2026 NCAA Tournament First Round - Union at #16 Babson

Wednesday, November 11, 2026 • Babson Park, Mass. • MacDowell Field • 3:00 PM

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SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College field hockey team will look to continue its historic 2026 season when the Liberty League champion Garnet Chargers make their NCAA Tournament debut on Wednesday against #16 Babson College at MacDowell Field in Babson Park, Mass.

HOW THEY GOT HERE: Union (13-6, 4-3 Liberty League) and Babson (15-6, 8-1 NEWMAC) both earned automatic bids into the NCAA Tournament. The Garnet Chargers knocked off top-seeded and NFHCA #20 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by a 4-2 score in the Liberty League championship game on Sunday and finished #25 in the final NCAA Power Index (NPI). Babson also took out top-seeded Massachusetts Institute of Technology by a 2-1 score in Saturday's NEWMAC final and finished #14 in the NPI rankings.
 
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance, becoming the 13th Union program to reach the NCAA Tournament as a team and the 19th overall to participate in an NCAA Championship event. Before Sunday's Liberty League title win, Union's only previous postseason success had come in 1988, when Union earned the ECAC Mid-Atlantic Tournament crown on the way to a program-record 17 wins.
 
UNION VS. BABSON: Union and Babson have met eight times in program history, all in regular-season play. The teams' last meeting was a 4-0 victory for #12 Babson in 2021. The Beavers have been nationally ranked for six of the team's previous eight meetings and have won the last seven contests since Union upended #20 Babson in the first game between the programs in 2012.
 
SUSTAINED SUCCESS: The Garnet Chargers have reached the 13-win plateau for the third straight season under head coach Kelly Harchetts, after reaching the mark only twice in the program's first 49 seasons combined. Only three teams (1988, 2008, 2024) have recorded more wins in a season than this year's 13 victories, while the team's string of five straight double-digit win seasons are one away from the program record of six from 2005-10.

DAPPING UP DAPSON: Junior Rowan Dapson was named Most Outstanding Player of the Liberty League Tournament after a huge game in the championship round against #20 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, recording her first career multi-goal game and also adding an assist for a career-high five points. The back ranks third on the team in scoring this season with seven goals and five assists after scoring three goals with nine assists over her first two collegiate seasons.
 
PLAYOFF PERFORMER: Senior Maddie Greco enters the week with a six-game postseason point streak, having recorded at least one point in all six career postseason games. The senior has scored two goals with seven assists for 11 assists in six conference tournament games, and looks to extend that streak in her first NCAA Tournament appearance.

FINISHING STRONG: Senior Amy Vytopilova has been Union's best offensive player of the last three weeks, scoring six goals – including three game-winning tallies – over the last six games. The senior has scored a career-high 11 goals so far this season to more than double her career scoring output after netting nine tallies over her first three seasons combined.

CORNERING THE MARKET: Union ranks 15th in Division III by averaging 10.41 penalty corners per game so far this season. Five of the team's eight goals during Liberty League Tournament play came (directly or indirectly) off corner attempts: both penalty strokes against Vassar were earned after fouls on corner inserts, and three of the four tallies in Sunday's championship-game win were scored on penalty corner inserts.

SENIOR CLASS SUCCESS: This year's senior class will graduate as the most successful in program history, as the team's 51 wins over the last four seasons are the most ever for Union field hockey in a four-year span, surpassing last year's senior class that won 49 games over four years. The team enters the week having also set a new program standard for wins over a three-year span (40). In addition, the team's 19 Liberty League wins over the last four years match the program's combined total from the previous 13 years combined.
 
MAD ABOUT YOU: Senior Maddie Greco holds almost every major offensive record in Union College field hockey history. The forward is the program all-time leader in goals (60) and points (142), is tied for first in game-winning goals (13) and second in assists (22), and is the only player in program history to score at least 10 goals in four straight seasons. Greco also holds school records for single-season goals (20) and points (44) set as a sophomore in 2024 and holds two of the three top single-season point totals ever at Union. She also will be playing in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the 2026 calendar year after reaching the NCAAs with the women's lacrosse team during the spring.
  
ONE-TWO PUNCH: Seniors Maddie Greco and Amy Vytopilova are only the fifth pair of Union teammates to both reach double figures in goals in the same season, combining for 22 goals so far in 2026. Greco is the first Union player to reach double figures with multiple teammates during a career, having already done so with Megan Dorsey '26 in 2023.
 
ABOUT THE BEAVERS: Babson is one of the highest-scoring teams in Division III this season, ranking eighth nationally by averaging 3.90 goals per game and outscoring opponents by an average of 3.0 goals per outing. The Beavers also rank 12th nationally in goals against average (0.90) and have 11 shutouts in 21 games this season.
 
Penny Baroni leads Babson with 23 goals and nine assists for 55 points, ranking 10th in the country in goals per game and points per game. Grace Mullaney is top-20 in the country in assists per game with 12 helpers to go with four goals, while Helen DiGiovanni (17 goals) and Kate Schneider (10 goals) both finished in double figures in scoring as well. Madison Tibbals has started 17 games in goal for the Beavers, posting a 1.09 goals against average (19th in D-III) and .667 save percentage.
 
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Wednesday's game will advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament at #2 Middlebury College on November 14.