SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – For the first time in a decade, the Union College women's lacrosse team will battle for a Liberty League championship on Sunday, as the fourth-seeded Garnet Chargers look to knock off second-seeded and IWLCA #23 Ithaca College on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Higgins Stadium.

Union (13-3, 7-3 Liberty League) advanced to the finals with a 9-7 win over top-seeded and IWLCA #11 William Smith College on Friday. Ithaca (12-6, 7-3 Liberty League earned its spot in the finals with a 13-12 win over third-seeded Rochester Institute of Technology.
 
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its 17th appearance in the conference tournament and is 18-13 all-time in Liberty League Tournament play. The team is playing in the conference championship game for the first time since 2015 and the 11th time overall, with a 3-7 record in its first 10 trips. Union boasts three Liberty League Tournament championships (2005, 2006, 2015) to its credit and has won five conference titles overall, including a pair of UCAA regular-season titles (1999, 2002) before the conference tournament was instituted in 2004.
 
UNION VS. THE BOMBERS: The Garnet Chargers and Bombers have met on 12 previous occasions, with Ithaca holding an 8-4 lead in the all-time series. The teams have played twice in the postseason, with the squads splitting a pair of NYSWCAA Tournament matchups in 1998 and 2000.
 
LAST MEETING: Union earned its second of three wins over nationally ranked opponents this season with a 12-10 victory over Ithaca on March 29 in Schenectady. The Bombers jumped out to a 5-2 first-period advantage but the home team responded by outscoring the visitors 6-1 in the second frame, led by three points each from senior Greta Maurer and sophomore Gillian Joseph. With the game tied at 10 early in the fourth, Joseph and junior Lana Mickelson scored and the defense held Ithaca off the board to give Union the win.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Union broke a 12-game losing streak to William Smith with a 9-7 victory in Friday's conference semifinal. Senior Greta Maurer led all players with five points on two goals and three assists and the Union defense limited the Herons to only 18 shots while forcing 18 turnovers. Union outscored William Smith 8-4 after the home team posted a 3-1 edge in the opening period.
 
LUCKY 13: Union's semifinal win was its 13th of the season, tying for sixth place on the school's single-season wins list and marking the most for the program since its last conference title team in 2015 went 13-4.
  
MAURER POWER: Senior Greta Maurer enters Sunday eighth in program history with 63 career assists, just one back of Caitlin Cuozzo '08 HOF '24 in seventh place. She also ranks fourth in career draw controls (155) and 16th in caused turnovers (63) all-time at Union. With her 89 goals and 63 assists for 152 points, she is the 16th player in program history to record 150 career points.
 
IT'S A START: Sophomore Gillian Joseph has had one of the most productive first two years in Union lacrosse history, entering Sunday with 90 goals with 32 assists for 122 points in her first 33 games. Her 122 points are fourth-most by a player in their first two seasons at Union and the most since Kristin Joyce '11 recorded 145 points in her first two years on the way to a program-record 299. Joseph's 90 goals are the fourth-most by a Union player in her first two years.
 
PLAYING LIKE MAD(DY): Sophomore Maddy Schiller scored twice against William Smith and has been on a tear over the last four games, averaging over four points per game after recording as many as four only twice in her first 11 outings. After scoring two goals with two assists against St. Lawrence on April 19, she went for a season-high six points (five goals, one assist) in the regular-season finale at Rochester before her five-point effort in the postseason opener against RPI. As a result of her recent surge, Schiller is now third on the team in scoring with 27 goals and 14 assists for 41 points.

CLIMBING THE RANKS: With a full season still to go, junior Sydney Widlitz already ranks fourth in program history with 30 wins to her credit and is fourth all-time at the school with 359 saves.
 
LOCK DOWN D: Sophomore Anna Dembowski leads the team on the defensive side of the ball, recording a team-best 53 ground balls and 24 caused turnovers so far in 2025. Junior Sammy Johnson ranks second on the team with 25 ground balls and has caused 13 turnovers, while classmate Claudia Patz has caused 15 turnovers and grabbed 21 grounders. The defensive unit ranks second in the Liberty League by allowing only 8.5 goals per game.
 
ABOUT THE BOMBERS: Ithaca is looking for a second straight Liberty League title after knocking off William Smith to win its first conference title last season. Lily Cody leads the team with 71 points on 51 goals and 20 assists while also controlling 86 draws and grabbing 26 ground balls, and she has been especially dangerous on free-position attempts, ranking sixth in the country with a 75.0 percent success rate (15-of-20) from the eight-meter arc. She is followed in scoring by Kelly Augeri with 45 goals and Elizabeth Green with 42. Green leads the team with 38 ground balls and Kaitlyn Russell has caused a team-best 22 turnovers. In goal, Mikaela Dattilo is 12-5 with a .471 save percentage and 10.48 goals against average.
 
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Sunday's game will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Championships.
 
2025 Liberty League Women's Lacrosse Tournament
 
First Round – Tuesday, April 29 (all games at higher seeds)
#3 Rochester Institute of Technology 13, #6 St. Lawrence University 12 (OT)
#2 Ithaca College 19, #7 Vassar College 10
#4 Union College 14, #5 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 7
 
Semifinals – Friday, May 2 (both games at higher seeds)
#4 Union 9, #1 William Smith 7
#2 Ithaca 13, #3 RIT 12
 
Championship – Sunday, May 4 (at higher seed)
#4 Union at #2 Ithaca, 1:00 p.m.