Christina Freibott, swerving through defenders as always

After just another average sporting weekends at Columbia (that we properly prepared you for), Ross Chapman presents you with what you might have missed while – we hope – you were doing anything except watching f****ball. 

Saturday wasn’t a fantastic day for the teams up at Baker Athletic Complex or on those on the road. But you can read all about that at the bottom of the article. On Sunday, however, the field hockey team (11-4, 4-1 Ivy) came out with a hunger for revenge against the Big Green. By halfway through the first half, the score was already 2-0. By the end of the half, the Lions had beaten the goalkeeper once more and extended the lead to 3-0. Whitney Hartstone, Katie Ruesterholz, and Christina Freibott all contributed points (goals or assists) to the Lions total, representing the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes. Two time consecutive Ivy League Player of the Week Freibott led the way for Columbia again this week. She teamed up with Ruesterholz and scored the third goal of the game, and before that set up Zoe Blake’s penalty corner goal in the 12^th minute. But Sunday, from a symbolic perspective, was all about the seniors.

The members of the class of 2015 on the team (all CC) received bonus applause during the game as the team celebrated Senior Day. The student-athletes all appeared in a video before the game talking about some of their time with the team. “It’s been an incredible experience,” recounted midfielder Zoe Blake. “It couldn’t have been better.” A lot of players pointed to the winning seasons and the team’s historic defeat of Princeton earlier in the season, but that’s not to say that the women are all business, all the time. Time together on the field and in hotels breeds comeraderie like few other things can, and that manifests itself in more ways that winning. “I can’t mention favorite moments without charades,” said Senior goalkeeper Marlee Silverstein, laughing about late night diversions.

Silverstein has taken a bit of a backseat this season to her underclassman Kimberly Pianucci. But in the final three minutes of the game, coach Marybeth Freeman pulled Pianucci and put Sliverstein in the goal. When the clock ticked down to zero, Silverstein’s parents, who came up to Baker for the game, watched with all of the other fans as the six seniors on the team finished their last home game on the field and celebrated in unison. The team still has two important away games until they complete their season, but the team’s seniors deserved a chance to celebrate with the Columbia fans.

This weekend was pretty slow for the Lions, but here’s what happened:

• Soccer had back-to-back matches against Dartmouth on Saturday, and dropped them both, 1-0. The men (5-6-1, 1-2-1 Ivy) lost in overtime on a corner kick after a great defensive regulation, and the women (6-3-5, 2-2-1 Ivy) gave up a goal in the middle of the first half and continued to fire off aggressive shots until the closing whistle. Next home games: The women are away for the rest of the season, but the men will host Cornell on Saturday, November 15^th at 4 PM
• Men’s Heavyweight and Women’s Rowing both went to Carnegie Lake in Princeton for “the Chase,” the Tigers’ fall regatta. The Columbia A boat in the women’s eights put up the best performance for CU, placing ninth of 50 and closely edging the Cornell, Dartmouth, and Penn crews. The Heavyweight freshmen eights continued to produce with a 9^th of 31 finish in their race. Next event: Rowing will take a break until their spring season begins
• Volleyball (7-10, 3-5 Ivy) split the season series with Cornell with a 3-2 loss in Ithaca on Saturday. Five Lions hit the double-digits in kills, but Columbia couldn’t finish after they went up two sets to one, and after taking an 8-3 lead in the final set. This is the Lions’ fourth 3-2 loss of the season. Next home games: Friday, October 31^st vs. Princeton at 7 PM and Saturday, November 1^st vs. Penn at 5 PM

 Carrying the Lions to victory via Columbia University Athletics/Gene Boyer