Union vs Clarkson - Liberty League Tournament First Round

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 • Schenectady, N.Y. • Viniar Athletic Center • 6:00 PM

Live Stats • Video Stream

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College women's volleyball team earned the fourth seed in the Liberty League Tournament and will begin the quest for its third conference championship at home with a Tuesday evening tilt against fifth-seeded Clarkson University in the Liberty League First Round inside Viniar Athletic Center.

THE TEAMS: Union (18-12, 5-3 Liberty League) finished one game clear of Clarkson (17-8, 4-4 Liberty League) in the Liberty League standings but also held the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Golden Knights thanks to a 3-0 victory over them at home on Oct. 10. Union and Clarkson will face off in one two first-round matches, while the other opening matchup features Vassar College (13-12, 6-2 Liberty League) as the three seed against sixth-seeded Skidmore College (13-11, 3-5 Liberty League).
 
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its eighth appearance in the Liberty League Tournament since the postseason switched to its current qualification format in 2011. Union is 3-7 in its six appearances (2013-16, 2022, 2024-25) and 2-2 as the higher seed, earning victories as the second seed in 2013 and 2015 but falling as the second seed last season in the semifinals and in the first round a year prior as the fourth seed. Union is 31-42 all-time in Liberty League Tournament play, including back-to-back Liberty League titles in 2007 and 2008 that saw Union go 4-0 each season.
 
UNION VS. CLARKSON: Tuesday's match will be the 87th all-time meeting between the two schools, with Union holding a 45-41 edge in the all-time series. Union won 31 of the first 37 meetings to cushion its advantage, while 35 wins for the Golden Knights since the turn of the century have closed the gap. Clarkson also won nine consecutive matches against Union from 2016-2024, but Union snapped the skid last season and has now won six straight sets against the Golden Knights. 
 
LAST MEETING: Union is hosting this first-round match in part because of a solid 25-21, 25-21, 25-20 win over the Golden Knights in the middle of October. Juniors Kayla Martinez Cartagena and Georgia Pinciaro both had double-digit kills in the win, and sophomore Shea Ringel and senior Erin Stevens both hit over .400 on 21-combined attempts. The sweep came in the middle of a nine-match winning streak for the Garnet Chargers in which they won 27 of the 28 sets they played.
 
ABOUT UNION: The Garnet Chargers ended the regular season with 18 wins, marking the team's third straight winning season. Union began the year on a seven-match winning streak which was its best start to a season since 2015. Similarly, Union has also posted multiple winning streaks of at least seven matches, marking the first time a Union squad has done that since the 2015 campaign where it had streaks of eight and 14 wins in a row.
 
IN THE LEAD PACK: The Garnet Chargers are in the top-three of four team-statistical categories in the Liberty League, including ranking second in blocks (2.11). Union and Ithaca (2.32) are the only two conference teams to average more than two blocks per set, and Union is on track to have its highest blocks-per-set average since 2010 (2.3).
  
STARTING STRONG: Junior Allie Kronenberg has had the first serve for Union in 19 matches so far this season. On average, Union has won the first 2.11 points of the match when Kronenberg serves first, and she has accumulated 10 service aces during match-opening rallies. Kronenberg has also helped her team start off three separate matches with seven-point rallies while serving first.

TREACHEROUS TRIO: Seniors Maddie McCarron and Erin Stevens and first-year Johanna Melhorn are all in the top-12 in the Liberty League in hitting percentage and blocks per set. While Ithaca has four players in the top-12 in hitting percentage, and Vassar has three in the top-12 in blocks, Union is the only Liberty League school to have at least three players in both. 

KMC & VM: Junior Kayla Martinez Cartagena leads Union offensively with 2.98 kills per set. On Tuesday, 11 kills in a three-setter, 14 in a four-setter, or 17 in a five-setter will thrust the junior from Coamo, Puerto Rico over 3.00 kills per set for the season. Defensively, first-year Vanessa Morgan has a team-high 2.70 digs per set this season. She started her collegiate career out with a bang with 22 digs in a sweep over Manhattanville on Sept. 4 and has had 11 double-digit dig performances. She notched the first kill of her rookie season on Friday against NYU. 
 
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS: Clarkson's Brianna Hale has the second-most assists per set in the league at 8.60, and Olivia Baxter's 4.54 digs per set are also the second-best mark in the conference. Clarkson comes into the playoffs in better form than Union, riding a four-match winning streak compared to Union's current four-game skid. Both teams this season have enjoyed nine-match winning streaks and endured five-match losing streaks.   
WHAT'S NEXT: The winners of the two first-round matches on Tuesday have the privilege of heading to Ithaca, N.Y. to play in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 13, hosted by top-seeded and the fifth-ranked team in the AVCA poll, Ithaca College (25-3, 8-0 Liberty League). The winner between Union and Clarkson takes on the Bombers, while the victorious team in the Vassar and Skidmore match will have a date with second-seeded William Smith College (18-6, 7-1 Liberty League).