About Union
Union returns to ECACH action this weekend after kicking off the new year with a trio of non-conference games, most recently a weekend split with #15 Penn State. The Garnet Chargers picked up their second ever win over a ranked opponent on Friday thanks to first-year
Maddie Leaney's second OT winner of her young career. The win gave junior goaltender
Sophie Matsoukas the 21st victory of her Union career, breaking Shenae Lundberg's record for the most in program history.
About St. Lawrence
St. Lawrence returns home for the first time in nearly two months this weekend after a challenging six-game stretch that began on Black Friday and included four top-10 opponents. The Saints picked up one victory in that time, a 6-5 thriller over Dartmouth in their final game of 2023, before being swept at the hands of #4 Colgate and #9 Cornell to open 2024.
About Clarkson
After a 20 game unbeaten streak to begin the season, Clarkson suffered their first defeat this past Friday, falling in overtime to #9 Cornell, 3-2. The Golden Knights responded on Saturday, defeating the only team above them in the ECAC Hockey standings, #4 Colgate, 1-0, in large part to the sixth shutout of the season from senior Michelle Pasiechnyk.
Milestone Watch
The 2023-24 season has seen a handful of changes to the Union record book, and a number of players are on the cusp of setting new benchmarks. Sophomore
Riley Walsh was first to set a new feat, becoming the first player in Union's DI history to have multiple 20-point seasons with her two assists in the win over Saint Michael's on New Year's Day. Junior
Sophie Matsoukas followed in Union's next game by setting the program's new all-time wins record with the 21st of her career, while senior
Emily King is one assist away from tying the program's all-time record of 37 and one power-play goal from equaling the program's all-time record of 10.
Got Enough Hats?
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), before Leaney's achievement the next night gave Union hat tricks in consecutive games for the first time in program history. First-year
Emma Fulawka scored a hat trick of her own Janaury 1st at Saint Michael's, and the program has now had as many hat tricks this season as they had the previous 19 years combined.
On The National Stage
Head Coach
Josh Sciba missed Union's trip to Yale and Brown and spent part of the holiday break with Team USA, as the Garnet Chargers leader was with the U.S. Women's National Team for the first four games 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. The Rivalry Series resumes in February, when the two countries meet for the final three games of the 2023-24 series.
Bigger Than A Game
Union's home game 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 helmets and used purple tape to support those in the fight against CF. The program also welcomed Matsoukas's sister Zoe, who has 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 set to come next Friday, January 19th.
Happy New Year!
Union began 2024 in a big way New Year's Day, defeating Saint Michael's by a score of 6-0 in a game where the milestones were aplenty for Union. The offense was led by first-year
Emma Fulawka, who scored her first collegiate hat trick. Senior
Kaitlyn Ehmann added her first collegiate goal, and first-year
Megan Ognibene registered her first collegiate point. In Union's net,
Sophie Matsoukas scored her 20th career win, moving her into a tie for the program record. The six goals were the team's most in 364 days, when they also notched six against Saint Michael's January 2nd, 2023.
Union continued their ceremonious beginning to the new year with a victory in their next game, a 2-1 win over #15 Penn State. First-year
Maddie Leaney's winner 66 seconds into overtime gave the program their second ever victory over a ranked opponent, and the win matched the program's longest winning and unbeaten streaks in program history.
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 conference-opening 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.
Season Of Firsts
Union has seen a number of players achieve their first collegiate milestones in 2023-24. First-years
Kendal Davidson,
Emma Fulawka,
Maddie Leaney,
Iliana Smith, and
Megan Ognibene have all registered their first collegiate points, while Fulawka and Leaney have also registered their first collegiate goals and hat tricks. 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 Davidson,
Iliana Smith,
Allison Smith,
Kaitlyn Ehmann, and
Ella Chiarelli.
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, first-year
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
First-year
Maddie Leaney was honored the next week, as the first-year picked up ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week honors after her hat trick that included the overtime winner in that 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.
Junior
Sophie Matsoukas was the next Garnet Charger to pick up a weekly award, after Leaney also garnered ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Month honors to wrap up October, being selected as the ECAC Hockey MAC Goaltending Goaltender of the Week December 12th. The selection followed Matsoukas' 53-save weekend in Union's weekend sweep of crosstown rival Rensselaer, her third career Goalie of the Week honor.
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. Later in the season, King 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 history 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 up a career-high four points off a goal and three assists in the home-opener against Robert Morris. Walsh also had a team-high six shots and finished the game tied for a team-best +2 rating.Â
Scouting the Saints
St. Lawrence (13-8-0) is 3-7 since they last with met Union on November 4th, a stretch of 10 games with seven ranked opponents- and five in the top-five- that went through the holiday season. The Saints play bit more friendler schedule the rest of the way, with seven of their 13 remaining games on their home ice.
The Saints offense remains led by senior captain Julia Gosling, who for the second consecutive year has hit the 30 point mark with 31 so far this season. Gosling is top-six in the conference in goals (13, tied-sixth), assists (18, tied-sixth), and points 31 (fourth). Abby Hustler (25 points), Sarah Marchand (23), and Anna Segedi (20) have all tallied 20+ points of their own this season, and each are on pace to set new career-highs. The Saints currently sport the nation's 10th-best offense, scoring 3.29 goals per game.
Sophomore Emma-Sofie Nordström has continued her control of the St. Lawrence net, starting all 21 contests and playing over 93% of the minutes, and her 13 wins are tied for third-most in the country. The defense in front of her has taken a bit of a hit since the Saints and Garnet Chargers last met, with St. Lawrence's scoring defense falling from 14th in the country at 2.00 goals allowed per game to 32nd with a 3.00 clip. However, four of the eight opposing St. Lawrence offenses has seen in that time are currently within the top-seven in the country.
Scouting the Golden Knights
Clarkson (19-1-2) has continued their dominant play since their weekend trip to the Capital Region at the beginning of November, challenging opponents with the nation's best defense, allowing just one goal a game, while presenting one of the top offenses that has scored 80 goals, the sixth-best mark in the country.Â
Four Golden Knights have hit the 20-point mark so far this season, with another two within two points of joining the group. Graduate Student Darcie Lappan leads the way with 23 points off 11 goals and 12 assists, followed by defensewomen Nicole Gosling and Haley Winn, each with 22, who each sit in the top-12 in the ECAC in assists (Winn with 19, 5th, Gosling with 15, tied-12th). Grad Student Dominique Petrie scored the lone goal in Saturday's victory over #4 Colgate, and rounds out the top four with 20 points. Clarkson's 3.64 goals per game are seventh most in the country.
While sporting a strong offense, Clarkson has an even tougher defense. Their 22 goals are least in the nation, five less than the next best teams and 15 less than the next best squad that has played an equal or greater amount of games. Senior Michelle Pasiechnyk has been one of the best goaltenders in the country so far this year, allowing just 1.17 goals per game, third-best in the country, while her .945 save percentage is seventh. Pasiechnyk has backstopped Clarkson to a 14-1-1 record, good for the third-best win percentage 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.
