The women’s volleyball team finished its season on the road this weekend, falling to Yale (20-4, 10-3 Ivy) 3-0 before winning 3-2 at Brown (12-14, 4-10).
By their standards, the Bulldogs have struggled in recent weeks with four-set losses to Penn and Dartmouth. This time though, Yale came out sharp versus Columbia, dominating the first set 25-11. In that set, the Lions had six kills versus seven errors while the Eli offense had a 38.2 attack percentage.
The Light Blue followed that sluggish start with another sloppy set, tallying only three kills while committing five errors, and allowing the Bulldogs to take the set 25-12.
In the third set, Yale again burst out to an early 4-1 advantage. However, the Lions finally got their game together and gained a 5-4 lead on kills from Cindy Chen and Monique Roberts and two Bulldog errors. From there, the Lions kept the final set close, but eventually lost 25-18 after a Columbia serve went errant.
The Lions’ Sarah Thompson led the way with six kills on 11 attempts and defensive star Roberts was involved in five of Columbia’s seven blocks. Yale posted an attack percentage of 31.1 with Yalies Alexis Crusey, Cat Dailey, and Bridget Hearst all recording over 10 kills.
The next day, in Columbia’s final game of the season, the Lions started out slowly again, at one point trailing 14-7. However, led by several kills from Megan Gaughn, Columbia slowly clawed its way back in, tying the game at 21 all. From there Columbia managed to secure the set 25-22, on two Brown errors sandwiched between two Gaughn kills.
The second set looked to be another thriller, with both teams battling back and forth early on. This time, the Bears were able to pull away, turning what had been a narrow 10-8 lead into a 17-10 advantage. From there, Brown never looked back and secured the set 25-17.
Once again, the Bears jumped out ahead early, leading 6-2 at one point. From there, the Light Blue tightened things up, eventually knotting the game at 12. As in the first set, Brown never let
Columbia run away with the momentum, keeping the game close until a 19-19 tie. From there the Lions pulled away on a 6-2 run, prevailing 25-21.
Brown responded emphatically in the next set, jumping out to a 10-1 lead. From then on, although Columbia played well, the winner of the set was never in doubt and Brown tied the match 2-2 with a 25-17 win.
In the final set, the score was close early on. After an ace by the Bears gave them a 4-2 lead, the Lions took command of the set, gaining a 9-5 advantage thanks in part to a pair of kills from Roberts. After the run, the Light Blue let the Bears back into the game with three consecutive errors. Brown continued to push Columbia, trailing 13-12. The Lion’s Heather Braunagel gave Columbia match point with a kill, but the Lions made two consecutive errors to allow the Bears to tie the game at 14. There the Lions received a timely kill from Roberts and finally won the match 16-14 after a Brown attack error.
Gaughn, Braunagel, Roberts, and Erin Longinotti each had 10 or more kills. Defensively, Nicole Goldhaber recorded 18 digs and the Lions recorded nine team blocks.
Columbia volleyball finished its year 12-15 overall, and recorded a 3-11 conference record.
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