PRINCETON, N.J. ? Linnae Goswami has never been a match player. Columbia's junior co-captain always plays well in the Lions' practices, but never seems to put it all together on the court.

She was probably going to sit out Friday's match at Princeton once again, until one of coach Ilene Weintraub's regulars, Natasha Makarova, became ill.

"I didn't want to break up one of our other doubles teams," Weintraub admitted, "so I went to Linnae, she's our next best doubles player, and paired her with Nina Suda." The rest is history.

The doubles pairing of co-captains Goswami and Suda, playing together for the first time in a match, proved lethal for Princeton's No. 1 team of Taylor Marable and Rebecca Parks, winning the pro set by an 8-6 score. Although Columbia could win just one other match, Lauren Shearer at No. 4 singles, the 6-1 loss was almost overshadowed by the two victories.

Almost, but not quite.

"I was a little disappointed in the way we played," Weintraub said. "I thought we could have won a lot more mnatches." The coach conceded her team could have been affected by the mid-80's heat in Princeton, especially after playing most of their matches indoors in the Dick Savitt Tennis Center. Still, the Lions had played in warm weather on their Florida trip.

Although many of her players were overmatched by the Tigers, who won six singles matches at love (6-0), Shearer clearly was not. The Lion defeated Sarah Huah, formerly a high-ranking junior player, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6 in the super tiebreaker).

"I'm proud and happy at the way Lauren played," Weintraub said. She also praised first-year Natalia Christenson, who rebounded from a 6-0 first set to play a 6-4 set against Kelly Stewart. "Natalia was up a break," the coach said, "but was broken back at 4-3."

And the surprise doubles combo?

"Linnae and Nina are each other's best friends," Weintraub noted. "They really enjoyed it. There was great chemistry out there."

"Linnae was smiling the whole match," the coach continued. "Linnae's play was amazing, she was hitting winners left and right."

Columbia returns to Manhattan tomorrow (Saturday, April 19) for its final match of the season. The Lions play Ivy League power Penn in the Dick Savitt Tennis Center at 12 noon.

The results:

PRINCETON 6, COLUMBIA 1
Friday, April 19, 2008
Lenz Tennis Center, Princeton, N.J.

Doubles
1. Nina Suda-Linnae Goswami, Columbia, def. Taylor Marable-Rebecca Parks, 8-6
2. Sarah Huah-Ivana King, Princeton, def. Lauren Shearer- Stephanie Zilberman, 8-2
3. Sarah Hoffman-Melissa Saiontz, Princeton, def. Carling Donovan-Natalia Christenson, 8-1
Princeton wins the doubles point.

Singles
1. King, Princeton, def. Suda, 6-1, 6-0
2. Saiontz, Princeton, def. Zilberman, 6-2, 6-0
3. Marable, Princeton, def. Donovan, 6-0, 6-3
4. Shearer, Columbia, def. Huah, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6)
5. Hoffman, Princeton, def. Goswami, 6-0, 6-0
6. Kelly Stewart, Princeton, def. Christenson, 8-1

RECORDS: Columbia 2-13, 0-6 Ivy League; Princeton 11-8, 4-2 Ivy League