Columbia Athletics has named former assistant coach Katie DeSandis, CC ’13, as the head coach of the field hockey team. DeSandis previously spent four years as a player for the Lions and joined the team as an assistant coach for the past three seasons.

Men and women’s swimming at Columbia operate under a long shadow, that of Ivy League heavyweights Harvard and Princeton. It’s been 48 years since Harvard and Princeton were both denied the championship on the men’s side, and only one women’s team has broken the seal in the last 20 years. This means, effectively, that the Lions must battle it out for third every year.

Columbia baseball has one of the most storied histories of any team that has worn the Light Blue. Beginning in 1888, the program has captured 14 Ivy League titles and produced 11 major league players, including legendary New York Yankees’ first baseman Lou Gehrig.

In its second series, the baseball team traveled over 1200 miles to lose three out of four games to the University of Nebraska, whose impressive pitching stifled Columbia’s offense in a hard-fought slate.

In its first competition of 2020, baseball traveled to Fresno State for four consecutive games against the Bulldogs and lost all four contests. Although senior Julian Bury and junior Josh Nicoloff shone at the plate, the rest of the Lions struggled to produce runs, and Fresno State’s hitters battered most of the Light Blue’s pitching.

Columbia baseball is set to embark on a 13-game road trip to begin its 2020 slate after falling short of Ivy League glory last year in a heartbreaking loss to Harvard. This season will present unique challenges to the Light Blue, which lost a number of key pieces that powered its 2019 team to a 13-8 Ivy League record.

For Columbia field hockey, the 2010s were driven by a hunger for the team’s first taste of success. Going into the decade, the program was entering its 15th year, but had only ever carried four winning seasons and 24 wins in Ivy League play out of 91 games. To start off the decade, the Light Blue went 10-7, 9-8, and 9-8, rattling off three consecutive winning seasons. However, in 2013, the team stumbled, earning a 6-11 record with just two Ivy League victories.