With Wednesday’s decisive 3-0 home victory against Hofstra, the Columbia field hockey team (9-2, 1-2 Ivy) extended its win streak to four games in what could prove to be one of the team’s best seasons in recent years. However, Columbia’s two losses to current Ivy League leaders Princeton and Cornell mean that the Lions’ remaining games will be pivotal in establishing their presence within the conference.
“We’re very confident that we can win these games,” head coach Katie Beach said. “They will be tough, and all four teams are very competitive, but I think after last year our team knows we can compete and win.”
In order to maintain its winning record, the Light Blue will need to capitalize on offense, as low-scoring games have become a trend thus far in the season.
“I think we’ve come a long way from the start of the season,” Beach said. “We started off strong and I think we’ve realized that we are a top-25 team, and we can compete with the top 25 in the nation. But we haven’t gotten that respect yet because one of our biggest challenges is goal scoring. We’re getting the opportunities and shots, we just need to finish.”
One of the major facilitators in the team’s offensive efforts this season has been star forward junior Christine Buszczak. In Wednesday’s victory, she broke the school all-time single-season assist record with her ninth assist of the season, a statistic that will likely change with six games remaining this year. With 19 points on the season, she is also the team’s leading scorer.
Though Columbia’s two losses to conference competitors has put it at a disadvantage, the fact that the Lions still retain the best overall record in the league may indicate that they have more than a fighting chance of finishing higher than their current fifth-place rank.
“Confidence is the strongest aspect of our game, I think our team has been confident since the beginning, and they just continue to believe in themselves,” Beach said. “Especially with a [9-2] record we can get things done and we know what we can do.”
This Sunday’s game at Penn will pose a different type of challenge for the team. The Quakers are 2-10 for the season and are coming in on a three-game losing streak.
Columbia will play on Penn’s home field, an in-field Astroturf surface, which differs from the watered carpet turf surface the Lions are accustomed to. To adjust to the new, slower style of play the surface will bring, the Light Blue has been practicing on the turf inside Lawrence A. Wien Stadium.
“Following the game plan is extremely important,” Beach said. “In the last five or six games we’ve played unbelievably well by keeping to the game plan, and when we keep to what we practiced, we do very well. The time when we come offtrack is when we start to play the other team’s style.”
The Lions will face Penn at 1 p.m. at Franklin Field.
