Lions End Season with 16-12 Loss at Home

The 11-6 Lafayette Leopards are this year’s Patriot League regular season lacrosse champion. They will host this weekend’s Patriot League tournament and are the most successful team in the conference. The Columbia Lions finished last in the Ivy League. The lacrosse program has yet to have any success in its league.

But records without contexts are useless. The Leopards were lucky to escape with a 16-12 win over the Lions in Columbia’s season finale yesterday.

The Lions end the season 6-9, a four win improvment over last season. The Light Blue were 0-7 in the Ivy League, the second toughest conference in women’s college lacrosse behind the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Against the Patriot League, Columbia was 2-1. Against the Northeast Conference, Columbia went 3-0 and was barely challenged.

These records point to improvments in the overall quality of the program.

“We’re disappointed now, but I think in two weeks we’re going to reflect and see the progress we made. We have a very young team. We have ability to do things we haven’t been able to in the past,” Columbia Head Coach Celine Cunningham said after the game today.

Four Columbia seniors Arianna Faucetta, Whitney Crisman, Alissa McCaddin, and Teresa Mulaikal played their final collegiate games on the Wien Stadium turf.

“I think we’re a class that has really pushed this program forward,” senior Arianna Faucetta said. “When we look back we’re going to see enormous strides. And I think we’re getting there.”

To get there would mean to have success in the Ivy League. The Lions struggled in league where five teams were nationally ranked during the season and four are in the top 13. The Lions played one close league game, Saturday’s 16-11 loss to Harvard.

“We just have to get over this hump right now and really believe we have the ability, because we do,” Cunningham said. “We just have to believe we can do it and that’s the block I think.”

Yesterday the Lions played mostly even with Lafayette. Columbia jumped out to a 4-1 lead behind goals from senior Teresa Mulaikal, making her only start of the season, sophomore Maggie Via, and two from sophomore Ellen Lowrey.

The Leopards worked the game back to even and the teams traded leads in a see-saw first-half that ended 7-7.

Early in the second half Lafayette put some space between itself and Columbia. The Leopards scored five of six goals out of the break.

There was a moment of confusion after the timekeepers forgot to start the clock after the Leopards went ahead 12-9. The Leopards added another goal before the teams came lined up for the draw and the officials noticed that the clock had not moved. Since no official time was kept on the field, an official let the goal stand, making the score 13-9. The official started the clock from 21:44, where it had stopped after the preceding goal. That error added about three minutes to the game. But Columbia would still have needed more time.

“[We let] them get into their groove as opposed to us stepping up and stopping them. We let them play their game and we knew they were a good team coming into it, and I think that was the difference,” Faucetta said.

The Lions pulled back to within two goals with 4:11 to play, but the Leopards controlled the play until the final whistle.

“They got some 50-50 balls. We didn’t have the defense we had in the first half,” Cunningham said. “We came off ready to go, we lost focus for too long. But they have two really nice players who capitalized on the mental errors,” Cunningham said.

Lowrey led the Lions with six goals and two assists. The eight points left her one short of teammate sophomore Adie Moll’s single-game record of nine. Via scored three times. Junior Liz Gilroy, and first-year Moira O’Toole also scored for the Lions. Sophomore goalkeeper Jessica Valadez had 14 saves.

For Columbia it is the end of the season that holds promise for the future.

“I think this is the best team we’ve had in four years, so I think that’s progress,” Faucetta said.

Most of the team will be back. The Lions may return up to 22 players. None of the team’s top five scorers are seniors, nor is goalkeeper Valadez, who has started Columbia’s last 29 games. All will be a year older and a year wiser in 2003.