NEW YORK – 2019 was a season of record setting numbers and exciting matches for Columbia Volleyball (12-12, 3-9 IVY) as senior Chichi Ikwuazom rewrote the record books and the Lions racked up the most wins overall since 2016 in head coach Allison Keeley's second year at the helm.
 
IVY LEAGUE LEADERS: During the season, Columbia was near the top of the Ivy League in several team categories, and they finished the season ranked second in the league in team total blocks (182.0), team total attacks (3,116), team kills (1,255) and team assists (1,173).  Still sitting inside the top three, the Lions finished third in assists per set (12.61), hitting percentage (.246) and kills per set (13.49).  Nationally, the Lions finished the season sitting inside the top 50 in a pair of stats, coming in 49th nationally in assists per set and hitting percentage.
 
IKWUAZOM'S RECORD SETTING YEAR: Ikwuazom, who entered her senior season having already racked up a handful of Ivy League awards in her career, was unstoppable from the word go and her name now sits throughout the Lion record books.  Besides the records, Ikwuazom was also named, for the first time in program history, Ivy League Player of the Year and she was named unanimous First Team All-Ivy League.
 
In the Lion books, Ikwuazom set the single season record for total kills, finishing with 495 and twice she recorded the fourth most kills in a single match collecting 29 kills against Lehigh (four sets), on Sept. 13, and San Jose State (five sets), on Sept. 20.  In a five-set match against Dartmouth (Nov. 15), Ikwuazom set another single match record, finishing with 12 total blocks to tie the record for most blocks in a single match, and her 12 blocks were the most in a match since 2015.
 
Career wise, Ikwuazom placed herself at the top or near the top in a pair of catirgores, finishing with 345 career blocks (106 blocks in 2019) and her 495 total kills on the season pushed her over 1,000 kills in her career, as she finished with 1,026 career kills, fourth most in program history and she became only the fourth Lion to ever pass the 1,000-kill mark in her career.
 
With only the NCAA Tournament left to play, at the time of this article, Ikwuazom still sits near the top in several national catirgores as her 6.02 points per set still ranks her second in the country, she is third in hitting percentage (.438) and fourth in kills per set, averaging 5.32.  While she sat inside the top 10 for the entire season in both total points and total kills, the extra matches for the rest of the country has pushed her to 18th in total kills and 19th in total points (559.5).
 
AWARD WINNERS: Columbia collected a handful of awards during the season, and it started with Ikwuazom, who racked up five Ivy League Player of the Week awards, including three straight to start the season (Sept. 6, Sept. 16, Sept. 23, Oct. 7, Nov. 4), and she was named Sports Impact/AVCA National Player of the Week during the week of Sept. 24.  Not to be outdone, first-year Kiara Robichaud also collected herself an Ivy League Rookie of the Week award during the week of Sept. 23, giving the Lions a sweep of the Ivy League awards during that week.
 
In the postseason, both Ikwuazom and junior Audrey Cheng earned Ivy League honors.  With Ikwuazom taking home Player of the Year and First Team honors, while Cheng was named Honorable Mention All-Ivy League.
 
SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: During the 2019 season, the Lions had a handful of highlight matches, which can be summed up with the following list.
 
Season Opening Marathon: Columbia opened the 2019 season (Sept. 6) with a five-set marathon in Queens, New York against Howard, which saw the Lions win 25-20, 25-17, 23-25, 23-25, 16-14.  Columbia had to battle back from dropping sets three and four, a theme of never giving up which would last the remainder of the season being developed in this match, but they were powered to victory by Ikwuazom's 27 kills and a .233 team hitting percentage.
 
Brooklyn Comeback: The Lions entered the match against LIU, on Sept. 21, looking for their fourth straight win and it would take a Brooklyn sized comeback to get that win.  After dropping the first two sets, 16-25, 14-25, Columbia came out in the third set and set the tone, winning 25-9 for the biggest margin of victory in a set since 2017 for the Lions.  From there, thanks to 28 kills from Ikwuazom and a solid defense that held LIU to .269 hitting percentage, the Lions controlled the action and won the next two sets, 25-22, 15-13, for the historic and exciting comeback win.
 
Cheng Triples A Double: In the home opener, on Sept. 19, against Fordham the Lions won in four sets (25-21, 30-28, 20-25, 25-18) but what was exciting about the night was that Cheng finished with 47 assists, 13 kills and 12 digs to record what would be the only triple-double recorded in the Ivy League all season long.  It was the first triple-double recorded by a Lion since 2002, the ninth triple-double in program history and Cheng became the fourth Lion to ever record at least one triple-double in a season.
 
Three Straight Ivy Dubs: During the heart of the Ivy League season, the Lions went on a solid three-match winning streak, taking down Penn (Oct. 5), Harvard (Oct. 11) and Dartmouth (Oct. 12) in the process.  The Penn win, which came on the road, was a four-set dub, while the Harvard and Dartmouth wins came at Levien Gym.  Columbia took down Harvard in straight sets, the Lions' first Ivy League straight set win since 2017, and it took four sets to knock off Dartmouth for Columbia's three straight league wins, the best such stretch since four straight Ivy wins in 2017.
 
Ending 2019 With A Battle: The 2019 season wrapped up on the road, and in the season finale, the Lions again showed why at points during the season they could have been called the "Cardiac Lions", with a five-set (27-25, 24-26, 16-25, 25-20, 16-14) road win at Harvard on Nov. 16.  During the match, which saw Ikwuazom finish her career with another 20-kill performance, Columbia twice rallied late, in the fourth and fifth sets, to get the win and knock off Harvard, for the season sweep of the Crimson.
 
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