Lions Host Brown And Yale In Final Home Weekend Of The Season

Friday, November 8

New York, N.Y.

7:00 P.M.

Columbia University

Brown

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics/Mike McLaughlin

Lions Host Brown And Yale In Final Home Weekend Of The Season

11/7/2019 2:52:00 PM | Volleyball

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Columbia Volleyball will welcome Brown, on Friday, Nov. 8 and Yale on Saturday, Nov. 9, with Saturday being senior day for the Lions.

NEW YORK – The final two home matches for Columbia Volleyball's (11-9, 4-6 IVY) 2019 season will see the Brown Bears (12-8, 4-6 IVY) visit Levien Gym on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m., followed up with a visit by the Yale Bulldogs (12-7, 8-2 IVY) on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 5 p.m., that will also double as senior day for Columbia's four seniors, Grace Campbell, Rose Compton, Kalie Wood and Chichi Ikwuazom.

HOW TO WATCH/FOLLOW
vs. Brown – Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Twitter (@CUVB)
vs. Yale – Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | Twitter (@CUVB)

REVIEWING THE PREVIOUS WEEK: Columbia split the previous weekend, taking down Penn (W, 3-1) on Nov. 1, before falling in a tough match to league leading Princeton (L, 1-3) on Nov. 2. Over the weekend Ikwuazom set a new Columbia single season kills record, recording her 418th kill of the season, while Wood passed 1,000 career digs and junior Audrey Cheng pushed past 2,000 assists in her career.

Against Penn, Ikwuazom hit a career-high .743 while recording 27 total kills to power the Lions to victory, snapping a three-match losing streak and completing the season sweep of Penn. As for the match against Princeton, the Lions gave the league leaders everything that they could handle, with Ikwuazom again leading the way for Columbia, finishing with 21 kills and her last kill was number 418 to set the new single season program kills record.

SHRED THE BOOKS: Ikwuazom's record setting season, which is far from over, has been something to behold, as she has set a new single season program kills record and with every match moves up several all-time lists. But Ikwuazom's rewriting of the record books has not been a solo affair, as over the weekend both Wood and Cheng grabbed a pen themselves and began to rewrite the books.

Wood, who currently sits at 1,022 career digs, passed the 1,000-career dig mark this weekend and in doing so placed herself fifth on the Lions all-time career digs list. Joining her teammate in setting new milestones was Cheng, who enters the weekend with 2,122 career assists, passed the 2,000-career assist mark this weekend and now sits fourth on the Lion all-time career assists list.

CHICHI ADDS TO THE CASE, AGAIN: Ikwuazom was again named the Ivy League Player of the Week for the fifth time this season, following her 48-kill two match performance over the weekend of Nov. 1-2. Ikwuazom, during the weekend, hit .506 while averaging 6.00 kills per set over the stretch.

Ikwuazom has been filling up her trophy case over the first month of the season and she was named the Ivy League Player of the Week over the first three weeks, giving her three straight weeks from Sept. 9-23 where Ikwuazom held the title. And with this past week's nod Ikwuazom has now held the Ivy League Player of the Week mantle four out of the five times it has been handed out so far this season.

The Lion senior's performance has also gotten national attention as well, with Ikwuazom being named the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week, for the week of Sept. 23, following her three-match performance the weekend prior, where she racked up 81 total kills, averaged 5.79 kills per set and hit .470.

IVY LEAGUE LEADERS: The Lions, along with Ikwuazom and Cheng, sit near the top of the conference in a handful of categories. As a team, Columbia is first in team assists (960) and team kills (1,022), while the Lions sit third in the league in assists per set (12.63), hitting percentage (.252) kills per set (13.45) and total attacks (2,534), while they are fourth in total digs (1,027) and total blocks (145).

As for Ikwuazom and Cheng, the Lion senior sits first in hitting percentage (.453), kills per set (5.50), total kills (418), total points (469.5) and points per set (6.18). Cheng, not to be outdone, is the only student-athlete from the Ivy League to have recorded a triple-double this season and she sits second in the league in total assists (741) and third in assists per set (9.75).

KILLING IT 900 TIMES: During the weekend of Oct. 26, in Columbia's lone match of the weekend, Ikwuazom reached 900 total kills for her career, becoming the fifth Lion in program history to reach that mark. The kill came on Ikwuazom's second-to-last kill of the match, on perfect set from Cheng who recorded the assist on the kill.

300 REASONS: Ikwuazom, who is in the middle of an extremely productive senior season, set a new mark for herself as she recorded her 300th career block against Yale on Oct. 18. Ikwuazom, who finished the weekend with 308 blocks in her career, became the fourth Lion in program history to reach the 300-block career mark and she currently sits second all-time on the all-time block list and she is only 17 blocks away from tying the program record of 337 blocks set by Kathy Lavold (2000-02).

IKWUAZOM MAKES HER MARK: Besides where she sits on the blocks list, Ikwuazom has also worked her way into several single-season and career marks in the Columbia record book. In kills, Ikwuazom, who currently has 949 career kills, sits fifth all-time in career kills.

Ikwuazom has already placed herself on the single-season total block list with 110 blocks in 2017, and she is on pace to finish in the top five of career total blocks, career total kills, and single-season total blocks, where with 81 blocks so far this season Ikwuazom has an opportunity to add her name for a second time to the single-season total blocks list. Ikwauzom has also placed her name on the single-match total kills list as well, having recorded 29 kills twice this season which are the fourth-most in program history in a single-match.

NATIONAL CHICHI: Entering the weekend, Ikwuazom remains ranked as one of the best in the nation on the offensive side, as she is second in points per set (6.10), third in hitting percentage (.447) and kills per set (5.48), 14th in total kills (370) and 15th in total points (414.5).

ROBICHAUD'S ROOKIE NOD: First-year Kiara Robichaud was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the week of Sept. 23. That nod gave her two accolades over the first month of her collegiate career with a visit to the Ivy League Honor Roll coming on the week before.

CHENG TRIPLES UP: In Columbia's home opener against Fordham, on Sept. 19, Cheng had herself a night, recording 47 assists, 13 kills and 12 digs on her way to her first career double-double and the first by a Lion since Paula Lobeck recorded a triple-double on Sept. 17, 2002. Historically it was the ninth triple-double in program history and Cheng becomes the fourth Lion to ever record a triple-double.

Nationally, Cheng is one of 26 student-athletes to have recorded at least one triple-double so far this season.

WHAT THE BEARS BRING: Brown enters the weekend having won three out of their previous four matches and they bring a two-match winning streak into the weekend having taken down Harvard and Dartmouth on the road over the previous weekend. The Bears did take the previous matchup with Columbia, winning in four sets on Oct. 19 in Providence, Rhode Island.

All-time Brown leads the series with Columbia 36-19, with the last win for Columbia coming at Levien in 2018, a 3-1 win on Oct. 6. A win by Columbia would make this the third straight year that the Lions and Bears have split the season series and it would be fifth straight win at home against Brown for Columbia.

Leading the Bears on the offensive end is Makena Ehlert, who currently sits first on the team with 253 kills and she is averaging 3.33 kills per set, which also places her first on the team. Kristin Sellers, who leads the team with 489 assists, has been the grease in the Brown offensive's wheels while on the defensive end both Jacqueline Jacobs (58) and Eliza Grover (50) sit at the top in blocks and Kaitlyn Wong's 221 digs leads the team in that category.

In the league, Brown leads in three categories, team service aces (111), total attacks (2,623) and total blocks (159), while they sit second in aces per set (1.46), blocks per set (2.09) and team digs (1,084). While individually, Ehlert is first in the league in both attacks per set (10.28) and points per set (3.80).

WHAT THE BULLDOGS BRING: Yale, who sits second in the league, will first face Cornell in Ithaca, New York in what will be a big matchup at the top of the league standings before heading down to Morningside to face the Lions. In the first matchup between the two sides, on Oct. 18 in New Haven, Connecticut, the Lions fell in straight sets to the Bulldogs.

All-time Yale leads the series, 47-5, and the last time that Columbia took down the Bulldogs was in 2016 at Levien Gym. And Yale has won four out of their last five matches entering the weekend and the last seven matches against Columbia.

Yale's offensive runs through Frances Arnautou, who leads the team with 665 assists and the scoring has come from Kathryn Attar (166 kills), Samantha Bray (165 kills), Ellis DeJardin (159 kills) and Izzy Simqu (152 kills) who are the four leaders on the team in kills. On the defensive end Yurika Boyd has led the team in digs, with 220 and Bray's 48 blocks leads the team at the net.

Within the league, the Bulldogs sit third in attacks per set (34.63) and 42nd nationally in hitting percentage (.250) and 72nd in the country in kills per set (13.30).

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