The Lions (15-8, 9-3 Ivy) stayed at home this weekend, hosting Harvard, Dartmouth, and Sacred Heart.

Harvard (11-11, 4-8 Ivy) came into Levien on Friday struggling, having lost four of its past six games.

Columbia started off strong, prepared to defend the home court. It seemed like a different Harvard team than the one that had beaten Columbia just a few weeks earlier, as the Lions went up 20-9 in the first set before going on to win it 25-19. Nine Lions went on to score kills on offense, and 11 recorded digs on defense, as the Light Blue put away the Crimson in the subsequent sets (25-22 and 25-20) to win its first of three Fall Break matches.

On Saturday, after Friday’s big win, the Light Blue took on Dartmouth. Unlike Harvard, Dartmouth (14-9, 6-6 Ivy) had been successful against league opponents, winning four of its last five matches before Saturday.

The Lions came out strong once again, beating the Big Green 25-17 in the first set.

Dartmouth fought back, though, winning the next two 25-20 and 25-15, respectively.

Down two sets to one, the Lions faced do-or-die time in their final Ivy League home match.

The match was also the last home Ivy match for seniors Cindy Chen, Nicole Goldhaber, and Monique Roberts, who helped propel the squad to victory in the fourth and fifth sets, 25-21 and 15-10, securing the team’s second match of the weekend.

In their final home match of the year, the Lions took on non-conference opponent Sacred Heart (23-7, 12-2 Northeast Conference), which was by far the Light Blue’s most competitive opponent of the weekend. Columbia witnessed why the Pioneers had won eight of their past 10 games prior to yesterday as Sacred Heart put up a dominant performance at Levien and won in straight sets. Sacred Heart was strong from the start, at times gaining double-digit leads over the Lions in the first set en route to a crushing 25-10 victory.

In the second set, the Light Blue again struggled to keep pace with the Pioneers, which once again went ahead by 10 points before winning 25-17. Despite Columbia’s efforts to come back in the third, it was only able to keep the game relatively close as Sacred Heart took the third set 25-21 and, with it, the match.

With Yale’s victories this weekend over both Penn and Princeton, the Lions have lost the chance to win the league title outright. However, if Yale loses to both Harvard and Dartmouth while Columbia beats both Princeton and Penn, then the Lions could claim a share of the Ivy crown. With their victory over Princeton, the Bulldogs remain in sole possession of first place, while the Lions now share the second spot with Princeton.