SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College women's lacrosse team has qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since 2015 and will look to keep its season going beginning on Saturday with a first-round matchup against the University of Mount Union in Salisbury, Md.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE: Union and Mount Union will face off in the first round on Saturday, May 9 at 11:30 a.m. at Sea Gull Stadium. The winner of Saturday's game will take on host and IWLCA #3 Salisbury in a second-round matchup on Sunday at 1 p.m. The complete
NCAA Division III Championship bracket is available online.
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Union and Salisbury both earned at-large berths into the NCAA Tournament this season. The Garnet Chargers fell to #5 William Smith in the Liberty League championship game and earned the 14th of 16 at-large bids thanks to their #27 NPI ranking. Salisbury was the first at-large selected after winning the non-AQ Coast-to-Coast Conference title and finishing second in the NPI. Mount Union is ranked #44 in the final NPI listings and earned its way to the postseason with a win over Baldwin Wallace in the Ohio Athletic Conference championship game.
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and the third time getting into the field as an at-large selection (2008, 2009). Union is 5-7 all-time in NCAA play and has won at least one game in four of its previous seven NCAA appearances, with the team's last win coming against Rowan in the 2009 first round.
UNION VS. THE PURPLE RAIDERS: Union and Mount Union have never met on the lacrosse field – or almost any other surface for that matter. In fact, the only two all-time meetings between the schools have come on the hardwood: the men's basketball teams played in Daytona Beach during the 2019-20 season, while the women's hoops teams faced off in Rochester to open up the 2010-11 season. Mount Union came away with wins in both those contests.
UNION VS. THE SEA GULLS: Union and Salisbury have met one time previously in women's lacrosse, with then-#16 Union coming one goal short of the top-ranked and eventual national champion Sea Gulls by a 9-8 score on March 26, 2010. Union and Salisbury have competed against each other nine times all-time spanning five sports, with the only NCAA matchups coming on the gridiron in 1983 and 2019.
ALL-LEAGUE LAURELS: Union had five players named to the All-Liberty League teams this week. Junior
Gillian Joseph earned her third straight honor and second first-team selection in as many years, and was joined on the first team by classmates
Hannah Compa and
Anna Dembowski. Senior
Sydney Widlitz was named to the second team and junior
Maddy Schiller earned third-team honors as well. The five All-Conference honorees are the most for the program in a season since 2016, while the three first-teamers are tied for the most since 2010.
KEEPING IT 200: Junior
Gillian Joseph became the eighth player in program history – and only third junior – to record 200 career points by scoring five goals with an assist in the Liberty League semifinals against Ithaca. With a year still to go, Joseph already ranks fourth in program history with 151 goals, eighth with 201 points and 10th with 50 assists for her career. She needs two points to match Abby Harris '00 for seventh on the school's all-time points list and is six away from Chelsea Charette '11 in sixth place.
CLIMBING THE LADDER: This season, Joseph has scored 59 goals with 16 assists for 75 points, making her only the fifth player in program history to record at least 75 points in a season and ranking seventh on the school's single-season list. With one more goal, she would become only the fourth Union player to net 60 goals in a year, joining Kristin Joyce '11 (three times), Molly Flanagan '05 HOF '15 (twice) and Grace Heiting '22.
MADD ABOUT U: Junior
Maddy Schiller scored three goals against Ithaca to become the 17th player in program history to score 50 goals in a season, after becoming the 15th player in program history to score 100 career goals in the first round of the conference tournament against RIT. The junior has more than doubled her career goal output this season, going from 53 goals over her first two seasons to 108 after almost three.
UNPARALLELED PRODUCTION: Joseph, Schiller and senior
Christina Guanci are the third trio of Union teammates to crack the 50-point plateau in the same season, and the triad's 204 combined points are the most ever recorded by a Union threesome in a season. The last time Union had three players record 50+ points in a season was in 2008, when Keri Messa '08 (81 points), Kristin Joyce '11 (60 points) and Chelsea Charette '11 (56 points) all reached the mark.
GOAL ORIENTED: Joseph and Schiller are the third duo in program history to both score 50 goals in the same season and the first to both net at least 55. The pair's combined 114 goals scored in 2026 are second-most ever by Union teammates, behind only the 120 from Molly Flanagan '05 HOF '15 (69) and Kathy Dolezal '05 (51) in 2004.
QUICK ON THE DRAW: Junior
Hannah Compa enters the week ninth in Division III in draw controls with a conference-best 131 in her first 19 games. The second player in program history to record 100 draw controls in a season, she needs seven more DCs to match the 20-year-old program record of 138 set by Caitlin Cuozzo '06 HOF '24 in 2006.
MAKING IT TO 100: Senior
Lana Mickelson had one assist in Sunday's conference championship game at William Smith to become the 32nd player in program history to record 100 career points at Union. The senior has 57 goals and 43 assists in three seasons at Union after scoring one goal as a first-year at Iona University.
SHE'S THE ONE: Senior
Sydney Widlitz has become Union's all-time leader in victories and saves this season, earning her program-record 35th win on April 4 against Clarkson and recording her record 467th career save against Rochester on April 25. In 67 career games, Widlitz is 43-21 with a 10.11 goals against average, .455 save percentage and 501 saves, and currently ranks 12th among active D-III goalies in career saves.
ABOUT THE PURPLE RAIDERS: Mount Union went 12-5 this season and 6-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, culminating in an 11-10 win over Baldwin Wallace to clinch its second straight OAC Tournament title and ninth NCAA Tournament appearance. Emma Kielbasa scored the game-winning goal with three seconds left in the tournament final, netting three goals overall to earn Tournament MVP honors.
OAC Offensive Player of the Year Haylee Handrahan leads the Mount Union attack with 44 goals and 23 assists for 67 points, followed by Ella Nejad with 39 goals and 17 assists and OAC Rookie of the Year Lizzie Dorley with 24 goals and 21 helpers. Defensively, OAC Defensive Player of the Year Alexa Udovicic has recorded a team-best 43 ground balls and 21 caused turnovers. Goalies Abby Reagan and Kaitlyn Kuczinski have essentially split time in goal this season, but Reagan has started the last seven games (all wins) and boasts a team-best 8.61 goals against average and .513 save percentage to go with a 7-2 record so far in 2026.
ABOUT THE SEA GULLS: Salisbury is one of two remaining undefeated teams in Division III after an 17-0 start to the year, which finished with an 11-9 Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference title win over #21 Christopher Newport. The Sea Gulls are in the NCAA Tournament for the 23rd straight season and are making their 26th NCAA appearance overall.
C2C Offensive Player of the Year Audrey Harrington is the team's scoring leader with 42 goals and a team-best 31 points for 73 points on the year, while Miranda Mears has a team-leading 47 goals and scores on 56.6 percent of her shots. The Sea Gulls rank sixth in the country by scoring at a 58.1 percent clip from the eight-meter arc and take care of the ball to the tune of a nation-best 10.59 turnovers per game and a 91.9 percent clearing percentage that ranks second nationally behind only William Smith. C2C Defensive Player of the Year Abby Fleishell has registered a team-leading 42 ground balls and 27 caused turnovers on the year for a defense that allows only 7.35 goals per game, while Paige Ellis ranks 21st in Division III with a 7.56 goals against average and has a .464 save percentage in 17 starts in goal.
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Sunday's second-round game advances to the regional round on May 16-17 at four host sites.
