LONG BEACH, Calif. – The Columbia archery team capped the 2014 season last weekend on the national stage at the USCA United States Intercollegiate Archery Championships (USIAC) held at El Dorado Park on May 14-18. For the first time in program history, the team posted top-three finishes in both the compound and recurve divisions.

The compound team put together its biggest performance in Columbia history grabbing a runner-up finish for the silver medal. After qualifying for the No. 2 seed, the squad of Judy Zhou, Julie Hoffmann and Mary Quien received a first round bye. The Lions went on to meet Stanford in the quarterfinals, winning 8-5. Columbia took care of business in the semifinal round, defeating the University of the Cumberlands, 8-6, to advance to the compound championship match against top seed Texas A&M. Despite a 15-9 finals loss, the Lions made history becoming the first Columbia compound team to medal.

Individually, Zhou led the Lions in the compound division with a fourth-place national finish to earn her place in the heralded championship top eight. After second round wins from both Zhou and Hoffman, the teammates would face each other in the third round. Zhou came out on top, 136-129 to advance. In a tight quarterfinals battle, Zhou defeated Michaels Kannsas of California University of Pennsylvania by just one point, 137-136, to move on to the semifinals. She would fall to eventual champion Tristan Skarvan of Texas A&M, 140-137, in the semifinals and picked up fourth-place finish in the bronze medal match. Hoffmann would finish tied for ninth in the compound, while Quien finished tied for 17th overall.

For the second time in the three seasons, the recurve team finished with a bronze medal. The squad of Tiffany Kim, Joy Chang and Grace Kim qualified the Lions for a No. 2 seed. After the opening round bye, Sarah Bernstein joined both Tiffany and Grace as Columbia took down UC Irvine 11-3 in the quarterfinals. The Lions had a tough semifinal's match against UC Berkley in the next round and was edged 5-6 by the Bears. The recurve team bounced back in the bronze medal match to defeat Florida 7-4.

Individually, both Sarah Bernstein and Grace Kim led the way in the recurve for Columbia with quarterfinal appearances in the field of 64 competitors. Bernstein finished seventh in the nation, while Kim finished eighth.  With wins over archers from Texas, UC Berkley and James Madison, Bernstein's only loss was to eventual champion Michelle Gilbert of Texas A&M. Tiffany Kim also finished tied for ninth in the recurve, while Chang finished tied for 17th overall.

In addition, five Columbia archers earned All-America and All-Academic honors, including, Judy Zhou, Julie Hoffmann, Tiffany Kim, Grace Kim and Joy Chang.