UTICA, NY – The Hawks were up in Utica today to take on the Pioneers and continue their their conference play. A powerful second half performance by the hosts ended with them taking the game 15-6 over the Hawks. Hartwick dropped their first Empire 8 game of the year, moving to 1-1 in the conference and 4-4 on the year. Utica moves to 6-2 on the year and 1-1 in Empire 8 play.

It was the Pioneers who struck first, after three minutes of defense from both teams, when the Pioneers found the back of the net with 12:05 to play in the first.  On the next possession, Claudia Pollaro forced a turnover and completed the one-man clear to get the Hawks back on the offensive. Seconds later she was found cutting to the top of the crease from Katrina Marten to tie the game at 1-1 with 8:21 to play. Utica's Addison Green tallied her second goal of the game two minutes later to, once again, give the Pioneers a 1 goal advantage. Utica would extend the game to 3 with 11 seconds to play in the first, but the Hawks weren't going anywhere without a fight.

Kristen Vaccarelli opened the scoring up in the second quarter, when Ellie Masterpole found her cutting behind the defense to make the score 4-2. Utica won the following draw control and converted on a free position goal, but Vaccarelli showed she came to play when she caught a pass from Marten and stung it past the keeper's stick making the game 5-3. The Pioneers responded to the goal with two more of their own getting to their largest lead of the half, 7-3, with four minutes left in the half. Pollaro answered the Pioneer's run with her second of the day when Gabrielle Stringer found her on the doorstep. With 30 seconds left in the half, the Pioneers advanced their lead back to four and sent both teams into the locker room with the scoreboard reading 8-4 in favor of the hosts.

Masterpole opened up the second-half scoring when she found the twine with 11:21 left in the third and got the game to 8-5. Her goal seemed to be the spark the Hawks needed and were looking for, but a 6-0 run by the Pioneers to close out the third and open up the fourth was too much for the Hawks to get back. Marten got her first goal of the day with 3:47 left in the game. A Pioneers goal with 15 seconds left was the final score of the 15-6 game.

Claudia Pollaro and Kristen Vaccarelli led the offense for the Hawks with 2 goals apiece, Katrina Marten and Ellie Masterpole followed right behind with one each. Samantha Miller had 12 saves in the game for the Hawks.
 
Hartwick returns to action this Saturday at 1 pm in Wright Stadium where they continue Empire 8 play against Alfred University.