SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – First-year Sydney Widlitz stopped a season-high 16 shots and senior Sydney McPartlon scored a game-high four goals to lead the Union College women's lacrosse team to a big 12-9 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in a Liberty League matchup on Wednesday evening at Frank Bailey Field at Bertagna-Class of 1985 Stadium.
 
Widlitz had a monster effort to earn her fifth victory of the season, tying for the most saves by a Union goalie since 2016 and stopping the most shots by a Union netminder in a victory since Cat Ruggiero made 17 saves in a 15-8 win over William Smith College on April 25, 2008. The first-year made six saves on shots from the eight-meter arc, limiting RPI to a 3-for-13 effort on free-position attempts.
 
On the offensive end, McPartlon netted four goals for Union (5-2, 1-1 Liberty League), followed by classmate Dana Truini with three tallies. Senior Katie Julien and junior Anna Smith both recorded three points on a goal and two assists, while senior Drew Charlton scored twice and junior Dana Nelson added a score.
 
Helping Widlitz on the defensive end was sophomore Greta Maurer, who grabbed a team-best four ground balls and caused three turnovers, and senior Isabelle Suttie, who also forced three RPI turnovers.
 
Rensselaer (5-2, 0-2 Liberty League) got off to a good start offensively on Wednesday, with Megan Shay scoring three times to help the visitors to a 6-3 lead with 12:53 left in the second period.
 
However, the Union defense stepped up in a huge way after that, keeping the Engineers off the scoreboard for more than 30 minutes. Widlitz stopped 10 straight on-target shots during the decisive run, which saw the home team score six straight goals to take a 9-6 lead early in the fourth period. Goals by Truini, Julien and Charlton got Union even headed into halftime, while Nelson and Truini scored in a low-scoring third frame to put Union ahead for good.
 
McPartlon started the fourth quarter with her third of the game before Lauren DeLeo finally ended the RPI drought with 12:43 remaining. But Suttie and Maurer forced turnovers on RPI's next two possessions and Charlton converted with 9:03 on the clock to bump the lead back up to three. After the visitors again got within two, McPartlon and Smith shut the door on the offensive end while Widlitz made two more big-time saves to cap the victory.
 
RPI finished with a slight 31-29 edge in shots, but Union took care of the ball while forcing 18 turnovers and a 13-of-21 clearing effort for the visitors. Despite losing 19-of-25 draws, Union had a 21-15 edge in ground balls and got big plays from the defense when needed.
 
Union will continue conference play on Saturday with a tough test against #13 Ithaca College at Frank Bailey Field beginning at noon.