SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College women's basketball team will host the Liberty League Tournament semifinals for the first since 2008-09 when the top-seeded Garnet Chargers host fourth-seeded St. Lawrence University on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Viniar Athletic Center.
Union enters the postseason with a 20-5 (16-2 Liberty League) record and finished in a tie with Rochester Institute of Technology (19-6, 16-2 Liberty League), with the Garnet Chargers earning the tiebreaker thanks to sweeping RIT in the regular season. St. Lawrence is 17-9 (11-7 Liberty League) on the season and will face Union in one semifinal after its 63-53 first-round win over fifth-seeded Vassar College on Tuesday, while sixth-seeded Skidmore College (12-14, 9-9 Liberty League) defeated third-seeded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the first round and will travel to RIT for the other semifinal.
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its fifth straight conference tournament appearance under fifth-year head coach
Katie Marcella. The team is 3-14 in the postseason since capturing the program's only conference title in the final year of the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (now Liberty League) in 2004, and is 6-18 all-time in conference tournament games.
ALL-TIME VS. ST. LAWRENCE: St. Lawrence holds a 49-20 edge in the first 69 meetings between the two schools, although that record is skewed by SLU winning 18 of the first 20 matchups between 1993 and 2003. In recent years, Union is 6-4 in the last 10 meetings. The teams have met seven times in the postseason, with the Saints winning four times in the semis and twice in the finals before Union earned its first win with a first-round upset in Canton in 2024.
MEETINGS THIS YEAR: Union and St. Lawrence have to go all the way back to Saturday for the team's last meeting, when the Garnet Chargers clinched the top seed with a 63-50 win in Canton. Seniors
Grace Ardito and
Jelena Perovic scored a game-high 14 points each and sophomore
Olivia Cunningham recorded nine points and a game-best 12 rebounds, as Union limited SLU to 26.9 percent (18 of 67) shooting. In the first meeting of the year back in early December, senior
Kate Peek scored a game-high 19 points to earn a win in both teams' conference opener.
REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPS: Union earned its first Liberty League regular-season title since 2008-09 and only the third in program history with its 14-2 conference mark. This year's squad also became just the third Union team to win 20 games in a season in program history and trails only the 2003-04 (24 wins) and 2002-03 (22 wins) squads on the program's all-time ledger.
GOING STREAKING: Union has gotten hot at the right time of the year, as the Garnet Chargers have won eight straight games entering the postseason. The team's current run of success is the third-longest winning streak in program history, behind only a 13-game stretch in 2003-04 and a program-record 15-game winning streak in 2002-03. Over the last eight games, Union is outscoring its opponents by an average of 13.1 ppg and is averaging eight more rebounds per contest than its opposition.
HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS: Union has proven to be a strong team coming out of the locker room after halftime, outscoring its opponents by 159 points in the third period of the team's 25 games this season. Against conference opponents, the Garnet Chargers are an average of 7.4 points better than their opposition in the third period so far in 2025-26.
SCORING THE BASKETBALL: Union leads all Liberty League teams by averaging 66.8 points per game, which is the highest scoring average for a Union side since the 2008-09 side scored 67.8 ppg and reached the Liberty League championship game. The team's current average would be the third highest in a season in program history, behind 2008-09 and 2002-03 (72.0 ppg).
(NO) SHOOTING SPACE: The Garnet Chargers led the Liberty League in opponent field-goal percentage (.337) and opponent three-point field-goal percentage (.247) during the regular season. Union, which ranks 37th in the country in field-goal percentage defense, is 16-0 this year when holding opponents to under 36.0 percent shooting. When those shots missed, Union paces the conference by corralling over 30 defensive rebounds per game and ranks 26th in Division III in that category.
POINTS FOR PEROVIC: Senior
Jelena Perovic became the 12th player in program history to record 1,000 career points on February 6 against Skidmore College and enters the weekend ninth on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,063 points. Michelle Rogers '09 is next on the ledger at 1,076 points, followed by Amy Hitz '97 at 1,088. A two-time All-Liberty League selection and 2025 first-teamer, Perovic is bidding to become the program's first three-time All-Conference selection since 2009.
SENIOR CLASS: Union's seniors have accounted for over 62 percent of the team's scoring so far this season, netting a combined 1,037 points between
Grace Ardito,
Grace Ceseretti,
Kate Peek and
Jelena Perovic. All four players have set new career-highs in scoring so far in their final years and all four have started every game for the Garnet Chargers in 2025-26. The team's fifth senior,
Grace Arcoleo, has missed the entire season due to injury except for a last-second appearance on the court during Senior Day.
ON THE REBOUND: Sophomore
Olivia Cunningham leads the Liberty League in rebounding by almost two boards per game (10.8 rpg) in 2025-26 and her 260 caroms so far this season rank fifth on the school's all-time single-season list. The sophomore, who also ranks fourth in the conference in assists (2.9 apg) and ninth in both blocks (18) and steals (46), sits 13th in Division III by averaging 8.5 defensive boards per game this season.
ABOUT THE SAINTS: St. Lawrence ranks second in the Liberty League behind Union in scoring average, netting 63.1 points per game, but despite that ranks eighth in the conference in field-goal percentage (.364). Where the team excels is from long range: the Saints lead the conference and rank 12th in Division III by hitting 34.3 percent of their shots from beyond the arc, an average of 7.2 threes per game. SLU also is one of the country's best teams in taking care of the ball, ranking ninth nationally by averaging only 12.4 turnovers per game.
Jackie Malley ranks third in the conference in scoring at 13.7 points per game and is the conference's leader in three-point shooting, hitting a conference-best 75 threes (eighth in D-III) at a rate of 40.3 percent that ranks 20th nationally. Two-time All-League selection Elizabeth Flynn has played in the last nine games after missing over two months due to injury and is returning to form, averaging 11.6 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. The pair are joined in double figures by Norah Niesz (10.0 ppg), who also leads the team in assists (67).
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Friday's game will advance to the Liberty League Tournament championship on Sunday, where they will face off with the winner of RIT and Skidmore at the highest remaining seed.
2026 Liberty League Women's Basketball Tournament
Tuesday, February 24, 2026 – First Round
#6 Skidmore College 50, #3 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 42
#4 St. Lawrence University 63, #5 Vassar College 53
Friday, February 27, 2026 – Semifinals
#4 St. Lawrence University at #1 Union College, 5:30 p.m.
#6 Skidmore College at #2 Rochester Institute of Technology, 5:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 1, 2026 – Championship
Semifinal Winners at highest remaining seed
