Maodo Lo really pleases the away crowds

As you’re starting to become grossly retrospective about the Fall 2014 semester that has come and gone, you’ll have images of friends, fuzzy drunken memories, that never ending page on Microsoft Word reel through your head…and of course – your favorite memories of the Columbia Lions this semester! Don’t have any? Ross Chapman has done all of the meticulous work for you – pick any one of the facts below so you can go home and gloat about your D1 school to all your friends. 

Taking finals may be stressful, but it’s nothing compared to training for sports and taking finals. Thankfully, none of our athletes have any games during fall semester finals, but they’ve been busy all year. Below is everything you need to know about Columbia’s fall campaigns, highlighted by exciting basketball wins, fencing sweeps, field hockey history, and so much more.

• In a very successful campaign, Field Hockey went 12-5 with a program record 5-2 Ivy season. The team notched its first ever win against Ivy powerhouse Princeton and peaked at a #23 national ranking. Christina Freibott earned a unanimous Offensive Player of the Year award for her nation-leading 1.24 assists per game and Ivy-leading 2.41 points per game. Coach Marybeth Freeman won Coach of the Year, and Zoe Blake, Katie Ruesterholz, and Lauren Skudalski all earned first time All-Ivy.
• On the Men’s Soccer side of the field, the team held a record of 7-8-1 (2-4-1 Ivy), never losing an Ivy match by more than a goal. The season started with Rhys Williams scoring two goals against Michigan in a 3-0 home win. Francisco Agrest led the balanced team with 9 points (3 goals, 3 assists). The team held opponents to a .343 Shots on goal percentage, but was unable to capitalize on most of their 90 SOG’s, scoring just 17 times.
• Women’s Soccer (7-4-6, 2-3-2 Ivy) put together a seven game unbeaten streak, highlighted by 446 straight shutout minutes, in the middle of an excellent defensive season. They posted nine shutouts and ranked in the top-10 nationally in goals allowed at 0.65 per game. However, offensive struggles plagued the team, and with second team all-Ivy forward Coleen Rizzo leaving the squad, other Lions will be forced to step up.
• Men’s Basketball (5-3) has pushed forward without injured and unenrolled Alex Rosenberg behind Maodo Lo and Cory Osetkowski. The team scored the first 11 points against #1 Kentucky and led for a majority of the nationally-televised game. The team ranks fourth nationally in scoring defense at 50.8 ppg and holds opponents to a 36.9% field goal percentage, but is underperforming Ivy expectations with a 65.8% free throw job and 31.7% 3-pointer accuracy.
• Women’s Basketball (4-6) has already won half as many games this year as they did all last season. The team is led by Tori Oliver (17.5 ppg) and three time Ivy Rookie of the Week Camille Zimmerman (15.0 ppg). The Lions pleased the fans of Levien with back-to-back overtime wins over Rhode Island and Bradley, helped out by a buzzer-beating three by Alexa Giuliano. The team excels at offensive rebounding, with 150 on the young season led by Amara Mbionwu’s 40.

• The Volleyball team went 8-15 (4-11 Ivy) in their first season behind head coach Brie Katz. The Lions won their first five home matches, but suffered a nine game losing streak in the Ivy slate that didn’t end until a 3-0 win at Dartmouth wrapped up the season. Bailey Springer lead team on the offensive side, earning All-Ivy second team honors. The squad will return most of its players, but will have to overcome the loss of starting defensive libero Charlee Dyroff next season.
• A little bit downtown at the StreetSquash Center, the #6 Men’s Squash team ran an exciting 7-2 win over #8 Cornell before crushing NYU, not giving up a single game within any of the 9 matches. Earlier in the season, the boys went into Pennsylvania to play #12 Drexel and #7 Franklin & Marshall, taking both of the meets. The Lions begin their Ivy schedule on January 10th, with one more tune-up versus Trinity.
• The Women’s Squash team played the same schedule as the men, coming into the season with a #9 ranking. They earned two 7-2 wins on the road before coming back to New York. The team suffered a sweep loss to a dominant #6 Cornell squad before bouncing back to earn a sweep win against NYU. Their only home game during the academic year will be on February 8th against Penn.
• Track and Field had one event this semester to set benchmarks a primarily spring season. At the Manhattan College Opener, six Lions earned gold medals, and the team swept two events. All races were against other Manhattan schools.
• Cross Country ran well all season, and it paid off at the cryptically-named IC4A and ECAC competitions in Van Cortlandt park at the end of their season in November. Both the men and the women took home first place, with Tait Rutherford winning second in the 5 mile at 25:05 and Olivia Sadler earning third in the 5K at 17:51. The women also placed third at the Ivy Championships, and the men registered fourth in the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships.
• Brandon Jowers led the Men’s Golf team from start to finish this season. He won the individual titles at the John Dallio Memorial Invitational and Columbia’s home Tuxedo Autumn Invitational. His lowest finish of the year was tenth place, behind Harrison Shih, who finished fifth at the Miramont Invitational. The team captured the Tuxedo title and overcame poor early rounds to finish third at the Miramont.
• Women’s Golf defeated 13 other teams to take home the Nittany Lion Invitational as the highlight of their season behind Monique Ishikawa’s second place finish. They also finished in fourth place at Bucknell’s tournament and third at Princeton’s, both behind seventh place performances by Rachel Shi and Nancy Xu, respectively. The team has travel plans to Georgia and North Carolina in the spring, along with Ivies and NCAA’s on the horizon.
• Heavyweight Rowing’s short fall season showed off the freshman class. At the Head of the Housatonic, the Novice Eights boat finished in second, with the third place Brown crew finishing 80 seconds behind them. At Princeton, the freshmen eight finished 10th of 36, fighting through huge headwinds after many of them already competed in a race earlier in the day.
• In their only autumn event, Lightweight Rowing braved the cold waters of the Charles River in mid-October. A host of rookies got the opportunity to row for a number of reasons and contributed to a 12th of 17 performance for the Championship Eights in Boston. The Championship Fours shell finished fifth of 22 with an all-freshman cast.
• Women’s Rowing started off the season rough at the same Head of the Charles competition because of a bottlenecking problem common to Harvard’s home waters. The first team Varsity Eights bounced back for a ninth place finish of 50 when they returned to action the next week in Princeton. That same team traveled to Virginia and picked up a fifth place honor out of 24, defeating three rival Ivy crews.
• Men’s Swimming and Diving won their first three duals of the season, taking down Iona and Army in West Point and Penn in front of the home crowd. They then took a loss at Yale and ate a harder defeat at Harvard before bouncing back for a third place of six finish at the Brown Invite. David Jakl led the Lions with sprint wins in the 100 freestyle and butterfly at Brown, and Jayden Pantel is unbeaten diving from 3-meters in five duals this season.
• Women’s Swimming and Diving has had a tough time as a team, dropping their first three Ivy meets on the road after a very successful campaign last year. However, the team celebrated Katie Meili (CC ’13) capturing a national title in front of Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky in the 200 individual medley at the AT&T Winter National Championships. Individually at the Frank Elm invite, Kristine Ng placed fourth in the 200 breast and the 200 medley squad placed third.
• Men’s Tennis built on its legacy from last year with some dominating results. Winston Lin met teammate Ashok Narayana in the finals of the USTA/ITA Northeast Regional Championships in Flushing Meadows. At the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, confusingly held by the same organizations at the same location, Ashok Narayana and Max Schnur teamed up to reach the consolation final, and Winston Lin fell to the nation’s top player from UCLA.
• The Women’s Tennis players were just as competitive as the men this fall. At the Northeast Regionals, Kanika Vaidya and Rima Asatrian captured the doubles crown, and for the first time in program history, three Lions reached the singles quarterfinal. At the National Indoors, doubles pair Tina Jiang and Crystal Leung battled up the bracket to reach the tournament’s number ones, but ended up falling 10-12 in a final set tiebreaker.
• Wrestling has yet to face Ivy competition, but has put up great performances against the nation’s best in Nevada, Michigan, and New York. At the Michigan State Open Invitational, Markus Sceidel and Zack Hernandez both took home third place finishes in their brackets. Hernandez was Columbia’s star at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, where he went 3-2 against 184 lb. opposition. The team got its best finish at fifth place out of 20 at the New York State Championships.
• The ever-dependable Fencing team did not disappoint this fall. Seven competitors for Columbia earned national points at the November North American Cup, including Sara Taffel winning the women’s foil gold. All 17 Lions who competed at the December NAC earned top 32 placements, led by Margaret Lu’s gold medal in, again, foil competition. In team competition, the Lions hosted four schools in the Blue Gym at Dodge and dispatched them all with ease.

Stupefying 24,000 fans via Tim Sofranko