Field Hockey Hosts Ivy Nemesis Penn

The festivities at the Baker complex don’t end after Saturday’s homecoming game. Columbia field hockey (6-5, 1-2 Ivy) welcomes Ivy rival Penn (6-4, 2-1 Ivy) on Sunday for a 1 p.m. showdown. Like two boulders hurtling down adjacent hills toward a valley, both teams come into the game with momentum.

The Lions are riding a three game win streak and have won six of their last eight games. They will seek to improve their already spectacular home record of 5-0.
The Quakers have also won three in a row and have proven themselves to be road warriors, as all three victories were at away matches. They have also won six of their last seven games.

Since the Lions already have two Ivy losses, this game is almost certainly a must-win for them—considering that Harvard is sitting pretty at 3-0 on top of the division. The Lions actually play Harvard at home in the season finale Nov. 2, so Harvard would only need to lose once before then to set up an Ivy Championship match between the Lions and the Crimson. Princeton (3-1 Ivy), currently in second place and holding the tiebreaker over Columbia, needs to go 1-2 for the rest of the way as well.

Right now, however, the Lions have their attention completely focused on Penn. “The entire team is playing with confidence,” forward Jackie Klatsky said. “Penn is a passing team and we are prepared to anticipate and intercept their passes in our midfield.”
Considering that the Lions lone Ivy win came against the hapless Brown Bears (0-10, 0-3 Ivy), the match against Penn should be a good litmus test for determining what type of squad the 2007 Columbia field hockey team is.

“You can’t be the best unless you compete and win against the best,” Klatsky said. “We are executing the way we need to in order to beat Penn.”