Though its Ivy League title hopes have been almost completely dashed, the Columbia women’s soccer team can still affect the championship hunt when it hosts Yale on Friday. While the Lions (6-6-3, 2-2-1 Ivy) are tied with Princeton for fourth place in the conference standings, the Bulldogs are tied with Harvard for first place.
“They’ve got a lot riding on this next game,” senior midfielder Sophie Reiser said. “We know they’re going to come out tough, but we also know how well we can play when we’re the team that’s fighting harder.”
Yale (9-5-0, 4-1-0 Ivy) fell to Harvard by a 3-2 score when the two teams met on Oct. 20, but the Bulldogs most recently overtook Penn by a 2-1 score. In order to be successful against Yale, Columbia must stifle junior forward Becky Brown. With 12 goals this season, she is the Ivy League’s second-highest scorer and is likely to be a threat on the offensive end.
Freshman forward Kristen Forster could also challenge the Lions. She has scored twice for the Bulldogs and leads them with eight assists. Along with Brown, Forster scored in Yale’s victory over Penn.
Columbia’s most recent win came against nonconference opponent Marist in an Oct. 13 matchup. Reiser, senior midfielder Ashley Mistele, and junior forward Chrissy Butler scored for the Lions in the 3-1 victory. Since that game, however, Columbia has been held scoreless.
The Lions fought Princeton to a tie on Oct. 17, but lost to Dartmouth by a 2-0 score on Oct. 25. In order to be competitive on Friday, they need to control the pace of play and consistently create scoring opportunities. Against Dartmouth, Columbia did not dictate the tempo and took only five shots.
“Dartmouth came out really prepared for the style that we were going to play and the type of personnel that we had,” Reiser said. “They fought for every ball and made it really difficult for us to gain possession of the play without a tackle, or a hit, or a foul, or some type of interruption.”
Reiser has scored six goals this year, while sophomore forward Ashlin Yahr leads the team with eight tallies. If Reiser and Yahr can take charge of the Lions’ offense on Friday, Columbia should be able to contend with Yale.
Head coach Kevin McCarthy views the Lions’ successes on the offensive end as being closely connected to their defensive efforts.
“If we are playing well and assertively when we don’t have the ball, we tend to play well and assertively when we do have the ball,” he said. “It’s a pretty consistent relationship.”
Columbia will try to attain its third Ivy win of the season when it faces Yale. Kick-off is set for 7 p.m. at Columbia Soccer Stadium.
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