NEW YORK — The Columbia volleyball team never recovered from a tough ending to the first set and lost in straight sets to Yale (23-25, 21-25, 18-25) Friday night at Levien Gymnasium.
 
Columbia (8-6, 2-2 Ivy) jumped out to leads of 6-1 and 11-5 in the first set and maintained a six-point advantage at 18-12. However, Yale (9-4, 3-1 Ivy) came storming back with a 9-2 run to take its first lead, 21-20, and later broke a 23-all tie with two straight points to take the air of out the Lions and a one-set lead.
 
Columbia never fully recovered, trailing through the majority of the final two sets to suffer its first Ivy League sweep at home in two years.
 
"We did a lot of work on our blocking this week, which I thought we saw an improvement in today, and we worked on our composure," head coach Allison Keeley said postgame. "I felt like we executed the way we wanted to, but it just wasn't enough tonight. Yale was just better."
 
The Lions posted nine blocks on the night, led by a career-high seven from junior middle Rose Compton. First-year Emily Teehan bolstered the attack with a match-high 15 kills while collecting her league-best 21st ace of the season. Sophomore setter Audrey Cheng went for 25 assists and 12 digs to record her fifth double-double.
 
Yale was led by first-year Ellis DeJardin's 11 kills and junior Tristin Kott's nine. Kott hit a match-best .450 without an error on 20 swings. Junior setter Frances Arnautou matched Cheng's double-double with 32 assists and 10 digs.
 
The first set was the story of the night. Despite hitting -.032, Yale pulled it out. The Lions were hurt by seven service errors in the set – they ended the match with 12 – which kept allowing the Bulldogs to hang around. Four of Yale's first six points came on Columbia serving errors despite the Lions leading 12-6. Columbia rookie Isa Lamus put down her third kill of the set to help push the lead to 18-12, but it all fell apart from there. Yale scored the final three points after calling timeout trailing 23-22 to take the opener.
 
The Lions seemed to put it behind them when Lauren Wilkins put down three early kills to earn Columbia a 4-2 start in the second. The two sides traded points for a while until Yale used a 4-0 run capped by a Destiny Daniel and Frances Arnautou block to go up 12-8. The Lions never saw the lead again, calling for time trailing 17-12 before the Bulldogs' sixth block of the set gave them a 22-15 advantage. Columbia rallied behind Teehan's six kills in the frame to get within three, 23-20, but it wasn't enough to come all the way back.
 
The third was close early but Yale scored six of eight points to force Columbia into a timeout trailing 12-8. DeJardin's final kill of the evening pushed the advantage to 16-11 as the Bulldogs finished off the sweep.
 
Columbia will look to rebound Saturday when they host Brown (8-6, 1-3 Ivy) at 5 p.m. The Bears are coming off a five-set defeat Friday at Cornell.

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After the Ivy League announced its partnership with ESPN, all home and Ivy League volleyball matches are scheduled to be played on the ESPN+ this fall. To sign up for ESPN+ for as low as $4.99/month or $49.99/annually, and catch all the action this season click here.