ASTON, Pa. – Making its first playoff appearance in the past five seasons, the Neumann University women's ice hockey team travels to Utica College for a United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) first round matchup on Sunday afternoon.
Neumann comes into the first round contest as the fifth seed in the UCHC playoff tournament with a record of 12-10-2, including a 9-6-1 record in conference play. Fourth-seeded Utica finished just one point ahead of the Knights in the standings, with a UCHC record of 9-5-2 and an overall mark of 14-9-2.
The four versus five matchup should be tightly contested, as the two teams split a pair of regular season meetings at Utica earlier in the season. On November 11
th, the Knights picked up a 3-1 victory as
Jordyn Cholish,
Lauren Vanstone and
Bek Lucas all found the back of the net.
Helen Cooney got the start in goal, making 48 saves in the win. The following day, Utica came out on top by a score of 4-1.
Julia Fair made 37 saves in the loss, while Lucas tallied the Knights lone goal of the game.
Neumann's attack has been led all season by the trio of Lucas,
Jackie Schneider and
Katelyn Brown. Lucas has been among the nation's top scorers all year long, registering 39 points on 26 goals and 13 assists in just 22 games. Her 1.18 goals per game lead the nation, while her 39 points place her 11
th in the NCAA Division III scoring charts. Schneider leads the team with 16 assists to go along with her 11 goals, while Brown (12 g, 12 a) has a team-leading four game winning goals.
The Knights have also received outstanding goaltending from the duo of senior
Julia Fair and sophomore
Helen Cooney. Fair has gone 7-6-0 this season with a .926 save percentage and a 2.65 goals against average, while Cooney has a record of 5-4-2 with a .912 save percentage and a 2.93 goals against average.
The other UCHC first round matchup features third-seeded Stevenson University hosting sixth-seeded Manhattanville College on Saturday at 3:00 PM. Winners of the first round matchups will move on to the UCHC semifinals hosted by top-seeded Elmira College next weekend.
