| Union vs. #8/10 St. Lawrence University |
| Friday, January 10, 2025 • Schenectady, NY • Messa Rink at Achilles Center • 6:00 PM |
| Live Stats • Video Stream |
| Union vs. #7 Clarkson University |
| Saturday, January 11, 2025 • Schenectady, NY • Messa Rink at Achilles Center • 3:00 PM |
| Live Stats • Video Stream |
AT HOME: The Union College women's hockey team finishes the four weekend home slate against #8/#10 St. Lawrence University and #7 Clarkson University at Messa Rink.
LAST WEEKEND: Union suffered a 8-1 loss to #9/8 Quinnipiac University on Friday night and a 5-2 loss to #14 Princeton on Saturday afternoon. Senior
Paige Greco netted the lone goal for the Garnet Chargers on the power play in Friday's loss. First-year
Klara Kenttala and sophomore
Maddie Leaney assisted on the goal. Junior goaltender
Emily Evans also made her season debut. In Saturday's loss, sophomore
Kendal Davidson netted an unassisted goal, her first of the season, while sophomore
Danica Mark netted her first career goal. Kenttala and senior
Maren Friday were credited with the assists on Mark's goal.
ABOUT THE SAINTS: The Saints upset #5 Colgate, 3-2, on Friday in the Raiders only second conference loss of the season. Taylor Lum recorded two goals in the win including the GWG while Kristina Bahl also scored. Emma-Sofie Nordstrom made 32 saves in the win. On Saturday, the Saints tied #6 Cornell. Sarah Marchand and Tori Veerbeek scored for the Saints in the 2-2 draw.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS: The Golden Knights dropped a 3-0 loss to #6 Cornell on Friday night and a 4-2 loss to #5 Colgate on Saturday afternoon. Nicole Gosling netted both goals in the loss to #5 Colgate while Hailey Winn, Keira Hurry, and Sena Catterall each recorded an assist.
ALL-MESSA RINK FAN VOTING: All season long, Union fans can cast their vote for the best players in Union women's hockey history (both Division I and III) at all home games this season or by voting online at
UnionAthletics.com/AllMessaTeams.The All-Messa Teams will be announced and recognized on the team's annual Alumnae Day on Saturday, February 8.
KENTTALA'S KEY CONTRIBUTIONS: First-year
Klara Kenttala registered her first multi-point weekend and extended her point streak to three consecutive games. On Friday night, against #9/8 Quinnipiac, Kenttala tallied an assist on senior
Paige Greco's goal and an assist on sophomore
Danica Mark's goal in Saturday's game against #14 Princeton. Additionally, Kenttala scored her first career GWG in the 4-1 victory over Brown on Dec. 7. Her performance earned her ECAC Hockey's Rookie of the Week honor on Tuesday, Dec. 10. In 22 career games, Kenttala has tallied two goals and five assists for seven points.
MARK'S MARK: Sophomore
Danica Mark scored her first career goal Saturday afternoon against #14 Princeton. Earlier this season, Mark registered her first career multi-point weekend, earning one assist in Friday and Saturday's games against the RIT on Oct. 4 and 5. In 16 career games, Mark has tallied one goal and two assists, for a total of three points.
FIRST OF THE SEASON: Sophomore
Kendal Davidson netted her first goal of the season on Saturday afternoon against #14 Princeton. In 20 games played this season, Davidson has tallied one goal and three assists, accumulating four points. Through 53 career games, Davidson has registered two goals and 12 assists for a total of 14 career points.
TGIF (Top Goalscorer is Friday): With an assist on Saturday against #14 Princeton, senior
Maren Friday has 16 goals and 28 assists for 44 points which ranks second in career points amongst defensemen, only behind Cheyenne Harris (49 points). Currently, Friday is the all-time leading goal scorer amongst all blueliners in D1 program history breaking a tie with Harris and Megan Ryan '20, netting her 13th goal of her career on Sept. 27 at Robert Morris.
A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH: For the first time in program history, Union's penalty kill percentage is ranked in the Top 10 at the D1 level, currently sitting in 7th place. Heading into Saturday's game, #14 Princeton boasted the top power play in the nation. However, Union killed off four power plays prevented the Tigers from converting on any - pushing Tigers' power play percentage to second place in the nation. Union's penalty kill percentage has only ranked in the Top 20 in two previous seasons: 19th in 2014-15 and 17th in 2018-19. Over the last 20 seasons, the average penalty kill percentage ranking has been 30th.
GRECO'S GOALS: Senior
Paige Greco netted a power play goal in Friday's game against #9/8 Quinnipiac. As the first line center, Greco has reached several milestones this season. Including extending her point streak to three games, her longest ever, after recording one point in the victory over #6 Cornell on Nov. 1 and games against #5 Colgate on Nov. 2 and #7 Clarkson on Nov. 8. Greco also netted her first career GWG in overtime against RPI on Nov. 26 and extended her point streak to two, adding another goal in the 2-2 tie with #9 St. Cloud on Nov. 29. With four goals and five assists, she has totaled nine points in 22 games this season. Greco has amassed 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points in 117 career games.
UNCHARTED TERRITORY: With the victory over #6 Cornell on Nov. 1, Union improved to 3-0-0 in ECAC Hockey play for the first time in program history and also won three straight conference games for the first time as a Division I program. Union's previous best conference start came in 2017-18, when the squad started off with three wins in its first six ECAC Hockey games.
TOP-10 TRIUMPH: The win over #9 Cornell marked the first time that Union had ever defeated a team ranked in the top-10 nationally. The Garnet Chargers have now beaten a nationally ranked squad in three straight seasons, following last year's 2-1 (OT) win at #15 Penn State and a 4-1 triumph over #15 Princeton on December 3, 2022. Union is in the midst of a stretch that sees 10-of-14 opponents with current national rankings, including last weekend.
SOPHIE'S SHUTOUTS: Senior goaltender
Sophie Matsoukas recorded her fifth career shutout by stopping all 24 shots she faced in a victory over Harvard on Oct. 25. She is one shutout away from tying the all-time record of six held by Shenae Lundberg '15.
LEANEY LEADS: After scoring two goals on Oct. 12 versus Penn State, sophomore
Maddie Leaney became Union's active goal-scoring leader and moved into 14th place all-time in goals (15). Leaney passed senior
Maren Friday, who recorded her 14th career goal on Sept. 27 versus Robert Morris.
ADDING TO HER TOTAL: Every win for senior netminder
Sophie Matsoukas this season extends her own program career record after setting the program standard with her 21st victory in 2023-24. She also moved into second place all-time in career saves (2,656) after stopping 27 shots against RIT on Oct. 4. Matsoukas ranks behind Shenae Lundberg '15 who has 3,023 career saves.
GOING STREAKING: Senior
Emma Hebert enters the weekend having played in all 125 games during her Union career. Junior
Stephanie Bourque (91 games) and sophomore
Maddie Leaney (57 games) also are currently riding games-played streaks, having played in every game of their three- and two-year careers, respectively.
CAREER FIRSTS: First-years
Karianne Engelbert and Klara Kenttälä both recorded their first collegiate points in the season-opening weekend at Robert Morris, with Kenttälä earning the primary assist on Engelbert's first-period tally in September 28's 4-2 win.
CHARGED UP POWER PLAY: Union went 4-for-9 on the power play against Robert Morris to start the season, led by two player-advantage goals by
Maren Friday and one each from
Karianne Engelbert and
Stephanie Bourque. The three power-play goals on Saturday are the most for the team in a game since netting a program-record four in a 6-1 win over St. Michael's on January 2, 2023.
OH CAPTAINS, OUR CAPTAINS: Senior blueliners
Maren Friday and
Emma Hebert will wear the "C" on the sweater for Union this season, the first season with a letter for both players. Senior
Sophie Matsoukas, junior
Stephanie Bourque and sophomore
Megan Ognibene will wear the "A" as assistant captains for the Garnet Chargers this season.
ANCHORING THE BLUELINE: Union returns four top-six defensemen from last season. Seniors
Maren Friday and
Emma Hebert and junior
Stephanie Bourque played in all 35 games last season, while sophomore
Kendal Davidson played in 33 games. Sophomore
Quinn Dunkle also brings a year of collegiate experience after appearing in 36-of-39 games for the University of Minnesota Duluth last season.
SOMEONE TO LEAN ON: Sophomore
Maddie Leaney will look for more success after registering one of the most productive rookie seasons in program history in 2023-24, scoring 12 goals with seven assists for 19 points while playing in all 35 games as a first-year. Her 12 goals tied for third on the school's rookie goals list (and tied for second in the D-I era), while her 19 points were seventh-best all-time and third among D-I players at the school. Her 12 goals and three game-winning goals both ranked fourth all-time overall in the program's Division I record books.
NEW BLOOD: Union welcomes six first-year players and four transfers to the program for the 2024-25 school year. The class is made up of student-athletes from three countries, two provinces and five states, and includes five forwards, four blueliners and one goaltender, all of whom will look to make an immediate impact on the program. This year's class is the largest incoming class for the program since 2017.
A NEW LEADER: Tony Maci was named the fifth head coach in the history of Union women's hockey on July 31 and begins his first season behind the bench for the Garnet Chargers in 2024-25. Maci comes to Union from Clarkson University, spending the last eight years as the top assistant for Matt Desrosiers. During his time in Potsdam, the Golden Knights blossomed into a perennial title contender, winning a pair of Division I national championships in 2017 and 2018, reaching four Frozen Fours and making the NCAA Tournament seven times. A 2005 graduate of St. Lawrence University, he got his coaching start at Division III Adrian College for three years before one season at Princeton University.
HERE TO ASSIST: Joining Maci is an entirely new set of assistant coaches as well.
Shawn Skelly spent the last six years as the head women's hockey coach at Division III Adrian College, leading the Bulldogs to a 140-22-7 record, a pair of Frozen Four appearances, and four NCAA Tournament berths in five years.
Tina Ciraulo worked with the USPHL's Metro Jets since 2020, including directing the Metro Jr. Jets girls program, and was the first woman to win a junior hockey game as head coach.
Courtney Hall played four years at St. Cloud State University from 2019-23 and spent her graduate year at Robert Morris University in 2023-24, while also working the U18 National Women's Development Camp, as well as with the Detroit Little Caesars and Selects Hockey.
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS: Union will look to surprise the ECAC Hockey landscape in head coach
Tony Maci's first season, as the Garnet Chargers were picked to finish 12th in the ECAC Hockey Preseason Poll. The team received 12 points, finishing five points behind Dartmouth College in 11th place and nine points behind Harvard University in 10th.
GOODBYE TO MESSA RINK: The 2024-25 season will be the final one for Union men's and women's hockey at Messa Rink at Achilles Center, as the team prepares to move into the brand-new Mohawk Harbor Event Center across the street from campus for the 2025-26 season.
