Volleyball Goes Winless in Ancient Eight for Second Time Since 2003

The Columbia volleyball team will hope to rebuild after another turbulent season that has come to characterize the program. The Lions finished with a 3-23 overall record, marking their fifth consecutive losing season. To add insult to injury, the team failed to win a single Ivy League game, finishing last in the conference with an 0-14 record for the second time since 2003.

The season began with seven straight losses at the Loyola Marymount Hilton LAX Invitational in Los Angeles and the American Volleyball Tournament in Washington, D.C. The team's first win didn't come until Sept. 26 against Manhattan College. Columbia defeated Quinnipiac and New Jersey Institute of Technology to finish with a 3-8 nonconference record before hosting Cornell on Sept. 30.

The Lions looked flat in their 3-1 loss to the Big Red, a sign of what was to come during the year.

The team continued on a 14-game losing streak, which lasted through the rest of the season as the Light Blue failed to win a single Ivy League game.

Senior Natalie Gerling posted a season-high 24 kills against Dartmouth to finish with 1,143 kills, second on the school's all-time list. Her efforts earned her an all-Ivy honorable mention.

Sophomore Ellie Thomas had 21 digs in the game to finish with 400 on the season, setting a new single-season Columbia record. These were the lone highlights in a very forgettable 2007 season.

The Lions will now place their faith in the team's new head coach, Jonathan Wilson, in the hope that he will not be another victim of the coaching carousel that has plagued the program. The team's national search for a new head coach produced Wilson, who is a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year winner. His Duke teams won seven ACC championships, making seven NCAA tournament appearances from 1980 to 1994. The Blue Devils reached the Sweet Sixteen three times and advanced to the Final Four in each of his last four seasons, compiling a 301-187 record in the process. Columbia believes that these accolades will transfer to success in the Ancient Eight.