Lucas Shaw

All season long, head coach Brett Boretti called his baseball team a family, with its mix of youth and experience. In the deciding game of the Ivy League championship playoff, Boretti stuck by his convictions.

As freshmen and seniors alike lumbered off the team bus to their respective dorms and houses, every member of the Columbia baseball team shared a collective sigh. If the Lions want to win their first Ivy Championship since 1977, they will have to wait a little bit longer.

With the men’s golf team securing an Ivy League championship two weekends ago, the Columbia baseball team hopes to add more trophies to the Athletic Department’s collection when it travels to Dartmouth this weekend for the Ivy Playoff.

As members of the Columbia baseball team piled on one another in celebration of a 5-4 victory over Penn this past Saturday, they were quick to note that it was a reflection of how far the Columbia baseball program has come in its three years under head coach Brett Boretti.

While the biggest accomplishment of the weekend for the Columbia baseball team was its second Lou Gehrig Division title, contributions from two players—its struggling first baseman and underappreciated catcher—showed why the Lions, who have already set a school record for league wins, expect to win in a playoff this weekend against Dartmouth.

Andy Coakley Field, named after the professional baseball player and former Columbia coach, will be renamed Robertson Field in a ceremony between the Columbia baseball team’s two games on Saturday.

The Columbia baseball team enters its final Ivy weekend with one goal—clinching its first Gehrig Division title since 1993.

Last season the Columbia baseball team welcomed Manhattan College to Andy Coakley Field having gone 10-10 in Ivy play, with a few out-of-conference games left to finish its 16-28-1 season.

When a single by Princeton’s sophomore designated hitter David Hale in the second inning of the Tigers’ April 12 game at Columbia was followed by a double, three singles, a walk, and a home run, Brett Boretti, the head coach of the Columbia baseball team, may have thought up some memories of his 2007 squad.

Trailing 2-0 in the top of the sixth inning, center fielder Nick Cox singled to third base and then stole second, putting a runner in scoring position with nobody out. After Cox, Jason Banos walked, Henry Perkins singled in Cox, and Mike Roberts doubled in Banos and Perkins. This late-inning barrage propelled the Columbia baseball team to a win in its first game of the weekend at Gehrig Division foe Cornell. After that first game, the team would not need to come from behind again, as Cox sparked the offense to score early and often in Ithaca to claim a three-game division lead.
Princeton, after sweeping Penn on Saturday, fell to them twice Sunday for a split, while Columbia took three of four on the weekend, making a trip to the Ivy Championship game a near certainty.

The Columbia baseball team (13-21, 8-4) looks to turn around Cornell’s recent resurgence and maintain its two-game Gehrig Division lead as it heads up to Ithaca this weekend for a four-game set.

Watch the audio slideshow to get to know Roar-ee, Columbia's Lion Mascot. Click on the link to read more about Roar-ee in the corresponding article, Roar-ee Elevates Athletic Department’s Efforts to Boost Spirit.

As Joe Scarlata walked off the mound after the fourth inning against Davidson on March 5, 2006, he had nothing to smile about.

Last Tuesday, with runners on first and second and two out in the bottom of the 11th, first baseman Ron Williams struck out, and the Columbia baseball team walked off the field 5-4 losers.

Sitting at the top of the Lou Gehrig Division is not a place the Columbia baseball team is accustomed to, but heading into its first weekend of intra-divisional play with four home games against Princeton, the Lions sit two games up on the second-place Tigers.

After sweeping Harvard for the first time in 15 years on Sunday, the Columbia baseball team travels to Hanover to play undefeated Dartmouth for Ivy League supremacy Monday. With the two wins at Harvard, the Lions improved their league record to 5-1, best in the Gehrig Division.

The Columbia baseball team has struggled to get consistent performances from its pitching staff all season, tallying a 7.48 team earned run average.

The Columbia baseball team has struggled to get consistent performances from its pitching staff all season, tallying a 7.48 team earned run average.

Wouldn’t it be great if after a touchdown John Jay ran down the field and spiked the ball in the end zone?

Perhaps John Baumann has not yet made the transition from basketball to baseball.

Coming off its second consecutive three-win league-opening series, the Columbia baseball team welcomes Army to Andy Coakley Field today looking to keep that momentum heading into the rest of Ivy play.

Playing its first home game since a season-ending loss to Stony Brook last year, the Columbia baseball team faces Brown and Yale at Andy Coakley Field for its Ivy opening weekend.

The Columbia baseball team enters its game today at St. John’s looking to pick up its third win in four games before it starts Ivy play this weekend against Brown and Yale.

Starting pitching woes continued to plague the Columbia baseball team as opposing hitters scored 67 runs and the Lions went 4-5 on the team’s southern trip.

Offense was in short supply as the Columbia baseball team scored just six runs and lost all four games at 24th-ranked Pepperdine this weekend. The Lions also lost all four games at Duke last weekend by a combined score of 36-10.

Coming into Saturday night’s contest at Columbia, Penn’s sophomore point guard Sarah Bucar had made just 12 of 77 three pointers all season.

Coming off an 0-4 weekend in its opening series at Duke, the Columbia baseball team continues its 17-game opening tour at 24th-ranked Pepperdine this weekend looking for its first win.

After losing seven nonconference games in a row and holding realistic Ivy title hopes in the same season, the Columbia women’s basketball team (9-17, 6-6 Ivy) enters its final weekend looking to set Columbia records and send its seniors off properly.

In its season-opening road trip to Duke, the Columbia baseball team exhibited the same inconsistency both on the mound and at the plate it had during last year’s 10-10 season.

In its season-opening road trip to Duke, the Columbia baseball team exhibited the same inconsistency both on the mound and at the plate it had during last year’s 10-10 season.

For the first time in 20 years, a team not named Penn or Princeton has claimed the Ivy League’s spot in the NCAA Tournament by winning the league crown.

The Columbia women’s basketball team, competing at Harvard and Dartmouth, lost both games of its toughest league road trip to fall back to .500 in Ivy play.

Due to construction on Pupin Plaza, the north exit doors to Francis Levien Gymnasium will be closed and insulated to minimize construction noise, and the occupancy limit will be lowered to 74 for the spring and summer.

As head coach Paul Nixon stood outside the visitors’ locker room holding a Columbia stuffed animal monkey after having just watched the Columbia women’s basketball team get dismantled by Yale 76-59, his disgust was evident.

Four fencers on the Columbia team took home individual medals at Sunday’s IFA Championships, which were held at Levien Gymnasium.

Maybe it was the Gothic façade. Maybe it was the considerably larger Yale crowd. Maybe it was the Yale band heckling the Lions after every mistake. Whatever the reason, the Columbia women’s basketball team came out flat on Saturday at Yale, and its lack of intensity and aggressiveness all but ended its chance at an Ivy crown.

Sitting just two games out of first place in the Ivy League, the Columbia women’s basketball team travels to Yale and Brown this weekend looking for revenge and to continue its upward trend in the Ivy standings.

Head coach Paul Nixon has said all season how important it is for his team to dictate the tempo and play a fast-paced, high-scoring game. This weekend, the Columbia women’s basketball team struggled to establish that tempo against two of the elite programs in the Ivy League, but when it did control the flow, it showed just how dangerous it can be.

Last season, when Harvard and Dartmouth came to Levien Gymnasium and took on the Columbia women’s basketball team, they were facing a squad that was 0-4 in league play with no postseason aspirations. This year, the Crimson and Big Green face a surging and surprising Lions team that is off to its best start in program history.

With recent changes in the financial aid programs at Harvard and Yale, a new question faces the rest of the Ivy League: now that two of the three Ivy universities included in the “Big Three”—Harvard, Yale, and Princeton— are more affordable than their competitors, will the advantage they already hold in recruiting be compounded?

After getting trounced by league rival Cornell to start off Saturday, the Lions’ wrestling team traveled to Binghamton and defeated the Bearcats 24-15.

The Lions have had many offensive lows this season, from scoring just 33 points at Hartford to shooting 18 percent against West Virginia, but they are finding their offensive stride at just the right time as two 70-point performances this weekend leave them at 4-2 in Ivy play for the first time in the program’s history.

Clutter atop the League

Keeping with the Ivy League tradition of winning at home, Harvard, Dartmouth and Cornell got much-needed separation from the rest of the league with home sweeps this weekend, giving them each 3-1 records in league play.

Saturday’s overtime victory over Brown may prove vital in keeping the Columbia women’s basketball team in the running for a top four Ivy finish, but the extra minutes may also come back to haunt the already short handed-team as fatigue sets in during the grueling Ivy season.

Having already lost leading scorer Chelsea Frazier in the weekend’s first game, it looked as if it would be a lost weekend for the Lions until a furious second-half rally forced overtime, and ultimately led to a 56-52 win over Brown on Saturday at Levien Gymnasium.

With the score knotted at 52 and 10.8 seconds left, the Brown men’s basketball team called a time-out to discuss what to run for a final play. Damon Huffman, a junior at the time, got the ball, and despite his 46 percent accuracy from three-point range, drove to the basket. He was unable to get a shot off and the Bears fell in overtime, 60-56.

Frazier Shines for Columbia

With recently crowned Ivy Player of the Week Chelsea Frazier back in the starting lineup, the Columbia women’s basketball team may now have the depth and muscle in the frontcourt it needs to weather foul trouble or poor play heading into the bulk of the Ivy season.

In a league—and a sport—where road wins are usually very difficult to come by, Cornell has again established itself as the cream of the Ivy League with its dominating performance at Columbia this past weekend.

In basketball, the team that determines the style of play dictates the result. The “Princeton offense” helped the Tigers rule over the Ivy League for over a decade and capture numerous memorable victories, the most famous being a 1996 upset of UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

As a preparation for the approaching regular season, members of the Columbia tennis team will compete with players from seven other teams located across the Northeast to win the Columbia Classic this weekend at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.

Six years removed from its last winning season, the Athletic Department hired Jonathan Wilson, a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year, to lead the volleyball program into a new era.

During a season filled with bad offensive performances, the Lions’ women’s basketball team shot just 29.1 percent from the field in a 59-52 loss to Longwood last night at Levien Gym. With only one win since Nov. 24, the Light Blue lost its third game in a row in its first home game after a program-record eight straight games away from Levien.

Despite many bright spots, the Columbia women's basketball team dropped back-to-back games in Colorado this weekend, getting beat first at the free throw line and then from behind the arc.

Despite sending three teams to the men’s soccer NCAA tournament, including sixth-seeded Brown University, the Ivy League found itself without a team remaining in the field by the third round.

As the buzzer sounded at Lavietes Pavilion, the fans, who had been chanting “We got Tommy!” throughout the game, stormed the court to celebrate Harvard University’s 62-51 victory over the visiting University of Michigan.

On its first trip outside the northeast, the Columbia women’s basketball team (2-4, 0-0 Ivy) will try to build on its 1-1 Thanksgiving break and put together four consistent halves on the hardwood at the Florida Atlantic Invitational.

Usually, when three of a teams four leading scorers return from the previous season, including two members of the All-Freshmen Team, it is expected that those players will lead the team in scoring.

Chosen to win the Ivy League by reporters, the Cornell basketball team is living up to the hype with victories over Army and Siena, thanks to a high-powered offense that is averaging 88 points per game.

The Light Blue women’s basketball team will try to rebound from three straight losses and grab its first victory of the season tonight against the Lafayette Leopards in Levien Gym.

The Columbia women’s basketball team was nearly outscored by a single opposing player as it lost 57-33 at Hartford Friday, giving Columbia three straight losses to open the season. The Lions’ offensive struggles this season continued as they shot 23 percent from the field and failed to score more than 20 points in either half. Last year when these two teams met, the Light Blue also netted less than 40 points.

The final whistle sounded at Dartmouth’s Berry Sports Center on Nov. 10, right after the Big Green volleyball team put the finishing touch on its eighth win in Ivy League play.

After losing its three leading scorers to graduation, including two-time Ivy Player of the Year Ibrahim Jaaber, Penn’s position atop the Ivy League was questionable coming into this season.

In its first and only regatta of the fall season, the freshman men’s lightweight crew team had one top-10 finish while both women’s teams finished outside of the top half at the Belly of the Carnegie in Princeton, N.J.

In Joe Jones’ first year as the Lions’ men’s basketball coach, he led a team that had won zero Ivy League games the previous season to six victories.

Nearing the close of yet another disappointing season, the Columbia volleyball team will try to grab its first Ivy victory of the season against the Harvard Crimson this evening in Cambridge.

Hoping to improve on last season’s 8-20 mark, the Columbia women’s basketball team opens its season this afternoon against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies.

The Lions field hockey team enters today’s match against Yale looking to pick up its fourth straight Ivy victory and hold on to its outside chance at a share of the league crown. The game was scheduled for Friday, but it was postponed due to rain.

After snapping a three game losing streak Wednesday night against Lehigh, the Columbia men’s soccer team looks to pick up its first Ivy win since 2005 tomorrow night against Yale.

A year removed from having the Ivy League’s statistically best defense, the Lions now sit at the bottom of the Ancient Eight.

Whether he’s dissecting defenses or studying investment banking, Penn senior quarterback Bryan Walker is all business.

During a warm-up session of soccer, Gena Miller breaks away from her pursuers, dribbles the ball toward the other end of the field, approaches the opposing goal, and takes a shot.

Yale is dismantling its opponents like no Ivy team has done before. The Bulldogs are the first team in Ivy League history to have scored more than 50 points in two league games, with a 51-12 victory over Cornell and a 50-10 victory over Dartmouth. Yale is averaging 41.8 points per game, which is nearly 11 points more than the next-highest-scoring team, Brown. Meanwhile, the Elis are also first in scoring defense, as they give up only 13.2 points per game.

The return of Elizabeth Kobak, who was once ranked first nationally in the 16-and-under division, should help the struggling women’s tennis team’s doubles lineup at this weekend’s Flushing Meadows Invitational.

A customer asked Sherif Altrabeshy, who runs the fruit stand outside Ollie’s restaurant at 116th and Broadway, where he got his figs. Altrabeshy said he had picked them from his backyard. Then he pointed to the huge truck behind his stand, and bowled over laughing.

Nothing makes an offensive lineman want to protect his quarterback more than paying for his pizza—just ask senior center Mike Partain.

In most aspects Columbia’s defense this year looks nothing like the unit that was second in the Ivy League in scoring defense last season. In each of the first two games, the Lions’ opponent has rushed for over 250 yards on the ground—something no one did against Columbia last year. In addition, the defense lost three All-Ivy players and three other starters. Yet in Saturday’s game against Marist, the defense did one thing that last year’s unit was known for—forcing game-changing turnovers.

In a battle for Northeastern supremacy, the Columbia women’s soccer team looks to collect its fifth win in a row this evening against the Stony Brook Seawolves.

Coming off its first Ivy championship in over 10 years, Princeton has momentum heading into 2007 and returns several key players from last year’s squad.

When Cornell head coach Jim Knowles took over the Big Red football program three years ago, the team was coming off a 1-9 campaign and a winless Ivy League season. Ever since, the team has placed in the top half of the league. This year, Knowles hopes his team will make another jump toward the top.

Norries Wilson had a year of firsts in his opening season as the head coach of the Columbia football team. He was the first new coach to win his first game since Buff Donelli in 1957. Under his watch, the Lions won their first Ivy game since 2004 and recorded their first .500 season since 1996.

Only one season removed from an Ivy championship, the Brown football team enters this fall trying to recapture past success and forget its 3-7 finish last year.

For the first time since winning the Ivy championship last November, the Columbia women’s soccer team returns to Baker Field for their home opener at the newly-renovated Columbia Soccer Stadium.