Lions Play Winless Yale

After snapping a three game losing streak Wednesday night against Lehigh, the Columbia men’s soccer team looks to pick up its first Ivy win since 2005 tomorrow night against Yale. The Lions started the season 0-5-1, playing a very tough schedule that included perennial power UC Santa Barbara. They then picked up a pair of victories before dropping three straight Ivy games to Penn, Princeton, and Dartmouth. They are the only team in the Ivy League without a single point on the season.

The game against the Bulldogs, who are 0-1-2 in conference play and 2-6-4 overall, will likely be one of two chances the team has of picking up an Ivy victory before season’s end.

After Yale, the Lions must play Harvard, Cornell, and Brown. While Cornell is also winless in Ivy play, Brown and Harvard are first and third in the league respectively.
In this race out of the bottom of the Ivy League, the key is likely to be which team can find the goal as both teams have struggled to score all season, averaging less than one goal a game.

The Lions are coming off their best offensive performance of the year as four different players scored goals in Wednesday’s overtime victory. Coming into the game, the offense had mustered only nine goals in its previous 11 games and had been shutout five times.

Scoring may be more difficult as Yale, despite only winning two games all year, has allowed just 1.3 goals per game. However, the defense, led by senior goalie Erik Geiger, has given up seven goals in its last four games and has not shut out an opponent since its last win on Oct. 9.

The Bulldog offense, meanwhile, has scored only 10 goals all season and has been shut out six times. It will face a Columbia defense that is the worst in the Ivy League. The Lions have surrendered over two scores a game this season, though those numbers are inflated by a few ugly early season losses.

The Lions’ attempt to gain their first point begins tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Columbia Soccer Stadium.