| Union vs. #5 Colgate |
| Friday, February 7, 2025 • Schenectady, NY • Messa Rink • 6:00 PM |
| Live Stats • Video Stream |
| Union vs. #4 Cornell |
| Saturday, February 8, 2025 • Schenectady, NY • Messa Rink • 3:00 PM |
| Live Stats • Video Stream |
AT HOME: The Union College women's hockey team returns home to face #5 Colgate University and #4 Cornell University. Puck drop is set for 6:00 pm on Friday night against Colgate and 3:00 pm against Cornell on Senior Day and All-Alumnae Day.
LAST WEEKEND: Union completed the season sweep of Brown University skating to a 2-1 victory on Friday night at Meehan Auditorium. Junior
Amanda Quan opened the scoring for the Garnet Chargers and senior
Paige Greco netted the game winning goal. On Saturday afternoon, despite a late effort and goal, Union fell, 3-2, to Yale University. First-year
Karianne Engelbert scored on the power play in the second period while junior
Mallory Mauracher netted a late third period goal. Senior
Sophie Matsoukas finished the weekend with 50 saves and a .927 SV%.
ABOUT THE RAIDERS: Colgate defeated #10 Clarkson, 2-1, in overtime. Alexis Petford scored the game tying goal with 10 seconds left in regulation while Kaia Malachino netted the GWG. Hannah Murphy stopped 55 shots in the win. On Saturday, Colgate defeated #7 St. Lawrence, 3-2 in overtime. Emma Pais and Sara Stewart both scored on the power play and Elyssa Biederman netted the GWG.
ABOUT THE BIG RED: Cornell blanked #7 St. Lawrence, 6-0, on Friday night. Ashley Messier scored twice while Gabbie Rud and Katie Chan scored and added an assist. Mckenna Van Gelder also scored. On Saturday, Cornell beat #10 Clarkson, 2-1. Gabbie Rud and Rory Guilday scored in the win.
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.
GRECO'S GOALS: Senior
Paige Greco has extended her point streak to six games for the first time in her career. Greco tallied an assist versus Dartmouth College and Harvard University on January 17 and 18. She followed up with the GWG in the conference victory against RPI on January 24 and an assist in the Mayor's Cup win on January 25. Greco had previously scored the GWG in the overtime victory against RPI on November 26. She netted her third GWG of the season against Brown University on January 31, which now ties her for fourth in a single season and followed up with an assist against Yale University on Feb. 1. Currently, Greco ranks fourth on the team in points with six goals and 10 assists for 16 points in 30 games played, including a three point streak against Top-10 opponents #4 Cornell University, #5 Colgate University, and #9 Clarkson University on November 1, 2, and 8.
TWO-TIMES THE CHARM: Junior
Amanda Quan opened the scoring twice against Brown University in the 4-1 victory on December 7 and the 2-1 win this past weekend on Jan. 31. The pair of wins mark the third time in Division I history that the Garnet Chargers have swept the Bears in a single season with the two other sweeps coming in the 2017-18 and 2019-20 seasons. Through 86 career games, Quan has tallied eight goals and nine assists for 17 points.
TGIF (Top Goalscorer is Friday): With an assist on this past Friday against Brown, senior
Maren Friday has 17 goals and 29 assists for 46 points which ranks second in career points amongst defensemen, only behind Cheyenne Harris '20 (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 September 27 at Robert Morris University. Friday's 29 career assists also sit fifth in all-time career records in Division I history.
MAYOR'S CUP SECURED IN SCHENECTADY: The Mayor's Cup 3-2 victory on January 25 marked the first time women's hockey has swept RPI 3-0 in a season, taking two conference victories in November and January followed by the non-conference Mayor's Cup win. The win is the second time in seven years Union has won the Mayor's Cup having won the cup one other time in the 2019-20 season. This season marks a historic achievement, as both the men's and women's teams have won the Mayor's Cup in the same year for the first time.
CONFERENCE STANDINGS: The Garnet Chargers are in the hunt for a top-eight seed and home ice advantage in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. Union, currently sitting in ninth, continues ECAC play this weekend looking to earn points to pass Brown University in conference standings, who sit just half a point ahead. Union sits four points ahead of RPI in the standings with four more regular season/conference games to go, including this weekend.
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 (2,882) after stopping 27 shots against RIT on Oct. 4. Matsoukas ranks behind Shenae Lundberg '15 who has 3,023 career saves.
GOING STREAKING: Senior captain
Emma Hebert enters the weekend having played in all 133 games during her Union career. Junior
Stephanie Bourque (99 games) and sophomore
Maddie Leaney (65 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.
