It’s not spring until it’s baseball season.

Sports Editor Abby Rubel takes a break from her knitting to bring you this weekend’s sporting preview. 

Fencing: Columbia’s fencing team heads to the NCAA Championships, which began yesterday, looking for their third title in four years. Twelve fencers from the men’s and women’s squads (the maximum number allowed at the tournament) qualified this year. After the first day, Columbia stands at second, tied with Notre Dame at 56 bouts apiece. Third place Penn State is only four bouts behind.

Lacrosse: Having dropped their first two conference games against Dartmouth and Cornell by double digits, Columbia will seek to improve their Ivy record in Sunday’s home game against Harvard. The Lions are currently at the bottom of the league—Brown is also 0-2 Ivy, but has a stronger overall record—and must dramatically improve in their last six games if they hope to rise in the rankings. Sunday’s 11:00 am game is their last game at Baker this season.

Baseball: The Light Blue will take on Yale this weekend at home for their conference opener, playing one game on Saturday at 2:30 pm and two on Sunday at 11:30 am and 2:30 pm. After a tough preseason, the 3-15 Lions are in sixth place in the Ivy league. Historically, Columbia hasn’t fared particularly well against Yale, going 68-102 all-time and losing both of last season’s games against the Bulldogs. But Columbia typically comes out strong in their season opener, so don’t expect a blowout.

Photo via gocolumbialions.com