Kitty Henderson

Columbia women’s basketball bests Penn in Ivy League opener

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Columbia women’s basketball opened its defense of its Ivy hoops title Saturday at home with a solid 79-66 win over Penn.
As if to underline that this isn’t the same Lions team as last year’s, the game’s standout player wasn’t even playing in Manhattan until the fall. Bucknell junior transfer Cecelia Collins had 19 points, five rebounds and seven seriously nifty assists. On a subpar day for senior guard and leading scorer Abbey Hsu (a mere 14 points on 5-for-14 shooting), Collins frustrated the visitors on both ends of the court.

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Columbia women’s basketball wins a 77-75 thriller over Villanova

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After giving up a buzzer-beating three to Florida at the Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship the week prior, Columbia women’s basketball made sure lightning wouldn’t strike twice and used clutch plays on both end of the court over the last few seconds to defeat visiting Villanova, 77-75, Sunday afternoon.

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Columbia women’s basketball comes up short against No. 22 Duke

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Senior guard Abbey Hsu’s 25 points on 10-for-17 shooting weren’t quite enough for Columbia to top No. 22 Duke at Levien Gym Tuesday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

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. 

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Columbia women fall to Stony Brook in season opener

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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.

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2023-24 Ivy women’s media day recap and season preview

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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.

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Harvard at Columbia in WNIT Great 8: What to watch for

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Columbia and Harvard women’s basketball will square off for a fourth time this season Sunday at 4 p.m. at Levien Gym on ESPN3.

This time, a WNIT Fab 4 berth is on the line.

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Harvard women stun Columbia to advance to Ivy League Tournament final

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Sophomore guard Harmoni Turner contributed 18 points, 12 rebounds and four assists in 44 minutes in Harvard’s Ivy League Tournament semifinal upset of Columbia at Jadwin Gym Friday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Harvard Crimson put an abrupt end to anticipation of a rubber match between regular-season co-champions Princeton and Columbia by defeating the latter in the second of two Ivy League Tournament semifinal games played at Jadwin Gym in an overtime thriller, 72-65.

The No. 3 Crimson advance to face No. 1 Princeton, which defeated Penn earlier Friday, 60-47.  The tournament final will be played Saturday  at 5 p.m. at Jadwin Gym.  

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Reporter’s Notebook – Ivy League Tournament day two

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Empty media room seat in memory of Grant Wahl (Photo by Rob Browne)

The morning of day two of Ivy Madness had more people in the media room and arena as the men’s teams took the stage for their interview sessions.

It’s certainly worth noting the empty media room seat left unoccupied as a tribute to Grant Wahl, the award-winning college basketball and soccer journalist who died a few months ago due to complications associated with Marfan syndrome.  Wahl attended Princeton from 1992 to 1996 and began his career as a reporter for the Daily Princetonian.  A very nice touch by everyone at the Ivy League office and Princeton Athletics.

Some more observations from the pre-semifinal part of the day:

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Ivy League Tournament women’s semifinal preview: No. 3 Harvard vs. No. 2 Columbia

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No. 2 Columbia (23-4, 12-2 Ivy) vs No. 3 Harvard (16-10, 9-5 Ivy), 7 p.m. or 30 minutes following 4:30 game (Princeton vs Penn), whichever is later (available on ESPN+) at Jadwin Gym 

Game #1, 1/14/23: Columbia (home) over Harvard, 82-56
Game #2, 2/17/23: Columbia over Harvard (home), 75-70

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Ivy women’s week 10 roundup: Ancient Eight’s top 10

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Heading into the last two days of the regular season, Columbia and Princeton were tied for first, while Penn held a one-game lead over Harvard for third place.  After the Lions, Tigers and Crimson each grabbed a win, the Ivy League Tournament semifinal matchups of Columbia against Harvard and Princeton versus Penn had been set.  What needed to be determined was the seeding of the four teams and the timing of the two matchups.

When the updated NCAA NET rankings were posted on Sunday morning, Princeton’s convincing road victory over upper division Penn combined with Columbia’s narrow escape at home against seventh-place Cornell resulted in the Tigers overcoming an 11-position difference from last week and taking the No. 1 seed away from the Lions.

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