On The National Stage
Head Coach
Josh Sciba will miss this upcoming weekend's trip, as the Garnet Chargers leader is with the U.S. Women's National Team for the beginning of the 2023-24 Rivalry Series against Canada. Sciba, who is an Assistant Coach on Head Coach John Wroblewski's staff, has served with the Women's National Team since the 2022 IIHF Women's World Championship after serving as an assistant for the 2018 Under-18 Series vs. Canada and the 2019 and 2020 IIHF Under-18 Women's World Championships.
Bigger Than A Game
Saturday's contest against St. Lawrence was the program's Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Game. The initiative was spearheaded by junior goaltender
Sophie Matsoukas, whose sister has Cystic Fibrosis, and sophomore goaltender
Emily Evans, whose father, aunt, and two cousins have the disease. The program raised awareness about the lung and digestive tract disease, took donations for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and wore purple ribbon stickers on their helmet and used purprle tape to support those in the fight against CF. The program also welcomed Matsoukas's sister Zoe, who has the cystic fibrosis, for a ceremonial puck drop. The initiative is one of two by the program this season, with the annual Pink The Rink game later in the season.
Maddie's Month
Following an impressive first month of her collegiate hockey career, first-year
Maddie Leaney was honored as the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Month for the end of September/month of October. Leaney led all ECACH first-years with five goals and eight points through the first month plus, which was good for second and third, respectively, on the team. Leaney's start to her time in garnet was highlighted by her three-goal performance that included the overtime winner October 7th against Holy Cross. The Maple Ridge, British Columbia native was also selected as a Hockey Commissioners Association (HCA) runner-up for their National Rookie of the Month.
Let's Get It Started In Here
Union kicked off their ECAC Hockey schedule in a big way, returning to Schenectady from their road trip with four and a half points, the most they've ever picked up on conference opening weekend. The Garnet Chargers defeated Harvard on Friday, 4-3, to win their ECAC Opener for the first time since 2017, on the backs of sophomore
Amanda Quan, who picked up her first two points of the season on a goal and assist, and first-year
Maddie Leaney, who recorded her second game-winner of the year with her first period power play goal. Senior
Emily King's third period goal on Saturday at Dartmouth would make it a 1-1 game, and the two teams would play to a tie of that score to finish off a successful weekend for the Garnet Chargers.
Hats Off To You TwoÂ
Sophomore
Riley Walsh and first-year
Maddie Leaney each scored hat tricks against Holy Cross, with their third goals to cap off their accomplishments going down as the overtime game-winners. Walsh, who had the first hat trick, gave Union their first three-goal game in almost 10 years (Jessica Kaminsky on November 16th, 2013 at Yale). Leaney's achievement the next night gave Union hat tricks in consecutive games for the first time in program history.
Season Of Firsts
Union has seen a number of players already achieve their first collegiate milestones. First-years
Emma Fulawka,
Maddie Leaney, and
Iliana Smith have all registered their first collegiate points, while Leaney has also registered her first goal and hat trick. Sophomore
Riley Walsh also got her first career hat trick, and first-year
Monja Wagner notched her first win. Also getting their first goals this season are first-years
Kendal Davidson and
Iliana Smith, and senior
Allison Smith.Â
It's Her Honor
After scoring her first collegiate goal and picking up an assist in Union's 5-2 home-opening victory over Robert Morris on 9/29,
Kendal Davidson was named the ECAC Hockey Defensive Player of the Week for the week ending on October 1, 2023. The award is Davidson's first selection of her career. Davidson's nomination makes her the first Garnet Charger to be named Defensive Player of the Week since d-partner
Stephanie Bourque was tabbed October 4th, 2022.Â
Maddie Leaney picked up ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week honors this past week after her hat trick that included the overtime winner in Saturday's win over Holy Cross. The award is Leaney's first selection of her career and Union's first Rookie of the Week selection since now-sophomore
Stephanie Bourque was selected this past January 5th.
100/50 = 13
In Union's 9/30 contest with Robert Morris, senior
Emily King played in her 100th collegiate game. The captain celebrated the milestone in eloquent fashion, scoring a goal and going 20-29 from the faceoff dot in her landmark contest. King later picked up the 50th point of her career with an assist on first-year
Maddie Leaney's goal on 10/27 against Cornell.
Have A (Career) Night
Riley Walsh picked up where she left off after one of the best seasons in program histroy in 2022-23. After scoring Union's first goal of the season for the second straight year in the season opener at St. Cloud State, the sophomore put a career-high four points off a goal and three assists in the home-opener against Robert Morris. Walsh also put up a team-high six shots and finished the game tied for a team-best a +2 rating.Â
Scouting the Bulldogs
Yale (3-3-0) is off to their worst start in the Mark Bolding era, having picked up just three wins in their first half dozen games for the first time since 2018-19. Bolding has won at least 17 games in his three seasons behind the bench, improving the Bulldogs win total each year to a program-record 28 wins a season ago.
Yale sports the nation's 14th best offense, just short of three goals a game (2.83), led by two-time All-ECAC First Team selection Elle Hartje. Hartje, who broke the program career assists record in Yale's win over Dartmouth and is third in program history in career points, leads the Bulldogs with eight points. Sophomore Carina DiAntonio is right behind her with seven, while reigining ECAC Rookie of the Year Jordan Ray and first-year Stephanie Stainton follow with five points apiece.
Defensively, Yale returns the reigning ECAC Goaltender of the Year and Second Team All-American, Pia Dukaric. Dukaric has started the last 39 games in net for the Bulldogs, and holds a .897 save percentage and 2.51 goals against average this season. Yale has allowed a combined one goal to the three teams they've faced in the bottom half of the league's offenses, while allowing 16 goals in the three games against top-half teams.
Scouting the Bears
Brown (3-5-0) won their season opener for the first time since 2018 in October, knocking off Holy Cross on an overtime winner by leading score India McDadi. It's a youth movement in Providence, as the top six leading scorers for the Bears are all underclasswomen.Â
McDadi leads the way with a team-best five goals and six assists, while reigning ECAC Rookie of the Year Jade Iginla and freshman Sam Broz each follow with five points. After McDadi scored her second goal of the night with the winner over the Crusaders, the Mississauga, Ontario native registered a four-point weekend off three goals and an assist against Dartmouth and Harvard two weekends ago.
Two seniors and a junior that have played all eight games in the Bears backend, and another junior that has played seven games, make up a more veteran defense for Brown. Senior Kaley Doyle, who started 23 games in net a year ago, has started seven for the Bears in between the pipes so far this season, and holds a .921 save percentage and 2.37 goals against average, both top-25 in the country.
On Garnet Alert
2023-24 is set to be a year that provides many changes to the Garnet Chargers record books. Senior
Emily King already has her fingerprints all over it, and will look to continue to rise up the ranks. Junior
Sophie Matsoukas also sees her name in the books, and Sophomore
Riley Walsh is set to enter her name in multiple categories.Â
Leading The Way
The winningest coach in Union Women's Hockey program history,
Josh Sciba, returns for his eighth season behind the Garnet Chargers bench in 2023-24. Union will look to build off their 11 wins from 2022-23, the most in the program's Division 1 history.Â
Here To Assist
Joining Sciba behind the bench are Assistant Coaches
Chris Ardito,
Olivia Soares, and
Lora Ardoin. Ardito commences his third season with the program in 2023- 24, while the current campaign with be Soares's second with Union. Ardoin joins the staff for her first season with the program.Â
New BloodÂ
For the third straight year, Sciba and his staff have brought in eight student-athletes as their recruiting class. The Class of 2027 traverses three countries, three Canadian provinces, and four states, and includes four forwards, three blueliners, and one goaltender.Â
O-Zone ExperienceÂ
Union returns 19 players from a season ago, including their seven highest leading point scorers. Sophomore
Riley Walsh tallied team-highs with 15 goals and 22 points in her first year at Union, good for third- and seventh-most in a single season in program history, while senior
Emily King, who's 41 points are good for 10th most in Union's Division 1 era, returns for one last ride.Â
Anchoring the BluelineÂ
Also apart of those 19 returnees are four blueliners that appeared in every game a season ago-
Stephanie Bourque,
Emma Hebert,
Meredith Killian, and
Allison Smith- and Union's starting- and second-winningest all-time- goaltender,
Sophie Matsoukas.
Charging ForwardÂ
Union's teams will be playing with a new name this season, as the College rebranded to the Garnet Chargers in August. The Garnet Chargers nickname was selected from a field of over 400 names submitted, and references the school's official color of over 150 years, Garnet, and Schenectady's legacy as a hub for electrical innovation and invention. Union also added a new "U" logo as part of the rebrand.
Captaining the ShipÂ
2022-23 Captain
Emily King returns for her second season wearing the "C" for the Garnet Chargers, and her three Assistant Captains a season ago-
Celeste Beaudoin,
Meredith Killian, and
Allison Smith- have all been elevated to Captain for 2023-24.Â
Shock WarningÂ
Union was picked to finish 12th in the ECAC Hockey preseason coaches poll after their finish in that position last year. The Garnet Chargers will look to build off their 11 wins from last season to surprise in 2023-24.
