Sports briefly: Men's golf, Women's tennis, Lacrosse

Men's Golf
Men’s golf travels to Yale this weekend for the MacDonald Cup. The 35th iteration of the tournament will see Columbia face 11 other teams, including Ivy League rivals Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Penn, and host Yale. Both Yale and Penn come off of strong showings last weekend, each placing third in their respective tournaments. Golfweek ranked Yale men’s golf 43rd in the country this week, making them the only team in the tournament ranked in the top 100. The Light Blue, meanwhile, finished second at the Cornell Invitational last week. Senior Sam Mysock, juniors Michael Yiu and Ford Fischer, and sophomore Andrew Kim combined for four of the top six individual performances of the tournament. The teams will play two rounds on Saturday and a final round Sunday to complete the 54-hole tournament.

Women's Tennis
For the first time in the Columbia women’s tennis team history, four players will be competing in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s All-American Championship in Pacific Palisades, California. Columbia is sending the most players out of all of the Ivy League women’s teams with junior Nicole Bartnik, sophomore Bianca Sanon, and freshman twin sisters Adel Arshavskaia and Renata Arshavskaia all making the cross-country flight. Bartnik will compete as a singles competitor and as a doubles competitor with Sanon. The Arshavskaia twins will be competing as a doubles team as well. Singles play begins Saturday, Oct. 1, and doubles play begins Sunday, Oct. 2.

Lacrosse
The Columbia women’s lacrosse team heads to Baltimore, Md. Friday to play American University and University of Maryland, Baltimore County. This two-scrimmage double-header marks the first action for Columbia lacrosse since the one-goal loss in the season finale against Binghamton. In that match, then-sophomore and current junior Kacie Johnson scored five points, bringing her single-season total to 59, a program record. Johnson played a huge role in the last season, and one can expect her play to be commendable again this season. The Lions welcome eight freshmen to the team after losing six seniors to graduation last year. Their biggest loss was third-leading scorer Gabrielle Geronimos, who claimed 21 points in the previous campaign. In the 2010-2011 season, the Light Blue went 4-11 overall, with a 1-6 conference record—notching their first Ivy win in three years. Columbia’s weekend opponents, American and UMBC went 9-8 and 11-7 respectively last season. The Light Blue will play five more scrimmages in the next two weeks and will officially open their season on Feb. 25 at American.