SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – For the first time in 22 years, the Union College women's basketball team will play in the NCAA Tournament when the Garnet Chargers head to Bates College to take on #4/6 Smith College in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championships on Friday, March 7.
TICKET INFO: Tickets for both rounds are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors (65+) and students (all NCAA mandated pricing).
Round 1 tickets (Friday, both games) and
Round 2 tickets (Saturday) are on sale now. No refunds or exchanges are permitted.
NCAA HISTORY: Union is making the second NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and first since 2004. In its lone previous NCAA appearance, Union defeated Mount St. Mary in the first round by a 78-47 score before losing to #8 New York University in the second round, 69-50.
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Union swept the Liberty League regular-season and tournament titles for the second time in program history, finishing the regular season with a 16-2 conference mark before earning wins over fourth-seeded St. Lawrence and second-seeded RIT in the postseason. Senior Grace Ardito was named Tournament Most Outstanding Player after averaging 23.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists in the two tournament wins, including a career-high 28 points against SLU in the semifinals. In Sunday's title game versus RIT, Union jumped out to a 12-point halftime lead and led by as many as 20 points in the second half on the way to cutting down the nets at Viniar Athletic Center.
THEY'D BE HONORED: Union earned three of the four major postseason awards from the Liberty League this season. Senior Jelena Perovic was tabbed as the Liberty League Player of the Year – Union's first POY honoree since 2009 – and sophomore Olivia Cunningham earned Liberty League Defensive Player of the Year honors to become the program's first player to win the honor by herself. The coaching staff, led by head coach Katie Marcella, was named the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year as well. In addition, Perovic was named to the All-League first team for the second straight season while Cunningham and senior Kate Peek both earned All-League second-team honors for the first time.
A TOUGH ROAD: According to the NCAA Power Index (NPI) rankings, the Bates regional projects as the second-toughest regional in the field with a combined NPI ranking of 148. The only four-team pod with a smaller combined NPI is UW-Whitewater's pod, which features the Warhawks (10), UChicago (21), Gustavus Adolphus (36) and Transylvania (44). Union's first-round opponent, Smith, is also the only team ranked in the top-10 of both D3hoops.com and WBCA polls to be seeded second in a pod.
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 Sunday's conference championship win matched 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 10 straight games and are one of 15 teams to enter the NCAA Tournament riding a streak of at least 10 wins in a row. 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 10 games, Union is outscoring its opponents by an average of 12.7 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 161 points in the third period of the team's 27 games this season. Against conference opponents, the Garnet Chargers were an average of 7.1 points better than their opposition in the third period in 2025-26.
SCORING THE BASKETBALL: Union leads all Liberty League teams by shooting 41.6 percent from the field and averaging 67.7 points per game, which is the highest scoring average for a Union side since the 2008-09 team 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 (.339) and opponent three-point field-goal percentage (.251) this season. Union, which ranks 44th 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 27th in Division III in that category.
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.
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 Amy Hitz '97 into seventh place on the school's all-time list with 1,091 points on Sunday. Perovic is the third Union women's basketball player to earn conference Player of the Year honors and also is the program's first three-time All-Conference selection 2009 and first two-time All-League first-team honoree since 2006.
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 poured in 29 against Utica College on December 30, 2017 and are the most scored by a Union player in the postseason in at least 25 years.
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 enters the postseason with 277 rebounds this season, just five away from breaking the school single-season record of 281 set by Heather Bennett '02 in 2000-01. The sophomore, who also ranks fourth in the conference in assists (3.0 apg), sixth in blocks (19) and ninth in steals (48), sits 13th in Division III by averaging 8.4 defensive boards per game this season.
LENDING AN ASSIST: Senior Grace Ceseretti leads the Liberty League with 102 assists and is only the fourth player in program history to reach triple digits in assists for a single season. The senior needs four more dimes to move into third place on the school's single-season list and already has the most assists in a season by a Union player since 2013-14. She also ranks top-50 in Division III in assist-to-turnover ratio this year at 1.70.
PEEK EFFICIENCY: Senior Kate Peek ranks second on the team by averaging 10.7 points per game and is shooting a career-best 35.5 percent from three-point range this season. The senior is only the second player in Union program history to sink at least 60 threes in a single season and ranks third on the school single-season ledger, behind only the 2006-07 (68) and 2008-09 (75) seasons of all-time threes leader Maria Tobin '09.
THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM: Head coach Katie Marcella is taking her third different team to the NCAA Tournament in 2025-26. She led Keuka to an NEAC title and NCAA appearance in her first season as the helm in 2011-12, then won an Empire 8 championshi-p in her fourth season as head coach at Hartwick in 2018-19. Marcella has guided her team to the postseason in 11 of her 14 seasons over four schools, including all five years at Union.