Before the Lions took the floor in the Bronx on Tuesday night, the last time Columbia basketball played a game was March 7, 2020. Almost two years later, with two games in its opening week, Columbia’s men’s basketball sought to improve on 2019-20’s disappointing end with a squad that is almost completely unrecognizable from the underachieving team from two years ago.

Fighting against both time and its opponents, the field hockey team lost 5-1 in a decisive match against conference foe Princeton, cementing a seventh-place Ivy League finish for the Lions.

On Tuesday, Columbia men’s basketball will take the court for the first time in 612 days, when it travels to the Bronx to face off against Fordham University in the Lions’ season opener.

With just over six minutes to play in the fourth quarter, it looked as though the field hockey team’s senior day weekend would be coming to an unceremonious end. After being blanked by Ivy League rival Penn, the Lions had their backs against the wall as they failed to score for three quarters against Rider University (11-7), a non-conference opponent that had looked like a favorable matchup.

During the latest chapter of what has become a roller coaster of a season, the field hockey team fell short over the weekend, dropping two more games to extend its losing streak to six.

Hoping to stave off a fourth consecutive loss and capture its first Ivy League win, the Columbia field hockey team took the field on Saturday against Brown, a team the Lions have not lost to in five years. After a tight matchup that was competitive until the final seconds, the team left the game empty-handed, still mired in a losing streak that may have ended the Light Blue’s hopes of an Ivy League title.

On Sept. 19, field hockey looked poised to make waves in the Ivy League. The team had just won its sixth consecutive game, recording its best start in program history. However, the squad has stumbled since then, dropping three consecutive games including its first two Ancient Eight matchups.

With a chance to upset a bitter Ivy League rival and extend a six-game winning streak to the longest in program history, the field hockey team faltered on Friday, suffering its first defeat of the season at the hands of a familiar foe.

Head coach Katie DeSandis has a name for when her team goes undefeated over a two-game weekend slate: She calls it a “double-dub” weekend, and so far, the field hockey team has not known anything else.

Tyler Ugolyn was never late. In fact, he prided himself on remembering little things like what time he was supposed to meet someone and when their birthday was. But on May 16, 2001, Tyler found himself in an unfamiliar predicament: he was running late for his college graduation.