NEW YORK ? It's homecoming weekend at Columbia, and the Columbia volleyball team is celebrating by hosting two tough Ivy League opponents in Levien Gymnasium: the Bears of Brown, and the defending Ivy League champion Yale Bulldogs.

Scouting the Bears
Brown has struggled to get going early in the Ivy season, as the Bears are 4-10 overall, and 0-3 in the Ivy League. The Bears, sitting in eighth in the League, are 1-3 on the road, and trying to snap a four-match losing streak.

Brown has faced only one team that Columbia has seen this fall, Bryant. While the Lions managed a 3-2 win over the Bulldogs, Brown has dropped two matches to their Rhode Island rivals, 3-1 and 3-2. In Ivy League matches, the Bears fell to both Yale and Penn, 3-0, and lost to Princeton 3-1.

Brianna Willimanson, who has 126 kills on the season, or a 2.52 kills per set average, leads the Bears. Christina Berry and Megan Toman have also helped on offense, with 103 kills each. Brown's setter is Spencer McAndrews, who's notched 263 assists thus far.  Libero Carly Cotton leads the team in digs, with 260 and also paces the Bears with 21 service aces. But she's not the only member of the Brown squad with a slippery serve: Toman has 15 aces, Laurielle Hofer has 12, and Williamson has 11 at this point in the year. In addition to Cotton, Berry and Williamson are also key parts of the passing game, with 130+ digs each. Defensively, Danielle Vaughn is Brown's main force at the net, as she has 38 total blocks, including 16 solos.

Scouting the Bulldogs
As if it weren't enough that Yale are the defending Ivy League champions, the team was also off to the best start in program history, at 12-1. The Bulldogs were riding a 10-match Ivy League winning streak, a 10-match home winning streak, and an eight match overall winning streak, before Penn came to New Haven, Conn. last weekend. There, the Quakers pulled out a huge five-set win, in what would be a heartbreaking loss for the Bulldogs. The 25-23, 19-25, 25-21, 25-27, 15-13 loss came despite a 26-kill, 16 dig performance from reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Cat Dailey.

But the Bulldogs will be ready to change their luck this weekend, and improve on their 12-2, 2-1 Ivy League record. Yale is 2-0 on the road this season, and holds a distinct historical advantage over the Lions: Columbia hasn't beaten the Bulldogs since 2001, when the Lions took two wins that season. Yale has won the last 14 match-ups, including two 3-0 wins over Columbia last season.

Dailey leads both the Bulldogs and the entire Ivy League in kills, with 4.28 per set, and is second in the league in service aces. While the Bulldogs are strong on offense, the defense is a key part of Yale's strength. The Bulldogs lead all Ivy League teams in digs (18.36 per set), blocks (2.33 per set), and opponent hitting percentage (.122).

Last Time Out
Columbia will be looking to rebound from two tough Ivy League losses last weekend. The first, a 3-2 loss to Dartmouth was a hard one for the Lions.

The Columbia volleyball team rallied to come back from a 2-0 deficit, winning two games and forcing a fifth, but fell to Dartmouth in a heartbreaking match, 3-2. The close match saw the score tie 41 times, and the lead change 17, but in the end the Lions fell, 25-21, 27-25, 27-29, 19-25, 15-10.

First-year Erin Longinotti lead the Lions offensively, tallying a collegiate career-high 27 kills, followed by Megan Gaughn, who had 21. Sophomore Monique Roberts and junior Sarah Thompson added seven kills each in the loss. First-year Kelsey Musselman was outstanding at setter, pacing the game for Columbia, and racking up 60 assists, while senior Ellie Thomas had 28 digs, and Gaughn completed a double-double, with 27 digs of her own. Junior Martina Kajanova was also crucial on defense, with 17 digs. Roberts ended the game with eight total blocks, while Musselman added four, including one solo block at the net.

After a deflating loss on Friday, the Lions came back to Levien Gym on Saturday, where they fell to Harvard, 3-0. The Lions lost 25-20, 25-17, 25-19. With the loss, the Lions fell to 10-7 overall, 1-3 in the Ivy League, while Harvard improved to 6-9 overall, 2-2 in the Ivy League.

Home Again, Home Again
Columbia volleyball is embracing the home court advantage Levien Gymnasium has been offering. Last weekend was the first time all season the Lions lost two games in a row at home, and Columbia is 9-3 at home this season, compared to 1-3 on the road and 0-1 at neutral sites.

Roberts Robbing the Competition
Sophomore Monique Roberts is currently leading the Ivy League in blocks. Roberts, a middle blocker, has 66 total blocks, for a 1.05 blocks per set average. Her 14 solo blocks twice the total of her nearest competitor, and her 55 block assists are also significantly ahead of the rest of the league.

Up Next
The Lions begin a four-match road trip, to take on some of the toughest teams in the league. Friday, October 23, Columbia will take on Princeton at 7 p.m., and follow that up with a 4 p.m. match up Saturday, October 24 at Penn.