Trailing two games to none, Columbia pieced together two strong offensive performances to force a game five, before falling to Dartmouth, 3-2.

Columbia fell to 7-14, 1-10 Ivy League, while Dartmouth improved to 11-10, 5-6 Ivy League.

A glance at the box score would show that the Lions were ready to win.  They held an advantage in kills (72-69), assists (64-59), aces (13-7), digs (112-105) and blocks (16-11). 

The Lions dropped a tough game one, 31-29 and game two 30-25, but in game three, the Lions turned the corner and started killing the ball.  With 18 kills, the Lions took game three quickly 30-23 and hit .298 with 19 kills in taking game four, 30-24.

Despite having one more kill than the Big Green, the Lions lost game five, 15-12, as Dartmouth capitalized on five Columbia errors to seal the game.

Amalia Viti had an outstanding game, finishing with 22 kills and just five errors with seven blocks.

Ashley Kim had 30 digs in the five-game match, and Natalie Gerling had 17 kills with 12 digs.  Nikki Learned had 13 kills and added five block assists and two solo blocks.

The Lions return to action tomorrow at Harvard at 4 p.m.