Celebrating 25 years of Columbia women’s soccer

This past season marked the 25th anniversary of the Columbia women's soccer team's achieving varsity status. In 1986, it joined a competitive Ivy field that initially overpowered the nascent squad. A quarter century later, though, the team has established itself as a force in the Ancient Eight.

Last but not least
Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and Cornell had already been fielding strong women’s teams for several seasons by the time Columbia began its first as a varsity team in 1986.
On the whole, women’s athletics faced many issues early on at Columbia, having to deal with problems such as a lack of facilities, funding difficulties, and being overshadowed by and less promoted than men’s athletics.

In an interview for a 1985 Columbia Spectator feature, Marjorie Tversky, then-associate director of athletics at Columbia, said, “I’m hopeful that in the next year or two crew and soccer [now club-varsity sports for women] will be elevated to varsity status.” Less than a year later, the Lions were gearing up for their debut as a varsity team at the Seven Sisters Tournament at Bryn Mawr.

The beginning
Prior to its first season as a varsity sport, Columbia’s club squad finished below .500, with a subpar record of 4-9. All of a sudden, the Lions were being thrown into a fiercely competitive league of established soccer programs, some of which were even nationally ranked teams. The biggest problem the new varsity team faced was the quandary of bringing together multiple elements needed for a team to be dominant in an extremely short amount of time.

The Light Blue had all the makings of a championship team—a group of talented freshmen, key returning players, a new assistant coach—but becoming one cohesive unit proved to be a significant obstacle. When asked about how the soccer program has changed since its establishment in 1986, current Columbia head coach Kevin McCarthy, who has been at the helm for 18 years, referred to this difficulty.

“It always comes with a fair amount of growing pain,” McCarthy said.

Columbia played its first match as a varsity team on Sept. 13, 1986, against Swarthmore, the first of its three competitors that weekend at the Seven Sisters Tournament at Bryn Mawr. The Lions defeated Swarthmore 2-0, and went 2-1 in the tournament, finishing in third place. It was an encouraging result for Columbia, who finished in sixth place at the same tournament a year earlier.

A week later, Columbia faced its first Ivy opponent in the Harvard Crimson. The Lions fell 1-0 to Harvard, but remained positive even with the defeat. The Light Blue held the Crimson to a 0-0 tie until the 51st minute of the game, when Harvard’s Jen Gifford scored the lone goal of the match. Columbia maintained a strong defensive effort throughout, which resulted in a compromised offensive effort. The Lions did not record their first win against an Ivy League team until 1989, when they shut out Penn 3-0 on a hat trick by Anne Gamache.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it was a victory and that’s what counts,” then-senior co-captain Kristin Friedholm, CC ’90, said to describe the game in an old Spectator article.

Twenty-five years later, the Lions are a new team
Since the Light Blue squad became a varsity squad, things have changed, such as its success in the Ivy League—the Lions last went winless in the Ancient Eight in 2002.
“The varsity program was started because of the drive of the women who played on the club team. The other teams had a head start, but in the years that I’ve been around, the program has really progressed,” McCarthy said.

The varsity Lions celebrate their quarter century birthday under a coach who has seen the team develop and blossom into an impressive Ivy team.

On January 28, the Lions will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the varsity soccer program. “The event planned will honor the women who played on the first team. We’ve gotten great response and I’m really looking forward to it,” McCarthy said.

Even though the team loses seniors to graduation and brings in new groups of freshmen each year, one thing that stays the same is the strong alumnae connection.

“The alumnae stay connected in many ways. They offer internships, attend matches. The connections are strong and after the event, they’ll be even stronger,” McCarthy said.

“The upcoming anniversary will strengthen the bonds between all the women, which will serve us even better in the future.”