With a win on Friday and a loss on Saturday, the Columbia women’s volleyball team moves to 11-8 on the season and 2-4 in the Ivy League.
The Lions started the weekend strong, defeating Brown in three straight sets after narrowly dropping the first one. Columbia had a 4-0 advantage early in game one before Brown rallied to tie and then take the lead, 7-6. The Light Blue refused to give up, forcing ties at eight, nine, 10, and 11 before recapturing the lead, 13-11. While Brown managed to snag two points to tie it up again, kills from freshman Megan Gaughn and sophomore Megan Dillinger put Columbia ahead once more. That was the last time the Lions would be ahead in the first set. Brown went on to tie the game 22-22 before winning, 25-23.
After going down 10-6 to start the second set, the Light Blue fought back. The team put together a 6-2 run and managed to tie the score up, 12-12. The Lions and the Bears then exchanged points up to 18-18 before Columbia was able to take the lead and win the set, 25-21.
In the third set, the Light Blue began to shine. The set started out evenly, but after being tied 4-4, Brown was left in the dust. Columbia went on to dominate with 6-10 and 23-12 leads before finishing off the Bears in a 25-10 blowout.
With momentum on their side, the Lions went on to win the fourth and final set of the evening, 25-17. They took an early lead and never let Brown recover.
The final set was a true team effort, as several players racked up kills to contribute to the victory. Junior Sarah Thompson had 13 kills, sophomore Monique Roberts had 10, and Gaughn finished with 20 kills and 13 digs on the day. Senior Ellie Thomas had 18 digs, which, coupled with the 21 she had against Yale the next day, garnered her a new program record of 1,291 digs in her career.
While Thomas had a successful day against Yale, the team was unable to perform comparably, as they lost 3-1 to the Bulldogs. From the opening whistle, the teams dueled it out—in the first set alone, there were eight ties before Thompson’s service ace got Columbia their only win of the day, 25-20.
The Bulldogs dominated the second set and overcame a 6-1 Columbia run en route to a 25-18 win.
The third set was another battle. After tying it up 6-6, Columbia refused to give Yale an easy victory, but the Bulldogs eventually pulled ahead to win 25-21. In the final set, Columbia took an early lead, and Yale quickly retaliated and went on to win 25-18.
The Light Blue hits the road with matches against Princeton and Penn on Oct. 23 and 24.
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