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As Monday night’s WNBA Draft came to a close, Ivy League fans had something to cheer about when former Penn forward Jordan Obi’s name was called by the defending champion Las Vegas Aces with the 44th pick.
As the 2024-25 season quickly approaches, the Ivy League hosted its annual women’s basketball Media Day on Thursday. The three-hour event, hosted by Lance Medow, can be viewed on the conference’s YouTube channel.
Prior to the event, the league announced the results of its preseason poll.
Princeton, which has claimed the Ancient Eight title for the last six years, was picked first with 122 out of a possible 128 points and 10 first-place votes. Columbia, which has tied for the top spot in each of the last two seasons, came in second with 110 points and five first-place votes.
Harvard, which has finished the last two years in third placed, was tabbed for third in 2025, earning 101 points and one first-place spot.
Penn, the final participant in last year’s Ivy tournament, was picked fourth with 75 votes, while Brown, which finished last year tied with Penn for fourth, was four points back in fifth place.
Sixth place went to Yale, which was as high as third place in 2022, with 48 votes.
While Cornell and Dartmouth ended last season tied for seventh place, the Big Red got the nod for seventh in this year’s poll with 30 points and the Big Green were eighth with 19 points.
Below are highlights from this year’s virtual Media Day:
While most of the nation’s attention was focused on Caitlin Clark being selected by the Indiana Fever at the top of the WNBA Draft, Ivy League fans celebrated the selection of Columbia’s Abbey Hsu and Kaitlyn Davis and Harvard’s McKenzie Forbes in the third round of Monday night’s event.
Hsu was a senior guard for two-time regular-season champion Columbia and the 2023-24 Ivy League Player of the Year, while Davis, who played with Hsu at Columbia for three seasons and was a two-time First-Team All-Ivy forward, spent her graduate transfer season as a starter for Southern California. Forbes, a 2021-22 Second Team All-Ivy guard/forward who started her career at California before transferring to Harvard for her final three undergraduate years, joined Davis in the starting lineup for the Trojans.
NEW YORK – The opening day of the Ivy League Tournament brought the four women’s teams to Levien Gymnasium on the campus of Columbia University.
Below are highlights of the press conferences and links to the videos. (Check out the game previews from Steve Silverman)
While the Columbia campus is divided over global events, most are united over the performance of the school’s athletic programs.
On Sunday, the women’s soccer team faced Rutgers in front of a raucous crowd during its NCAA Tournament first-round victory. Two days later, the Lions’ faithful (and Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris) packed Levien Gymnasium as the women’s basketball team welcomed Kara Lawson and Duke, the first time a top-25 team ever visited Morningside Heights.
Megan Griffith’s Light Blue squad went toe-to-toe with the No. 22 Blue Devils the entire evening but came up short in a 66-62 defeat.
Despite overcoming a 17-point deficit in the third quarter, the Columbia women went down in defeat in Monday night’s seasoner opener against Stony Brook, 85-73, at the Island Federal Credit Union.
Thanks to the graduation of eight players, including starters Kaitlyn Davis, Jaida Patrick and Hannah Pratt, the 2022-23 Ivy League co-champions and WNIT finalists entered the evening with more uncertainty than they had the last several years.
With the season a few weeks away, the Ivy League hosted Women’s Basketball Media Day on Monday, the first of two media availabilities this week. The event was hosted over Zoom for media members and is available on the conference’s YouTube channel.
The preseason media poll was released last Thursday with Princeton earning all 16 first-place votes. Last year’s Ivy Tournament winner and regular season co-champions are the sixth unanimous pick in league history and the first since Penn in 2016-2017.
As we enter the July 4th holiday weekend, we at Ivy Hoops Online wanted to round up some postseason updates:
Amazing atmosphere for a @WomensNIT Championship Game. Thank you, @KUWBball fans for the experience! Here’s to us both being in the Big Dance next year! #GrowTheGame #RoarLionRoar // #EDGE 🦁
📸 Joshua Wang
FULL PHOTO GALLERY:https://t.co/jMkTonpYDe pic.twitter.com/1hCmLs0Ppo
— Columbia Women’s Basketball (@CULionsWBB) April 2, 2023
The deepest run for an Ivy League team in WNIT history ended in defeat in the tournament final Saturday as Columbia fell at Kansas, 66-59, before an Allen Fieldhouse crowd of 11,701.
Horrid shooting and a disadvantage in the paint doomed the Lions in a defensive struggle they slowly but steadily lost control over in the second and third quarters, requiring a comeback effort that came up short.
🎞 Time to check out the highlights from Wednesday night’s @WomensNIT victory at Bowling Green#RoarLionRoar // #EDGE // #OnlyHere 🦁 pic.twitter.com/TLzpcEhVUi
— Columbia Women’s Basketball (@CULionsWBB) March 30, 2023
Columbia women’s basketball’s second straight historic WNIT run will continue after a wire-to-wire win at Bowling Green in the tournament semifinal setting up the Lions for a shot at the title Saturday.
Columbia held off host Bowling Green in a 77-70 victory Wednesday night before a sold-out crowd of 4,155 at the Stroh Center. The Lions will play for a WNIT championship as the visiting team at Kansas (24-11, 9-9 Big 12) Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
Columbia becomes the first team in Ivy League history to reach the WNIT championship game.