Union College Athletics

TROY, N.Y. – Senior Hannah Sams scored in the second half of the Union College women's soccer team's 1-0 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday evening at ECAV Stadium, giving the Garnet Chargers their first set of back-to-back victories on the season and third straight shutout.

After blanking the Engineers (4-2-3, 0-2-0 Liberty League), Union (4-3-3, 2-0-1 Liberty League) has now held its opponents out of the net for 346 consecutive minutes of game play. That impressive stretch features three straight shutouts as well 76:31 scoreless soccer against Eastern Connecticut State University on Sept. 23. 

Senior Maya Koster has been the goalkeeper for 301:31 of that streak and earned her 10th-career shutout after the win against RPI. She owns the ninth-most clean sheets in program history, one away from tying Abby Stohler '10 in eighth place on the career-shutouts list. 

Koster made a pair of saves on Saturday, stopping both shots in the first half of action. Union put six shots on target in the first 45 with two coming from Sams, but Ava Gaboury was able to match Koster in goal for the time being at halftime.

Sams scored with her next opportunity which came in the 62nd minute following a long shot from senior Taylor Bovardi. Bovardi's shot was saved and then hit off the crossbar, but Sams was there on the goal line to turn it back around into the back of the net.  

The Engineers only took one, off-target shot the rest of the way as Union held on for its second consecutive victory over RPI. Union is also unbeaten in its last nine matches with RPI, going 5-0-4 since October 2017.
 
Union only conceded six shot attempts overall and has not allowed double-digit shot attempts in the last four matches. The Garnet Chargers also gave up two shots-on-goal for the third straight match and fifth time this season overall. 

Union looks to extend its winning and shutout streak when it takes on Vassar at home on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.