Verdi, Lions Chasing Victories, History

Ever since Tory Verdi took over as head coach in place of the departed Traci Waites, he has preached that the Columbia women’s basketball team can stand up to and defeat any team in the Ivy League. This may prove to be difficult for a team that has never finished with a winning record in its Division I lifetime.

Last week’s tight contests against perennial powerhouses Harvard and Dartmouth infuse his words with credibility and his team with confidence. Yet, six games into his tenure, Verdi the Lions have just two wins to their credit—one over Yale (5-18, 2-8 Ivy) and the other over a marginal Princeton team (12-11, 4-6 Ivy)—while they’ve dropped four games to the cream of the Ancient Eight—Brown and Penn—in addition to the aforementioned Crimson and Big Green. So with a rematch looming this weekend with the Killer P’s, coach Verdi has stressed that while Lion players may know that they can hang with the best, they also know that they can’t play down to their opponents, and that moral victories don’t translate into the standings.

“No matter where [our opponents] are in the Ivy League, I don’t care who we’re playing, we just need to come out there and play like it’s a championship game.” Verdi said. “They have to play that way every single game no matter who we’re playing, and I think [our players] are really starting to see that. We can’t pick and choose when to play.”

The Lions still maintain hopes of finishing above .500—they would need to win three of their remaining four games to do so—but in order to reach that goal, they will have to play, as Verdi puts it, “every second of every minute” of those games. And this weekend, that philosophy will need to manifest itself on the defensive end.

In their previous meeting with Penn and Princeton, the Lions were plagued, as they have been all season, by their inability to contain their opponents’ post players. In a 63-51 Penn victory on Feb. 11, Quaker center Jennifer Fleischer shredded the Lions for 25 points and a then career-high 19 rebounds. The following night, the Lions did a better job against Princeton center Rebecca Brown, but her subpar 10-point, 5-rebound performance was mostly the result of her having four fouls for the majority of the second half. Columbia was able to escape with a 61-57 win.

Handicapped by injuries to seniors Edytte Key and Erin Jaschik, though, the Lions will be forced to revert to the same zone defense that allowed outbursts of 26 and 21 points last weekend to Harvard’s Reka Cserny and Dartmouth’s Elise Morrison respectively. Verdi said that Key and Jaschik will both lace up their sneakers this weekend and that his defensive scheme will largely hinge on their play.

“They’ll play, that I do know. I don’t know exactly how long they’ll play, but they’ll definitely play,” Verdi said. “I think if we have Edytte and Erin healthy, I think we could definitely play a little more man and not worry about doubling because of their size.”

In the meantime, Verdi said he will start the game with the undersized but energetic frontcourt combo of Adia Revell and Sue Altman. Even if they are unable to stop the Tigers’ and Quakers’ post players, Revell and Altman at least have the potential to outscore them, as each player registered a season-high in points last weekend.