The Light Blue (12-2, 6-2 Ivy) came back strong Saturday night against Cornell after last weekend’s New England weekend road trip ended on somewhat of a sour note against Harvard.
“We just didn’t have it that night. We definitely learned from it. We have to show up every night all the time,” head coach Jon Wilson said regarding last weekend’s loss.
Cornell (3-17, 1-7 Ivy) put up a strong fight against the Lions throughout the match, however, as the Big Red was always a few steps behind the Light Blue, seemingly playing catch-up.
The first set was close between the two, as Cornell never allowed Columbia to jump too far ahead. This happened to be the Big Red’s best set, as they trailed only 23-19 and later 24-22. The Lions, who have yet to lose a first set at home since the start of conference play, held on 25-22.
The second set started off close, and although the Lions took an early lead, Cornell kept at their heels. However, mistakes on the Cornell end contributed to the Lions taking a seven-point lead during the set as they cruised to a 25-18 win.
In what would be the game’s final set, Columbia once again jumped to an early lead, despite Cornell’s efforts to keep things close. Columbia’s talent proved to be too much for the Big Red to handle as the Lions jumped out to double-digit leads en route to a 25-14 set victory.
“We were hungry coming into this weekend,” junior Heather Braunagel said. Braunagel led the Light Blue in offense with 15 kills.
“We knew when we played against Harvard that wasn’t us,” she said. “We wanted to reestablish ourselves as a team and show them what we’re made of.”
“It was nice to get a 3-0 win at home,” Wilson said. “We had an extra day of preparation—that certainly helped.”
“We’ve settled some things down, the continuity in that line up helped us remain pretty steady.”
“I think we played good; we’re going to have to play better to win next weekend, the most important match of the year is Yale,” he said. “We have to find another level and finish the job this time. That’ll be hard, they’re talented, they’re hungry, we’re talented, we’re hungry, should be a great match.”
This weekend’s success over the Big Red places the Lions in good position to play Yale (13-5, 7-1 Ivy), which is currently tied with Princeton (14-6, 7-1 Ivy) for the top spot in the conference.
In all likelihood, the Lions will need to beat Yale in order to maintain hopes of winning the league championship. The Bulldogs have bulldozed through the conference, defeating every opponent 3-0 in straight sets with the exception of Columbia (3-2 victory) and Princeton (3-1 loss).
After taking on Yale on Friday, the Lions have a rematch against Brown next Saturday here at Levien.
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