The women's soccer team, which won the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association's regular-season championship with its 6-1 record, will host the UCAA Championship Tournament this Saturday and Sunday at Garis Field. The tournament winner receives the UCAA's automatic NCAA berth.
Top-seeded Union (12-4 overall / 6-1 in the UCAA) will play No. 4 Hamilton (6-4-3 / 4-2-1) on Saturday at 11 a.m. with No. 2 William Smith (13-2-3 / 5-1-1) taking on No. 3 St. Lawrence (11-4 / 5-2) at 1:30. The championship game is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. Admission for all games is free.
Union, which has been to the NCAA tournament each of the last three years, defeated all three UCAA opponents at home this season. The Dutchwomen edged both Hamilton and William Smith, 1-0, in the rain on Garis Field and defeated St. Lawrence, 2-0, on Bailey Field. Union's only league loss was to Renssealer, 4-3. William Smith defeated St. Lawrence, 2-1, during the regular season and tied Hamilton, 0-0.
Freshman Erika Eisenhut leads the Dutchwomen in scoring with seven goals, three assists and 17 points while sophomore Brittany Cressman and senior Abbie West are the team's other two double digit scorers with 7-2-16 and 3-4-10, respectively.
Union's defense, which is spearheaded by junior back Victoria Kuzman has gotten solid play from its goaltending duo of senior Carolyn Stead and freshman Julie Gawronski. Stead, who has given up just two goals this year, is 8-2 with a .975 save percentage and a 0.15 goals against average. Gawronski is 5-3 with a 1.09 goals against average and a .795 save percentage. Stead has six of the Dutchwomen's 11 shutouts while Gawronski has three with the duo combining on two others.
Eighth-year head coach Brian Speck is 99-31-9 at Union, including this year's 7-1 record at home.