ITHACA, N.Y. – The second-seeded Union College women's volleyball team had its season come to a close with a 3-0 (25-14, 30-28, 25-17) defeat at the hands of third-seeded William Smith College in the semifinals of the Liberty League Tournament on Friday evening at Ithaca College's Ben Light Gymnasium.
 
Senior Shannon McGrath finished her decorated career with a team-leading 15 kills on .317 hitting for Union (22-9), while also recording seven digs and two aces. Classmate Georgia Pool chipped in a match-high 19 digs and four assists in her final collegiate match, and sophomore Allie Kronenberg had 25 assists and seven digs.
 
Malya Sayre led William Smith (23-6) with a game-high 20 kills, followed by Emily Fulton with 10 and Jaylynn McCarthy with nine.
 
The Garnet Chargers hit just .043 in the opening set, allowing the Herons to take an early advantage. Union led 3-2 in the early stages thanks to a McGrath kill and a McGrath-Kronenberg block, but WSC scored the next five points and never trailed the rest of the way, as Union managed consecutive points only once.
 
The match turned dramatically in the second stanza, as Union led by as many as seven points on four occasions but could not close out the frame. The Garnet Chargers used an early 9-1 run to take a 10-4 lead and seemed to be in full control up by seven at 21-14; however, a 9-1 run for William Smith quickly brought the Herons back into the fold. Union had three set points to even the match but could not convert on any of them, and then was forced to fight off two set points before the Herons got two straight kills to take a two-set lead.
 
Union led for much of the third set's opening stages, with the last lead coming at 13-11 after a Kronenberg ace. But a 6-1 stretch put William Smith back in front and the Herons closed with eight of the match's final nine points to complete the sweep.
 
The loss snaps Union's longest winning streak in a decade and brings a difficult end to an excellent season, which saw the Garnet Chargers win the most matches since 2016 and earn the program's first top-two regular-season conference finish since 2015.