Light Blue Offense Looks to Bounce Back Against Brown

After accruing its fourth conference loss of the year in as many attempts on Wednesday night, the Columbia lacrosse team (3-6, 0-4 Ivy) will face Brown (4-5, 1-1 Ivy) Saturday afternoon. The Lions are coming off a 15-4 defeat at the hands of Princeton, which is ranked second in the nation.

Columbia’s offense has not produced more than five goals in its last three games, and two of those were matchups with Ivy opponents. The Light Blue packs a powerful one-two punch with attackers Holly Glynn and Brittany Shannon—the junior and sophomore have recorded 26 and 22 tallies on the season, respectively—but the program’s all-time leading scorer, senior midfielder Marisa Marcellino, has not found the back of the net since a two-goal performance at Oregon on March 16. In addition, she dished out her most recent assist at Dartmouth on March 23. Marcellino needs to find a way to become more involved with the Lions’ offense if Columbia wants to pick up its first Ivy win.

Brown opened league play with a heartbreaking one-goal loss at Harvard, but made sure its next Ivy matchup ended differently. Last Saturday, the Bears upset 20th-ranked Dartmouth by three tallies to even their conference record at 1-1. That margin of victory was achieved due to junior midfielder Lauren Vitkus’s second-half hat trick. As a result of her efforts in that game as well as in a one-goal win over Marist, Vitkus earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors. She leads the Bears in goals (18), assists (7), points (25), and draw controls (25). Last year, she finished the season with 18 goals, so the fact that she has reached this total with seven games remaining in Brown’s 2008 schedule does not bode well for the Lions. Columbia’s defense must be at its best against Vitkus.

Game time is set for 1 p.m. at Baker Field.