ALBANY, N.Y. – The Union College women's hockey team scored the first three goals of the game and held on over the final 30 minutes as the Garnet Chargers completed their first-ever season sweep of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and brought the Mayor's Cup trophy back to Schenectady with a 3-2 victory on Saturday afternoon at MVP Arena.
 
Junior Stephanie Bourque, sophomore Maddie Leaney and first-year Klara Kenttälä all scored for Union (11-16-1), which matched the program record for wins in a season with the victory and won the Mayor's Cup for the first time since 2020. Bourque and senior Paige Greco both recorded multi-point outings for the Garnet Chargers in the team's third straight victory.
 
With her seventh goal of the season, Bourque also matched the program single-season record for goals by a blueliner, tying the mark first set by Megan Ryan '21 in 2017-18.

"We definitely had to work hard for it," said Bourque. "They're a good team and so are we. I think it's good for our confidence to win the Mayor's Cup, not just for us, but for our seniors. They've fought so hard and they've done so much for the program. We want to make them proud and next year we want to keep the cup here. It's bigger than ourselves. Playing against your rivals, it's always going to be a tough game."
 
Union outshot RPI by an 8-6 margin over the opening 20 minutes, scoring twice to take command of the game early. Kenttälä opened the scoring in her Mayor's Cup debut off feeds from Adams and Bourque at the 7:59 mark, and Bourque gave Union all the momentum by notching a tally with 1:18 left in the period capatilizing off of assists from senior Maya Jones and sophomore Emma Fulawka to put the Garnet Chargers up by two after one.
 
Leaney increased the Union advantage to three at the midway point of the second period, finding the net at the 9:42 mark to give Union's its largest-ever edge in seven years of Mayor's Cup competition. Greco and first-year Karianne Engelbert picked up the assists on the goal, Leaney's fifth of the season.
 
Rensselaer (12-13-3) started to reassert itself after Leaney's tally, making it a 3-1 game with 3:55 left in the second on an Aylah Cioffi tally. The Engineers got within a goal with 6:57 remaining in the third period with an Andrea Trnkova goal, but senior Sophie Matsoukas stopped all three shots she faced the rest of the way to pick up her 10th victory of the season, giving her the only two double-digit win totals in Union program history.

"We've been working on this; this is what we've been talking about," said head coach Tony Maci. "Getting to these games and knowing that good teams find ways to win. They're putting in the effort day-to-day and that makes this a little bit easier on them. Our practices are very tough and they can attest to it. That's what's prepared them. Super proud of what they did today, but also what they've been doing all year."
 
Union was outshot by a 23-16 margin, but Matsoukas finished the game with 21 saves to earn the win. Reese Keating made 13 saves to suffer the loss for the Engineers.

"I think knowing that we had only won it one other time in program history, so for us, we want to continue a legacy of winning the cup," said Friday. "So this builds momentum going into future years. It's an incredible moment for us and also will build into the rest of our season so we can finish strong."
 
The Garnet Chargers will turn their attention back to ECAC Hockey play for the final three weeks of the regular season, beginning on Friday with a key conference clash at Brown University beginning at 6 p.m. in Providence.