In the hostile confines of Lavietes Pavilion, Columbia women’s basketball squeaked by Harvard, 58–55, in a marquee Ivy League matchup Saturday. The Lions (10-5, 1-1 Ivy) dominated the first 21 minutes of play before a furious Crimson (8-7, 1-1) third-quarter comeback led to a vigorous fourth-quarter battle.
Perri Page
Sizing up Columbia women’s basketball’s shocking loss to Cornell to open Ivy play
After the magic of the three-bid Ivy last season, Columbia, alongside Harvard, had work to do in conference play after good-but-not-great nonconference campaigns.
Entering Ivy play in Charlie Creme’s Next Four Out, the Lions now likely can wave the dream of an at-large bid goodbye after going down in the second quarter before Cornell pulled ahead for good late in the third en route to a 67–60 upset.
Despite playing in the friendly confines of Levien Gym, the Lions (9-5, 0-1 Ivy) just couldn’t find an offensive rhythm. Senior forward/guard Perri Page led the way with 24 points, and junior guard Fliss Henderson had a strong game with 16 rebounds. But critically, Columbia had zero bench points and junior guard Riley Weiss had her worst shooting performance of the season, making just one field goal.
Senior forward Emily Pape led the way for the Big Red (5-8, 1-0) with 19 points, with junior guard/forward Rachel Kaus adding 15 points and three offensive rebounds.
Perri Page’s double-double and late layup give Columbia women’s basketball first Quad 1 win
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — It wasn’t pretty, but Columbia got its biggest road win of the young season.
The Lions (7-4) took the short ride to South Orange, New Jersey and beat Seton Hall (6-2) on a Perri Page layup with 0.7 seconds left, 54–53. Facing an unrelenting Seton Hall defense, the Lions never led in the second half until the final second.
Columbia women’s basketball goes 1–2 against tough Cancun Challenge competition
At the Cancun Challenge, Columbia women’s basketball played much improved basketball against quality opponents, as junior guard and reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Riley Weiss rounded into midseason shape.
Prior to the tournament, Weiss averaged 16.2 points per game. In these three games, she averaged over 27, notably shooting 48.3% overall and 42.3% from three, both numbers higher than any previous single game.
In three days of play, the Lions (4-4) lost a close shootout to Kansas State (5–3), 95–92; powered past perennial mid-major power South Dakota State (6–2), 80–67; and lost 80–63 against Courtney Banghart-led No. 12 North Carolina (8–1).
Columbia women’s basketball gets schooled by Saint Joseph’s in Education Day defeat
In front of a boisterous Education Day crowd of New York City schoolkids, Columbia women’s basketball struggled to get anything going and went down to a 66-48 defeat to Saint Joseph’s at Levien Gymnasium on Thursday afternoon.
With the win, the Hawks improved to 4-1 on the season and get ready for a Monday Big 5 matchup against Penn. Meanwhile, the Lions lost their second consecutive game and fall to 2-2 on the year.
Columbia women’s basketball falls to sharpshooting Richmond
In a battle between two of the nation’s premier mid-major teams, Richmond women’s basketball used hot three-point shooting to come away from Levien Gymnasium with a 77-67 win Saturday night.
Both teams, which made it to the NCAA Tournament and won a game last year, have aspirations of returning to the Big Dance in 2026. A victory for the Spiders (3-1) helps their overall resume, in case they cannot secure the Atlantic 10’s automatic bid in March. Despite the unfavorable result, the Lions (2-1), as often is the case, will find valuable lessons as they move forward with their difficult nonconference schedule.
2025-26 Ivy League women’s basketball preview
The release of the Ivy League preseason media poll and 2025-26 Media Day revealed Princeton as the favorite heading into the 2025-26 season, followed by three-time defending champion Columbia, 2025 Ivy Madness title-holder Harvard in third and Penn rounding out the upper half of the conference.
Brown, which has tied the Quakers for fourth place the last two years, is the clear choice for the fifth slot. Dartmouth, Cornell and Yale are pegged for the last three spots, with the Big Green one point ahead of the Big Red and seven points in front of the Bulldogs.
2025-26 IHO Women’s Preseason Poll
The 2025-26 Ivy women’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:
No. 11 Columbia women’s basketball falls to No. 6 West Virginia, 78-59, in NCAA Tournament
In a historic season of firsts, the Columbia women’s basketball team couldn’t get a NCAA Tournament Round of 64 win, falling on Saturday afternoon to the West Virginia Mountaineers, 78-59, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Mountaineers, who used a furious rally in the third quarter to defeat Princeton in last year’s NCAA Tournament Round of 64, ousted another Ivy foe on Saturday, dominating Columbia wire-to-wire.
Columbia is used to turning over its opponents with relentless full court pressure, but there’s an old saying in basketball that team’s that press don’t like to be pressed themselves, and that adage proved correct on Saturday as West Virginia’s signature zone press wreaked havoc on the Lions, forcing 25 turnovers, including 11 in the first quarter.
“West Virginia is a great team and a super-unique team in the women’s game,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith said postgame. “I think what they do not a lot of teams do, right, and especially defensively. March Madness is who can make the other team the most uncomfortable, and I thought they did that successfully to start the game. You know, forcing 11 turnovers.”
Columbia women’s basketball takes down Washington in NCAA Tournament First Four victory
Twenty minutes from a second straight defeat in the NCAA Tournament’s First Four, the Columbia women’s basketball team “heard what they needed to hear” from coach Megan Griffith and overcame a 13-point deficit to defeat Washington 63-60 at Carmichael Arena on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Thursday night.
Thursday night’s NCAA victory, the first ever for the Lions’ program, propelled Columbia (24-6) into a first-round matchup against No. 6 West Virginia on Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPNEWS. The Huskies (19-14), making their first appearance in the Big Dance since 2017, look to use this experience as motivation for next season.