Lions aims for two Ivy wins

The women’s volleyball team continues to compete on the road this weekend, looking to rebound from its last two losses against Ivy League rivals Penn and Princeton. On Friday, Columbia (11-9, 2-5 Ivy) will travel to Massachusetts to compete against Harvard (8-11,4-4) before traveling to New Hampshire to face off against Dartmouth (7-11, 3-5). Currently, the Crimson and the Big Green sit in the middle of the conference, ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, while the Light Blue stands seventh.

Harvard split its competitions last weekend sweeping Brown before falling to Yale. Harvard had the advantage in kills and blocks in the win against Brown with 42 and six, respectively. Junior Mikaelle Comrie was responsible for 16 of the Crimson’s kills on 24 attempts with only two errors for a .412 percentage earning her the title of Harvard COOP Athlete of the Week.

The Crimson was unable to duplicate its performance the following day, however, and was swept by Yale, 3-0. Christine Wu and Chelsea Ono Horn both recorded double-digit digs in the loss with 14 and 10 correspondingly while Anne Carroll Ingersoll, who leads the league in blocks, tallied nine kills.
The last time Harvard and Columbia met, the Lions fell 3-0 after putting up a strong fight in set one which ended 25-20. The Lions were plagued with service errors throughout the match totaling 12 before game’s end. Columbia’s Megan Gaughn led the team in the loss with 12 kills while Kelsey Musselman had 23 assists.

The Big Green also faced the Bulldogs and the Bears last week falling to both teams 3-0. Allisa Santa Maria led Dartmouth against Yale with double-double of 12 digs and 20 assists. The Big Green struggled throughout the match only tallying 27 kills and failing to exceed 20 points in any set.
Santa Maria followed up her performance against Yale with another strong showing against Brown recording 10 kills in the loss while Lexie Campbell led with 13. Senior Megan MacGregor led in hitting with 11 kills.

When Dartmouth and Columbia last met in early October, the Lions rallied from a 2-0 deficit to force a fifth set. Unfortunately for the Light Blue, the Big Green was victorious, 15-10. In one of the closest matches of the season, Erin Longinotti tallied a collegiate career-high 27 kills while Gaughn posted 21 in addition to 27 digs. Musselman was crucial as setter, totaling 60 assists.

The Lions will first step onto the court against Harvard on Friday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. and against Dartmouth on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 4 p.m.