In-person

Coming into the decade, expectations were not extremely high for the men’s soccer program. It had not earned an Ancient Eight crown in 17 years, Ivy League Player of the Year since 1993, and NCAA tournament berth since 1991.

The past decade in Columbia lacrosse has seen seven last-place finishes and zero winning seasons, but the Light Blue has still managed to exceed expectations. For the first time in program history, the Lions did not finish the season in last place or tied for last place in the Ivy League—and then proceeded to rank above the bottom of the table two more times.

Softball has been one of the best-performing teams at Columbia throughout this decade. Head coach Jennifer Teague is coming off of an Ivy League Coach of the Year season during which the Lions could have received their first Ivy League championship; the team was projected to win the conference before the 2020 season was canceled.

Columbia squash began this decade not as the national powerhouse it is today but as a club sport with great promise. However, right before the start of the 2010-2011 academic year, then-Athletic Director M. Dianne Murphy announced the elevation of squash from a club sport to a varsity team.

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.

The 2010s was a breakthrough decade for Columbia track and field. The decade saw improvements initiated to the program in the 1990s finally come to fruition, as the men’s and women’s team finished consistently better in the Ivy League than ever before.

At the start of the decade, the Lions were a consistent bottom-half team in the Ivy League. After a nine-win season in 2010, the Light Blue failed to reach .500 three times this past decade, and didn’t reach the nine-win milestone again until 2017, when coach Tracey Bartholomew built an impressive title-contending team that finished second in the league.

It was a decade of many firsts for the Columbia women’s tennis program. Led by head coach and former Lion Ilene Weintraub, CC ’02, the Light Blue notched its first-ever winning Ivy League season, claimed its first Ancient Eight title, won ECACs four times, and earned its highest ranking in program history.