ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Union College women's volleyball team finished off the regular season with two more wins on Saturday at the University of Rochester tri-match, defeating Buffalo State College by a 3-0 score and defeating the host Yellow Jackets, 3-1, to run the team's winning streak to nine matches.
 
The team's nine-match winning streak is the longest for a Union side in a decade, since the 2015 squad won 14 in a row, and the seventh-longest winning streak in program history.
 
Sophomore Kayla Martinez Cartagena led the way for Union (22-8) offensively, putting down 34 kills on .288 hitting. Senior Shannon McGrath chipped in 21 kills and 30 digs, moving her all the way into seventh place on the school's all-time single-season kills list and marking Union's first new entry into the top-10 since 2017. Senior Georgia Pool matched McGrath for the team lead in digs and sophomore Allie Kronenberg added 73 assists, five kills and a team-leading seven blocks as well in the two wins.
 
Union 3, Buffalo State 0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-20)
 
The Garnet Chargers hit .322 to sweep the Bengals at the start of the day, putting down 48 kills in a quick opening match. McGrath and Martinez Cartagena put down a team-leading 12 kills each, while McGrath (12 kills, 11 digs) and Kronenberg (34 assists, 11 digs) both had double-doubles.
 
Union scored the first four points of the opening set and never trailed, as the Garnet Chargers allowed Buffalo State to earn consecutive points only once. The Bengals held a lead in the early stages of the second stanza, but a 7-0 run put Union up by a 15-10 score as part of an extended 12-2 stretch that clinched the middle frame.
 
The third set followed a similar script to the second, as the Bengals led 13-12 at the midway point before an 11-3 run turned the tide and led the Garnet Chargers to a sweep.
 
Union 3, Rochester 1 (25-15, 23-25, 25-21, 25-18)
 
Martinez Cartagena put down a career-best 22 kills to lead Union to a 3-1 win over Rochester to finish off the day and the regular season, followed by classmate Melody Herrin with a career-best 11 kills. McGrath just missed a second double-double with a match-high 19 digs to go with nine kills.
 
The visitors finished off the first set on a 12-4 run to turn a two-point lead into a 10-point win, hitting a stellar .455 with 16 kills and only one error. Union led by as many as four on three occasions in the second stanza and hit .313 for the frame, but the Yellow Jackets closed on a 10-4 run to even the match.
 
The Garnet Chargers scored 13 of the first 19 points in the third set and never trailed, even though Rochester got back within two late in the set. But after a 6-2 run got UR back within a pair, kills from Martinez Cartagena and McGrath got Union to the 25 mark.
 
Union jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the fourth frame and never let Rochester get closer than five the rest of the way to finish off the victory.
 
Union will now turn its attention to the postseason, as the Garnet Chargers await the winner of William Smith College and Clarkson University on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Ithaca College.