Field hockey suffers double defeat

The Columbia field hockey team that took the pitch this weekend did not play like the one that had previously won four consecutive games.

Lacking cohesive offensive production, the Lions (8-8, Ivy 4-2) fell out of first place in the Ivy League with a 3-1 loss to Yale (10-6, Ivy 5-1) on Friday before suffering a 1-0 nonconference defeat at the hands of Villanova (8-10) on Sunday.

“I’m disappointed for them because I know that they wanted it,” head coach Marybeth Freeman said. “I think we got a bit frantic and we gave the ball away way too easily. It wasn’t just our midfield. It was all our lines.”

The Lions’ inability to control the ball or connect passes between the back and front lines was uncharacteristic of the squad that had defeated Dartmouth 4-2 just a week earlier.

In Friday’s match, the Bulldogs kept the ball on the Light Blue’s end of the field for nearly the entire first half, outshooting the Lions 12-0 and out-cornering them 8-0 in the first 35 minutes.

“It was just a really important game, and though we had told ourselves as a team that we need to treat this game like any other, I think we did let it go to our head that today was a really big match-up,” senior midfielder Leti Freaney said.

Yale took an early lead when senior back Erin Carter scored in the sixth minute off an assist by her classmate midfielder Dinah Landshut.

The Bulldogs’ offense continued its relentless attack, forcing Columbia’s defense to come up with the stops. Junior goalie Christie O’Hara finished the night with eight saves, and junior back Katie DeSandis had one, increasing her season total to six defensive saves, the highest in the Ivies.

But the backline was not impenetrable, and the Bulldogs’ lead widened to 2-0 with sophomore forward Erica Borgo’s goal in the 22nd minute.

The Lions came out aggressively in the second half, and after a penalty corner in the 44th minute, Freaney connected with senior back Desi Scherf, who tapped in a goal to put the Light Blue within one.

But it was too little, too late for Columbia. Six minutes after the Lions’ goal, Carter put Yale up 3-1 with her second goal of the game and 14th of the season.

“We had reverted back to how we played in the beginning of the season, being a second half team,” Freaney said. “It really hurt us this game that we didn’t come out with the fire we normally have.”

The loss puts the Light Blue in a tie for third place with Dartmouth, while the Bulldogs are neck and neck with Princeton for leadership of the conference.

Though it is out of their hands, the Lions could still be crowned co-champions of the league if Princeton loses to Penn, Yale loses to Brown, and Columbia beats Harvard next weekend.

Freaney said she and her fellow teammates want to end the season on a high note, but to do so, the Lions cannot allow this weekend’s results to demoralize them.

The team was unable to shake off the disappointment from Friday’s defeat before Sunday’s game, giving another subpar performance against Villanova.

Though the Lions prevented the Wildcats from scoring until the 44th minute, when freshman back Maddy Harding blasted a shot into the upper-left corner of the goal, Freeman described Columbia’s play as soft.

Individual players stood out against Villanova, especially freshman back Lauren Skudalski, who filled in at various positions on the backline, but the team was not working as a unit.

“It doesn’t matter to me how old you are, how long you’ve been playing,” Freeman said. “I don’t care about that. If you’re not doing what’s been asked of you, to follow the plan, or if you’re on your own agenda, then you’re not playing as a team.”

To defeat Harvard, the Lions will need a performance opposite of this weekend’s showing.