Viola-Davis

After a long, stressful day of classes, the Exclusive Beauty Salon team, co-founded by Diarra Seck, BC ’22, Wilaynes González, BC ’22, Tonika Henry, BC ’22, and Shaniqua Davis, BC ’22, met up in their first-year dorms to massage each other’s scalps and practice braiding. This small effort kick-started their mission to create an affordable, accessible hair salon for Black students in the Columbia community.

Following the Ivy League’s decision to cancel winter sports at the beginning of the semester, 2020 was a roller coaster and a heartbreaking year for athletes at Columbia.

Sports fans ache to see this kind of finish. Down by one and with two seconds remaining, Anthony Davis pulled up for a three-pointer. It could not have been more perfect: The ball sailed cleanly through the net as the backboard buzzed red to signal the end of the game. Even from thousands of miles away, I could imagine the crisp snapping of the white cords as the ball passed through. My dad rose from his chair; I screamed. And it was only Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.

While Columbia’s sports teams may be known more for losing than anything else, the opposite is true of the archery program under head coach Derek Davis, who took the helm in 2004.

Women’s basketball double killed the Crimson and the Big Green to secure a tournament spot after its 62-57 win in Cambridge. This extended the team’s winning streak to six games, the program’s longest in Ivy play. Columbia now ranks third in the Ivy League after consolidating its record with a 62-50 victory against Dartmouth and looks to finish the regular season strong at Levien Gymnasium next weekend.

When first-year guard Abbey Hsu pulled up and drained her 31st point of the night, Columbia’s lead on Harvard came to 32. In head coach Megan Griffith’s four seasons with the Lions, the team has won only once against the Crimson before Hsu’s explosive night.

The Lions claimed their second weekend sweep of the season, beating Brown 76-66, before beating the Bulldogs 74-65 the next day, avenging an earlier embarrassing home loss against Yale. After four straight wins over the last two weeks, the Lions are back in an Ivy Madness position, currently tied for third on the Ivy table. This is the first time since 2008 that the program has had two consecutive weekend sweeps.

Women’s basketball edged a 5-point victory over Georgetown in a defensive 54-49 showdown on Friday afternoon, improving its record to 5-3. With this win, head coach Megan Griffith brought the team to a four-game winning streak in front of 2,400 young fans on the program’s 12th annual Education Day, its first streak of such caliber since Griffith’s first season at Columbia in 2016.

Women’s basketball had a packed schedule to open the season, with three games in its first week. The Lions achieved a 1-2 record with the 70-51 win over Fordham University on Sunday, Nov. 10 after losing to University of Albany 82-78 in overtime on Tuesday, Nov. 5 and to St. Joseph’s University 71-57 on Thursday, Nov. 7.

Women’s soccer lost all possibility of clinching the Ancient Eight crown this weekend when it tied 1-1 against Dartmouth. Despite leading in the first half after a goal by senior forward Emily Koe, the Lions failed to hold onto this one-goal advantage as they gave up a goal in the 52nd minute.