Tied with Princeton and Yale at the top of the standings, the Columbia field hockey team must fight for first place in its two remaining Ivy League games this season.
The Lions (8-6, 4-1 Ivy) will begin their three-game, season-ending homestand today at 6 p.m. when they face the Bulldogs (8-6, 4-1 Ivy) in a match that could strip one team of its chance for the league title.
“Yale is very much on the same bill as we are,” head coach Marybeth Freeman said. “The Ivy’s can be emotional, but if we control our emotion, remain balanced technically and tactically, then I’m confident with this group and their ability to win.”
Columbia will close with Yale (4-1) and Harvard (3-2), Princeton with Cornell (1-4) and Penn (1-4), and Yale with Columbia (4-1) and Brown (0-5). There are no tie-breakers in the Ivy League, so any schools that finish atop the standings will be crowned champions. Therefore, if the Light Blue win their last two games, they will have their first Ivy title in school history.
Princeton has won the title the last six years as well as a remarkable 16 of the last 17.
The Light Blue will enter the match riding a four-game winning streak, highlighted by last Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Dartmouth and Tuesday’s scoreless stroke-off win against Lafayette.
In both games, Columbia’s defense proved its strength. Junior back Katie DeSandis and freshman back Lauren Skudalski lead the Ivy’s in defensive saves with five and four, respectively, and the combined play of the Lions’ backline kept the ball out of the net.
Junior goalie Christie O’Hara tallied nine saves in each game, not counting her three stops in the penalty shoot-out against the Leopards.
For her performance, O’Hara was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll for the fourth time this year, but the star of the Columbia squad was junior forward Gabby Kozlowski who was awarded Ivy League Player of the Week.
The award came on the heels of Kozlowski’s pivotal performance in the defeat of Dartmouth. The Big Green had taken a 1-0 advantage just two minutes into the game, but after sophomore midfielder Danielle Cosentino tied it up, Kozlowski scored two goals for the Lions and assisted on another.
With these two goals, Kozlowski became Columbia’s second highest all-time scorer with 30 career goals.
Despite a shaky start to the season, the Lions have picked up momentum in recent weeks with Kozlowski and O’Hara at the helm.
“I think it’s the appropriate evolution of the season,” said Freeman. “I think it’s a confidence that we found in ourselves that has led to our success.”
Though the Lions are confident, the Bulldogs, also riding a four-game winning streak, will prove to challenge Columbia’s talent.
With 51 goals, Yale leads the Ancient Eight in goals per game mostly thanks to senior back Erin Carter who has scored 12 times this season.
The Bulldogs are coming off a 2-1 win against Penn in which the Quakers gave up an early 1-0 lead. Yale’s two comeback goals came in the second half from sophomore forwards Gabby Garcia and Erica Borgo.
Similar to the Light Blue, Yale has picked up its level of play after a slow start this year. Princeton has been the only Ivy League team to defeat either the Bulldogs or the Lions. Both games were decided by a final score of 3-2, though Columbia pushed the game to double overtime.
Freeman expects to see Yale play a similar style of hockey as the Lions, focusing on interceptions in the midfield. She stressed the importance of playing clean and simple in order to defeat the Bulldogs.
Though Yale is the focus this weekend, the Lions are also set to face Villanova (7-9) on Sunday in the last non-conference game of the year.
The Wildcats, who clinched a berth in the Big East tournament last Friday when they defeated Georgetown 2-0, overpowered Columbia 5-1 last year when the two teams met.
The outcome against Villanova will have no direct affect on Columbia’s Ivy League standing, but Freeman believes the game will be important in setting up the Lions for their final match against Harvard next weekend. The Lions just hope they they’ll still be atop the standings at that point.
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