After a 2008 campaign that saw the Columbia women’s soccer team fall just one win short of the Ivy League championship, the Lions entered 2009 with high expectations. Columbia had lost just two starters and returned four all-Ivy honorees, including senior midfielder and Player of the Year Sophie Reiser. Nevertheless, the Lions (7-7-3, 3-3-1 Ivy) finished the season tied with Princeton for fifth place in the league. Columbia began the year with two consecutive losses in the Husky/Nike Invitational, allowing three goals to Washington and five to Portland. While Columbia did not score against the Huskies, senior midfielder Christina Eckhardt found the back of the net in the 83rd minute against the Pilots. Columbia rebounded from the defeats in its home opener, a 4-0 thrashing of Manhattan College. Junior defender Kelly Hostetler scored the first goal and Reiser finished the scoring with her second career hat trick. In its next matchup, Columbia beat Iona with a 3-1 score. Reiser scored in the 25th minute, while sophomore forward Ashlin Yahr gave the Lions their final two goals of the game. The Lions fought Hofstra to a 1-1 tie on Sept. 18 but dropped a 2-1 decision against St. John’s just two days later. Yahr recorded both of Columbia’s tallies in that stretch. On Sept. 22, the Lions picked up a 3-2 victory over Central Connecticut State behind one goal from Hostetler and two from sophomore forward Marissa Schultz. Columbia opened Ivy play with a 1-0 win at Cornell, as Yahr scored on a header in the 15th minute. The Lions struggled in their next game, however—a 1-0 defeat to nonconference foe Colgate. On Oct. 3, Columbia’s offensive woes continued in a 1-0 loss to Brown. Yahr ended the Lions’ scoring drought on Oct. 5, when she led Columbia to a 1-1 tie at Lehigh. She followed that performance with a two-goal effort in the Lions’ 4-2 victory over Penn. Reiser and junior forward Chrissy Butler also scored for Columbia in the Oct. 10 matchup. Columbia continued to shine offensively in a 3-1 win at Marist. While the Lions did not score against Princeton on Oct. 17, they also held the Tigers scoreless in the stalemate. Columbia came out flat at Dartmouth the following weekend, however, and suffered a 2-0 loss. The Lions proved that their performance against the Big Green was an anomaly with a 1-0 win over Yale on Oct. 30. The Bulldogs entered the game tied with Harvard for first place in the Ivy League standings, but Columbia caused them to fall to second. Reiser scored in the 37th minute to lead the Lions to victory. Columbia closed the season against Harvard on Nov. 7. Before facing the Lions, the Crimson already had clinched a share of the conference title. A Columbia win and a Yale win would have forced Harvard into a tie with Yale for the league championship, but the Lions were unable to deliver. Nevertheless, Columbia did not go down easily. The Crimson scored early in the first half and seemed in position to win in regulation. With only 15 seconds left in the second period, however, the Lions knotted the score. Senior defender Meggie Ford set up the Columbia goal with a free kick that junior defender Lauren Cooke headed into the net. Despite entering overtime with momentum, the Lions fell to the Crimson halfway through the extra period. This spring, Columbia will lose Eckhardt and three starters—Reiser, Ford, and midfielder Ashley Mistele—to graduation, but the Lions have enough depth to contend for the Ivy title in 2010. Yahr, Columbia’s top scorer this season with eight tallies, will again be expected to lead the offense. Schultz and Butler should also be scoring threats, while Hostetler and Cooke have proven that they can bolster the Lions’ back line.