Coleen Rizzo going for the goal

This past weekend saw a sweet line of Lion victories in a variety of sports, but especially in continuing Women’s Soccer’s undefeated streak. Bwog sports editor Ross Chapman sums up this sporty weekend for Columbia, where we established supremacy as the better Ivy League school that is in New York, beings with a C, and whose school color is a primary color. Down with Cornell! 

The Lions of Columbia went 4-1 this week against a pair of rivals in New York state competition, with both Soccer teams handing it to Fordham while Volleyball and Women’s Soccer took wins from our in-state Ivy foe Cornell. Field Hockey dropped an overtime decision to the Big Red, but came back the next day and tied a few school records with an 8-1 rout of the Georgetown Hoyas.

Women’s Soccer might be leading the charge for Columbia’s fall sports. The Lions (5-1-3) haven’t lost a match in seven straight appearances, and goalkeeper Grace Redmon and the defense just until this weekend had a 393 minute streak without allowing a goal. Coleen Rizzo (pictured) and Madeline Linde supplied the three goals for the Lions in their 1-0 and 2-1 victories. Men’s Soccer (3-3) split two games on the weekend, falling in New Rochelle to Iona after claiming a 2-0 win over the Fordham Rams. Nicholas Pappacena and Rhys Williams combined for a goal just a minute into the second half against our Bronx rivals, and Arthur Bosua gave CU some insurance in the 82nd minute with a goal of his own.

In non-soccer, still New York action, Volleyball (5-5) gave away hundreds of t-shirts and took a conference win against the Big Red from upstate, winning three sets after dropping the first. The team’s 14 blocks for points at the net, led by Katarina Jovicic’s nine, complemented Charlee Dyroff’s 17 digs and held Cornell to a tiny .062 hitting percentage on the match. Jovicic and Bailey Springer each put up 10 kills on the offensive side, and sophomore Kesi Neblett tallied another eight kills to back up the two juniors. The Field Hockey squad (5-3) won one and lost one this weekend. Following a tense 2-1 overtime loss to Cornell, the Lions came out with a chip on their collective shoulder and gave Georgetown a Germany-Brazil level beatdown, scoring eight to tie a program record. Kyle Marsh, Katie Ruesterholz, and Zoe Blake each had two goals on a combined 10 shots on goal. The offense was so dominant that goalkeeper Kimberly Pianucci saw zero shots on goal in her whole 35 minutes in the net.

The Soccer teams are closing in on their Ivy League schedules as they press into October. The Women are off until Saturday, when they go to take on Brown in Providence. Their next home game is Sunday, October 12th at 1 pm against NJIT up at Baker. The Men return to Manhattan a bit earlier, with a game on Wednesday, October 8th at 7 pm against Seton Hall after they also take on the Brown Bears this Saturday. Volleyball begins the “travel partner” section of the Ivy schedule, meaning they’ll be away at Penn and Princeton before returning to host Dartmouth and Harvard on Friday, October 10th at 7 pm and Saturday, October 11th at 5 pm in Levien Gymnasium. Field Hockey finishes up their longest homestand of the season on Friday, October 3rd at 6 pm against Princeton, and will also have home action the weekend after.

But wait, we also played teams that aren’t from New York:

• Men’s Golf hosted eight other teams at our adorably named and wonderfully crafted home field at Tuxedo Park, New York for the Tuxedo Invitational and brought the gold back to Morningside. Brandon Jowers led the team and tournament with a +5 through the three rounds, while the team as a whole went at +53. Next event: Saturday, October 4th at the John Dallio Invitational in Lemont, Illinois

• Cross Country worked in the middle of the pack at the Battle in Beantown amid a field of heavyweights like Oregon, Michigan, and Syracuse. The men finished seventh and the women finished thirteenth in the competition of 19. Daniel Everett and Olivia Sadler paced the teams with 22nd and 30th place overall finishes respectively. Next event: Saturday, October 4th at the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

• Softball (2-0) got out of the box running as they opened up their fall season in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Tessa Kroll, Tonya Wu, and Kayla Maloney combined to give up just two runs over the two games against Monmouth and Army, while smallball did it at the plate for Columbia, earning two 3-1 victories. Next home games: Sunday, October 5th at home against Farleigh Dickinson at 12:00 and 2:30 pm

 Look at that form via Columbia University Athletics/Gene Boyars