SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – For the second straight season, the Union College field hockey team will fight for a Liberty League title on Sunday afternoon as the second-seeded Garnet Chargers make the short trip across the river to Troy to face off with top-seeded and NFHCA #20 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) at 1 p.m. at Harkness Field.
THE TEAMS: Union (12-6, 4-3 Liberty League) finished in a three-way tie for second place in the Liberty League standings and reached the title game with a 4-3 (2OT) semifinal victory over third-seeded Vassar College on Friday. RPI (15-2, 7-0 Liberty League) swept its way to a regular-season title and then disposed of fourth-seeded University of Rochester, 3-0, in Friday's other semifinal.
POSTSEASON HISTORY: Union is making its ninth appearance in the Liberty League Tournament and second time playing for a conference championship. The Garnet Chargers have won postseason games in back-to-back seasons for the first time ever and are 2-8 all-time in Liberty League Tournament play. Union has one postseason title to its credit, capturing the ECAC Mid-Atlantic Tournament crown on the way to a program-record 17 wins in 1988.
UNION VS. RPI: Sunday's game will be the 50th all-time meeting between the two schools, with Union holding a 30-19 edge in the all-time series. Union won 17 of the first 18 meetings to skew the results, but the Garnet Chargers have also won seven of the last nine matchups as well. This will be the first postseason meeting between the two Capital District rivals.
LAST MEETING: RPI pulled out a 3-2 (OT) victory in the teams' regular-season meeting in Schenectady. Union got an early goal from senior Maddie Greco before the Engineers scored once in the second and third frames, and senior Rachel Ostiguy evened the score early in the fourth. Union missed a penalty stroke later in the fourth as the game went to overtime, where RPI scored on its 10th penalty corner of the game to escape with the win.
ABOUT UNION: The Garnet Chargers have reached the 12-win plateau for the third straight season under head coach Kelly Harchetts, as many 12-win seasons as the program had achieved in its first 49 seasons combined.
SENIOR CLASS SUCCESS: This year's senior class will graduate as the most successful in program history, as the team's 50 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 Sunday's final having also set new program standards for wins over a two-year span (27) and three-year span (39) as well. 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.
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 21 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, and is also the only Union field hockey player ever to score at least 10 goals in four straight seasons.
FINISHING STRONG: Senior
Amy Vytopilova has been Union's best offensive player of the last two weeks, scoring five goals – including all three game-winning tallies – in a three-game span before playing only a few minutes in Thursday's regular-season finale. The senior has scored a career-high 10 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: Over the last three games, Union has accumulated an incredible +42 margin on penalty corners, taking 58 corners and conceding only 16. Five of the team's 13 goals during that span have come (either directly or indirectly) off of penalty corners.
THEY'D BE HONORED: Union players have won three weekly awards from the Liberty League this season. Senior
Maddie Greco was named the Performer of the Week and first-year
Caroline Ranucci earned Rookie of the Week honors on October 5, while junior
Tess Parker was named the Defensive Performer of the Week on October 26.
ABOUT THE ENGINEERS: Like Union, RPI is looking for its first Liberty League title and is in the midst of the best season in program history. The Engineers enter Sunday on a 14-game winning streak and are nationally ranked for the first time ever, thanks to an offense that averages a conference-best 3.53 goals per game and a defense that allows just 1.53 goals per outing. Leading the way for RPI is Sophia Brown, who has scored a conference-best 16 goals with four assists for 36 points, followed by Ella Pasquarelli with eight goals and Emily Dubord with six goals and seven assists. Olivia Brovak has started 12 games in goal for the Engineers, posting a 10-1 record to go with a 1.42 goals against average and .742 save percentage.
WHAT'S NEXT: The winner of Sunday's game will earn the Liberty League's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
2026 Liberty League Tournament
First Round – Tuesday, November 3, 2026
#4 Rochester 3, #5 William Smith 0
Semifinal Round – Friday, November 6, 2026
#2 Union 4, #3 Vassar 3 (2OT)
#1 RPI 3, #4 Rochester 0
Championship Game – Sunday, November 8, 2026
#2 Union at #1 RPI, 1 p.m.