SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – For the second straight season, both the Union College men's and women's tennis teams have qualified for the Liberty League Tournament. Both squads will begin their postseason runs with first-round matches on Friday at Cornell University's Reis Tennis Center. The women's team will take on St. Lawrence University on Friday at 8:30 a.m., while the men's team will battle with ITA #33 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 2:30 p.m.
 
WOMEN'S BRACKET: Union (9-6, 5-3 Liberty League) earned its highest-ever conference finish and is seeded fourth in the tournament, while St. Lawrence (9-5, 5-3 Liberty League) earned the fifth seed during the regular season. Third-seeded and ITA #34 Rensselaer (13-4, 6-2 Liberty League) and sixth-seeded Ithaca College (8-9, 3-5 Liberty League) will battle in the other first-round matchup. Top-seeded and #38 Vassar College (11-5, 7-1 Liberty League) and second-seeded and ITA #28 Skidmore College (10-7, 7-1 Liberty League) received byes into the semifinals.

MEN'S BRACKET: Union (7-8, 4-4 Liberty League) is seeded fifth in the tournament while Rensselaer (10-6, 6-2 Liberty League) finished fourth during the regular season. The other first-round match features third-seeded and ITA #32 Vassar College (11-5, 6-2 Liberty League) and sixth-seeded St. Lawrence University (7-8, 3-5 Liberty League). Top-seeded and ITA #34 Skidmore College (10-7, 7-1 Liberty League) and second-seeded Hobart College (15-4, 7-1 Liberty League) received byes into the semifinals.

LIVE RESULTS: If you can't make it to Ithaca, live results will be available for each match. The women's live scoring is available here, while the men's live scoring is available here.
 
POSTSEASON HISTORIES: The Union women are in the postseason for the second time since the start of tournament qualification in 2015. Union is 12-33 all-time in Liberty League Tournament play since 1995, with four main-draw wins to their credit – the last coming in 2003 when fifth-seeded Union upended fourth-seeded William Smith College. The conference stopped employing a back draw at the event in 2011.

The Union men are making their third postseason appearance since tournament qualification started in 2015. The team is 10-29 in Liberty League Tournament play since 1998, but have only had two main-draw victories during that time – the last came in 2005, when sixth-seeded Union knocked off third-seeded Hobart. The conference stopped employing a back draw at the event in 2012.
 
LAST TIME VS. ST. LAWRENCE: The reason Union is the fourth seed in the postseason is because of the team's 7-2 victory over St. Lawrence in their regular-season matchup on April 14 in Schenectady. Union took two of the three doubles matches to grab control, and then added five singles wins against a shuffled SLU lineup that was missing first-singles player Catherine Gamble. Junior Gracie Nicol came back from 5-2 down in the first set of her 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 second-singles victory, while first-year Chara Meidani dug out of a 5-0 hole in the first-set tiebreaker of her 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win at the third flight.
 
LAST TIME VS. RENSSELAER: Union fell to then #30 Rensselaer by a 9-0 score back on April 11 in Troy. Two singles matches were decided in a supertiebreaker and two others came one break short of an extra set, as Union hung with the nationally ranked Engineers for much of the day.
 
CONFERENCE HONORS: The trio of senior Marilena Karadimou, junior Gracie Nicol and first-year Chara Meidani have combined for six weekly honors from the Liberty League this season. Karadimou and Nicol started the season with Doubles Team of the Week laurels on September 6, and earned the honor again on March 20 as part of a Union sweep that saw Nicol take Singles Performer of the Week and Meidani nab Rookie of the Week honors. Nicol and Meidani earned Singles Performer and Rookie of the Week for the second time this season on April 3 and April 17, respectively.
 
On the men's side, sophomore Ben Jacobs was named the Liberty League Singles Performer of the Week for the first time in his career on March 6.

MOVING UP THE LADDER: The Union women's team has matched the program's single-season wins record with their nine victories so far this season, capturing their ninth win on April 20 at SUNY Oneonta. The record was first set in the 1982 season and later matched in the 1994, 1998, 2000 and 2015-16 campaigns. The team has already clinched the first above .500 season for the program since 2015-16 and only the third since 2001, in addition to the first winning record ever in conference play.
 
REGIONAL RANKINGS: The Union women enter the weekend ranked sixth in the penultimate NCAA Region II rankings, with Vassar, Skidmore and Rensselaer among the five teams ahead of Union. Individually, the tandem of Marilena Karadimou and Gracie Nicol are ranked fourth in the region among doubles combos, behind only teams from Rensselaer, New York University and The College of New Jersey.
 
LEADING LADY: Junior Gracie Nicol leads Union with 26 total victories so far this season, posting an 11-13 mark in singles play and a 15-10 mark on the doubles court. Her win total is the most by a Union player since Tal Pezzuco '20 picked up 37 victories during the 2017-18 season.
 
FIRST-YEAR FORCES: Four first-year players have made major impacts in the Union lineup in their first collegiate seasons, all reaching double figures in wins so far in 2022-23. Chara Meidani leads all newcomers with a 10-8 singles record and has eight doubles wins alongside classmate Kennedy Alexis, who has nine doubles wins and two singles victories to her credit. Skylar Semon leads all Union rookies with 19 total victories, including an 11-4 mark on the doubles court, while partner Claire Langille is 10-4 doubles play to go with seven singles wins.
 
UP TO SECOND: With a victory at SUNY Oneonta on Thursday, the Union men's team moved into second place on the school single-season wins list with seven. The team is one win away from matching the program single-season record of eight victories set in 1974.
 
SOPHOMORE SURGE: Sophomore Ben Jacobs moved up to the first singles spot on March 20 and has won five of his nine matches at the top flight, with three of those losses coming to nationally or regionally ranked opponents. Jacobs has won a team-best 11 singles matches this season as well as a team-leading eight doubles contests so far in 2022-23.
 
REGIONAL RANKINGS: Jacobs also finds himself among those listed in consideration for a regional ranking, according to the penultimate NCAA Region II rankings released this week. While not ranked among the eight top single singles players in the region, the sophomore is one of four listed as "in consideration" for a regional ranking.