SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – For the first time since 2009, the Union College women's basketball team will play for and host the Liberty League Championship when the top-seeded Garnet Chargers welcome second-seeded Rochester Institute of Technology to Viniar Athletic Center in a 2 p.m. battle for a conference title and NCAA Tournament berth.
 
Union (21-5, 16-2 Liberty League) and RIT (20-6, 16-2 Liberty League) tied for first place in the regular season and moved onto the finals with semifinal victories on Friday night. Union knocked off fourth-seeded St. Lawrence University by a 79-68 score in Schenectady, while RIT got past sixth-seeded Skidmore College, 53-45, in Rochester.
 
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its fifth straight conference tournament appearance under fifth-year head coach Katie Marcella and is in the conference championship game for the fifth time in program history (2001, 2003, 2004, 2009). The team is 4-14 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 7-18 all-time in conference tournament games. 
 
ALL-TIME VS. RIT: RIT has a slight 21-18 edge in 39 all-time meetings between the two programs, with Union holding a 6-4 advantage over the last 10 matchups. The teams have met twice in the postseason, with the Tigers earning a 68-64 win in the 2016 conference semifinals and Union posting a 54-40 win in the first round of the 2022 conference tourney.
 
MEETINGS THIS YEAR: The reason Sunday's game is in Schenectady is because Union swept RIT during the regular season, handing the Tigers their only two conference losses. The Garnet Chargers kicked off 2026 with a 69-60 win in Rochester on January 3 behind a game-high 16 points each from seniors Kate Peek and Jelena Perovic, and then completed the season sweep by posting a 64-57 victory in Schenectady 10 days later, led by a career-high 22 points from Peek.
 
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 with a win on Sunday would tie the 2002-03 team for second on the program's all-time single-season ledger, behind only the 2003-04 conference champions (24 wins).

GOING STREAKING: Union has gotten hot at the right time of the year, as the Garnet Chargers have won nine straight games entering the finals. 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 nine games, Union is outscoring its opponents by an average of 12.9 ppg and is averaging almost nine 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 160 points in the third period of the team's 26 games this season. Against conference opponents, the Garnet Chargers are an average of 7.2 points better than their opposition in the third period so far in 2025-26.
 
SCORING THE BASKETBALL: Union leads all Liberty League teams by shooting 41.3 percent from the field and averaging 67.2 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 pace the Liberty League in opponent field-goal percentage (.337) and opponent three-point field-goal percentage (.249) this season. Union, which ranks 37th in the country in field-goal percentage defense, is 17-0 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.
 
THE DEETS ON 'DITO: Senior Grace Ardito went off for a career-best 28 points in Friday's Liberty League semifinal win over St. Lawrence, far surpassing her previous career high of 17 set on two occasions. The 28 points were the most scored by a Union guard since Jenni Barra '18 had poured in 29 against Utica College on December 30, 2017 and the most scored by a Union player in the postseason in at least 25 years.

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 moved past Michelle Rogers '09 into eighth place on the school's all-time list with 1,078 points on Friday night. 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 1,089 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 (10.7 rpg) in 2025-26 and her 268 caroms tie her for fourth place on the school's all-time single-season list, just six away from second place and 13 away from the program record of 281 set by Heather Bennett '02 in 2000-01. The sophomore, who also ranks fourth in the conference in assists (2.9 apg), eighth in both blocks (19) and ninth in steals (47), sits 13th in Division III by averaging 8.5 defensive boards per game this season.
 
ABOUT THE TIGERS: RIT is also searching for its second Liberty League championship (and first since 2016-17) and enters the final on a program-record 13-game winning streak, tied for the 14th-longest active streak in Division III. The Tigers boast the stingiest defense in the Liberty League, allowing only 51.5 points per game to rank 22nd in Division III while holding opponents to 35.0 percent shooting. RIT also is second in the conference and 26th nationally in three-point shooting, connecting at a 33.1 percent clip from beyond the arc.
 
RIT is the only school to have two players in the top-eight of the conference in scoring, as Caroline Henderson (11.8 ppg) ranks sixth and Maddy Ramsgard (11.7 ppg) ranks eighth. Henderson leads the conference in three-pointers per game at three long balls per outing and connects at a 35.3 percent clip, while Ramsgard ranks second in the conference in field-goal percentage at 45.9 percent. Ramsgard also ranks sixth in the conference with 6.3 rebounds per game, second-best on the team behind Faye Kaplinski at 7.3 rpg.

WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Sunday's game captures the Liberty League Tournament title and earns the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Division III selection show will take place on Monday at 2:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
 
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
#1 Union College 79, #4 St. Lawrence University 68
#2 Rochester Institute of Technology 53, #6 Skidmore College 45

Sunday, March 1, 2026 – Championship
#2 Rochester Institute of Technology at #1 Union College, 2 p.m.