LACROSSE
After starting the game down 5-0, Columbia lacrosse found a way to climb out of the deficit, only to fall in a triple-overtime thriller to Brown (2-0, 1-0 Ivy), 11-10.
Though the Lions (1-2, 0-1) played a lackadaisical first half, they emerged after the break playing with renewed conviction, racking up goals on a 4-0 run to keep the game competitive. With just 1:15 left in regulation, goals by senior Kelly Buechel and junior Paige Cuscovitch managed to tie up the score and send the game into overtime.
With goals by Brown’s Bre Hudgins and Lions senior Kacie Johnson, the score remained knotted up after the first overtime. Junior goalie Skylar Dabbar, who had eight saves on the day, made another major stop to keep the game even. The score remained tied until just two seconds left in the third overtime period, when the Bears’ Lindsay Minges scored off an assist by Tara Rooke to escape with their first win in Ivy play.
The Lions, having lost two straight games, will next take the field on Saturday matchup against Cornell for their first Ivy home game.
—Robert Mitchell
SQUASH
The men’s and women’s squash programs sent five players to the College Squash Association Individual Nationals competition in Hartford, Conn. over the weekend. Though three players won their first matches of competition, no Lion made it out of a second.
For the men, fourth-seeded sophomore Ramit Tandon took his first two matches to advance in the A Division, but could not make it past Bates’ Khalek Abdel in his quest for the Pool Trophy. Sophomore Mohamed AbdelMaksoud received a bye for the first round of the B Division and won his first match to get to the round of 16. But Noah Browne of Amherst took him out the next day in four games. Though senior Tony Zou lost his first match, he finished runner-up in the consolation bracket.
For women, freshman Reyna Pacheco won three rounds to advance in the Holleran Cup, but ultimately dropped her match on Saturday. On Friday morning, Pacheco swept Tufts’ Jessica Rubine and then went on to defeat Penn’s Chloe Blacker in four sets. But on Saturday, Princeton’s Alexis Saunders sent Pacheco home, after what was still an impressive outing for a freshman. Sophomore Alisha Maity was defeated in her first match on Friday against Cornell’s Lindsay Seginson.
—Mollie Galchus
MEN'S TENNIS
Fresh from receiving its new No. 33 ranking, the men’s tennis team hosted George Washington this past Friday in what became a closely contested matchup. Although Columbia had handily defeated No. 50 George Washington by a 4-2 margin just a few weeks ago at the ECAC Team Championships in Ithaca, the story of Friday’s match was quite different. The Colonials would not go down without a fight this time as they came out of the gate swinging, winning two out of the three doubles matches to secure the first point. An 8-1 victory by the No. 22 tandem of Ashok Narayana and Max Schnur was quickly undermined by the subpar performances of the other doubles pairs, Winston Lin and Nathaniel Gery, and Dragos Ignat and Eric Rubin, who both lost their doubles matches 8-4. Facing an 0-1 hole, the Lions had to rely on singles play to avoid the upset.
Rubin quickly closed the gap, avenging his doubles defeat to Leonardo Lapentti, with a 6-0, 6-1 win in the No. 5 match. Rubin’s fellow freshman and doubles teammate Ignat was not able to follow suit as he fell to Nikita Fomin 6-3, 6-2. The back-and-forth match continued as Lions sophomore Bert Vancura tied the score at 2-2, winning the No. 6 match 7-5, 6-4.
With the momentum on their side, the Lions never looked back, as Lin and Max Schnur secured the victory with a pair of straight set wins, prevailing in the No. 1 and No. 4 matches, respectively, 7-6(4), 7-5 and 7-6(9), 6-4.
After a grind-it-out win, the Lions will welcome St. John’s to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center on Friday.
—Alexander Bernstein
WOMEN'S TENNIS
On Saturday, women’s tennis earned its third consecutive victory with a 6-1 blowout of Stony Brook at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The Lions, now 5-3, are No. 46 in the country—the program’s highest ranking in history. Against the Seawolves, the Light Blue continued to perform like a top-50 team, taking the doubles point and five out of six singles matches. In first doubles, the duo of junior Bianca Sanon and freshman Kanika Vaidya, ranked No. 29 in the country, topped Polina Movchan and Jackie Altansarnai by a score of 8-3. The Seawolves earned their sole point in the first singles match, as Stony Brook’s Nini Lagvilava topped Columbia senior Nicole Bartnik in a tight 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 contest. This Friday, the Lions will return to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center to face Fordham.
—Ike Clemente Kitman