NEW YORK — The Columbia volleyball team completed an Ivy League weekend sweep with a four-set victory over Harvard (25-19, 25-16, 18-25, 25-22) Saturday evening at Levien Gymnasium.
 
The win marked the fourth straight season that Columbia (8-5, 2-1 Ivy) has defeated Harvard (5-7, 0-3 Ivy) in New York. The Lions also improved their home record to 4-1 on the campaign and 22-6 (.786) since the start of the 2016 season. Over that time, Columbia is also 13-4 (.765) at Levien Gymnasium against Ivy League competition.
 
Saturday's latest victory was highlighted by junior middle Chichi Ikwuazom and senior outside Lauren Wilkins. Ikwuazom led all attackers with 16 kills and hit .406 with five blocks. Wilkins totaled 11 kills at a career-best .409 hitting percentage and added five digs. They were joined in double figures by rookie Emily Teehan, who totaled a dozen kills to go with eight digs and three aces.
 
"I thought our focus has been really good all week," said Wilkins, who has reached 10-plus kills six times on the season. "It showed after we lost the third set and pulled it back together and played really well in the fourth. It's huge for our confidence going into next weekend."
 
Junior libero Kalie Wood boosted the Lions with a match-high 16 digs to go above 200 on the season, while senior outside Luciana Del Valle made it back-to-back matches in double figures with 10. Sophomore setter Audrey Cheng and junior middle Rose Compton went for three blocks apiece to support Ikwuazom's five. Cheng quarterbacked the Lions with 39 assists and was all over the stat sheet with five kills and six digs.
 
For Harvard, senior middle Christina Cornelius hit .484, totaled a team-high 15 kills and added on four blocks. Junior middle Maclaine Fields was part of six of the Crimson's 11 team blocks and senior libero Anna Uhr was the only Harvard player to reach double figures in digs, finishing the evening with 13.
 
Columbia served its way to a 25-19 opening set, recording six aces that included two from both Teehan and Wood. Wood's first helped Columbia jump ahead 8-3 and her second forced Harvard to call for time trailing 16-12. Teehan got the jump serve working with consecutive aces to extend the lead to 20-15 before Del Valle joined the party to make it 23-18. Harvard's Mindie Mabry served into the net to finish off the set.
 
The Lions continued to control the match in the second, using kills by Ikwuazom and Cheng to go up 6-1 early on. Harvard crawled back to tie it at nine but followed by committing two errors to put the Lions back in front. Columbia capitalized by completing a 6-0 run with off Teehan's third ace of the match to extend the lead. The Crimson only ever got back within two before Columbia closed with eight of the final nine points, using back-to-back kills by Ikwuazom and Teehan to take a two-set lead.
 
Harvard took its first lead of any set with the opening two points of the third. They used a 7-1 run to erase a 9-6 Columbia lead and remained in front the rest of the way. Cornelius led the attack with five kills without an error on nine swings as Harvard hit .379 to pull back within a set.
 
Ikwuazom, who had only one kill in the third set after combining for 11 through the first two, led off the fourth set with two early kills. Harvard hung close and led 12-11 before Ikwuazom and Wilkins began a 6-1 run with consecutive kills to turn the tide. Wilkins and Teehan each hit .400 with five kills in the frame, which helped the Lions hold off Harvard by three and sweep the weekend.
 
Columbia completes its five-match Ivy League homestand next weekend when it welcomes Yale and Brown to Levien Gymnasium. Both matches will air on ESPN+.

WATCH ON ESPN+
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.