SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – For the third straight season, the Union College women's tennis teams has qualified for the Liberty League Tournament and will begin postseason play with a first-round matchup against St. Lawrence University on Friday at 2:15 p.m. at Cornell University's Reis Tennis Center.
THE BRACKET: Union (10-7, 4-4 Liberty League) is seeded fifth in this year's tournament, while St. Lawrence (12-7, 5-3 Liberty League) earned the fourth seed during the regular season. Third-seeded and ITA #50 Rensselaer (13-5, 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 #32 Vassar College (15-3, 8-0 Liberty League) and second-seeded #38 Skidmore College (10-5, 7-1 Liberty League) received byes into the semifinals.
POSTSEASON HISTORY: The Union women are in the postseason for the third time since the start of tournament qualification in 2015. Union is 12-34 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.
LAST TIME VS. ST. LAWRENCE: Union will look to flip the script of last season, when Union won the regular-season matchup and St. Lawrence took the postseason clash. The Saints earned a 7-2 victory over the Garnet Chargers on April 12 in Schenectady, behind a sweep of doubles play and wins at the top-four singles flights. Union lost one doubles match in a tiebreaker and three of the four singles losses went past the second set, with two third sets and one supertiebreaker all going the way of the visitors.
CONFERENCE HONORS: Three Union tennis players have earned weekly honors from the Liberty League so far this season. First-year
Luisa Arizpe-Sierra has been a part of four awards, earning Singles Performer of the Week on April 29, Rookie of the Week on April 1, and twice earning Doubles Team of the Week honors alongside sophomore
Kennedy Alexis on April 1 and April 29. Sophomore
Chara Meidani also was named Singles Performer of the Week on April 1 as part of a Union awards sweep.
A NEW HIGH: The Union women's team set a new program record by winning its 10th match of the season on April 22 at SUNY Oneonta, breaking the previous record of nine that was first set in the 1982 season and later matched on five occasions. The team has already clinched its first back-to-back winning seasons since 1999 and 2000, and the 2022-23 and 2023-24 teams have amassed the highest two-season win total ever for the program.
NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED: The Garnet Chargers earned the first national ranking in program history in early April, ranking 50th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Assocation in their Division III Women's Collegiate Tennis Rankings. Union started its season with six dual-match wins in its first eight contests to earn the national recognition.
REGIONAL RANKINGS: The Union women have been ranked in the first three NCAA Region II rankings of the spring season, with the four teams ahead of them in the Liberty League standings among the six squads ranked higher than the Garnet Chargers in the region.
FIRST-YEAR FORCE: First-year
Luisa Arizpe-Sierra is having a fantastic rookie season for Union, entering the conference tournament with a 16-7 singles record and a 12-13 doubles ledger, including a 7-1 record in conference play and a 4-0 mark since moving up to second singles. Her 16 singles wins are tied for the most by a first-year player in program history, matching the 16 of program career wins leader Lauren Stellato '04 in 2000-01.
SOPHOMORE STRENGTH: Union's sophomore class provides plenty of victories for Union, with three of the top five singles records and three of the top four doubles marks coming from the sophomore class.
Claire Langille and
Skylar Semon are tied with Arizpe-Sierra for the most doubles wins this season with 12 apiece and
Kennedy Alexis follows with 10. Semon is second on the team in singles wins (15) and classmate
Chara Meidani is third with 13.
WHAT'S NEXT: Friday's winner will take on top-seeded Vassar College in the Liberty League semifinals on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. in Ithaca.
