory in goal. Utica out-shot Manhattanville 30 to 15 and did well at controlling the puck and kept it in the attacking or neutral zone for the majority of the game.
 
It was a quiet start to the contest before Utica struck first at the 15:54 mark when Cortney Staniszewski tipped in an Autumn Mish shot to give the Pioneers a 1-0 edge. Ava Suda and Mish recorded assists on the play. Utica did well defensively, recording a penalty kill while winning the shots battle 9 to 6. The Pioneers held a slim 1-0 lead after the first period of play.
 
It was a dominant period for the Pioneers who kept the pressure on living in the attacking zone with Erica Sloan slapping home a beautiful goal to increase the Utica lead to 2-0 at the 6:33 mark. Carly Stefanini and Abby Lillis earned the assists after setting up the play beautifully. The Pioneers kept firing off shots as Tess Barrett sniped one past the goaltender to push the lead to 3-0 at the 13:36 mark off with an apple going to Kaci Ryder. Utica was fantastic defensively allowing just two shots on goal and took a 3-0 lead into the final period of play.
 
The Valiants struck first in the third to make it a 3-1 contest at the 5:48 mark. However, Utica responded to recapture a three-goal advantage as Abby Lillis found the back of the net at the 17:36 mark off assists from Sloan and Stefanini to capitalize on the power play. Carolyn Whitney scored at the 18:56 mark off a Sloan feed to secure the 5-1 UCHC Semifinal win for Utica.