NEW YORK -- The snow was falling sideways in gusting winds over Robert Kraft Field at the Baker Athletic Complex, as the Columbia women's lacrosse team took the field under first year head coach Anne Murray. Saturday's contest marked the Lions' return to Lawrence Wien Stadium following a nearly two year hiatus as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senior Rachel Graff recorded a hat trick while Sydney Paoletti contributed two goals and one assist. Senior co-captain Katie Lutz produced two goals and an assist as Columbia overcame a two-goal halftime deficit to defeat Manhattan 13-7.
"They got it done," Murray said. "And I think that's the monkey off the back that everybody's been trying to get. We really look to our senior leadership for how much they believe that through that pandemic, even before those returning players are the parts of this program that are back and they take their responsibility, and they took that responsibility very seriously in what we're going to do this year."
Manhattan took a 1-0 lead, but as the snow slowed, Columbia found its rhythm scoring four straight goals. Paoletti opened scoring at 9:24 putting the Lions on the board off a turnover. Graff followed suit at 9:07 while senior Kate Kelly capitalized at 8:34. Paoletti found the back of the net again on a rip from the top of the arc following a reset after a Jaspers foul. Despite the Lions' momentum, Manhattan rebounded to tie the game at the first quarter break.
Columbia retook the lead on a Katie Lutz goal at 11:58 before Manhattan scored three goals in a row to take a 7-5 advantage into the break.
"Down at halftime, I think we realized that we started to go into some old habits of playing individually, at least on our offensive end. And we had to start to trust each other," Murray said. "So a lot of the stuff that we talked about at halftime was playing with each other, not playing with yourself and kind of getting out of your head and being able to say yeah, I'm nervous we're gonna lose or being confident to say yeah, we're gonna win."
After settling in, the Lions came roaring back with a 8-0 run.
Graff began the second half with back-to-back goals. The first at the 5:09 mark of the third quarter, and the second 1:27 later. First-year Dani Falcone gave Columbia the 8-7 lead with her first collegiate goal two minutes later. Fellow rookie Kate Cunning scored her first goal in Columbia blue off one-timer from senior Payton Lill, giving Columbia a two-goal cushion at the start of the fourth quarter.
Lill then scored a free position goal 3:03 into the fourth quarter to give Columbia the 10-7 lead. Lutz collected her second goal of the day less than a minute later to make it 11-7.
First-year Simone Koryszewski had 10 saves in her collegiate debut, highlighted by a second half shutout. Falcone converted yet again to give Columbia the 12-7 lead with 9:30 remaining. Noelle DeMarinis produced the first goal of her rookie season with just under a minute to play, solidfying the final score at 13-7.
"Those first-years have been the most recent on our team to play lacrosse. Our seniors and our juniors had time off and even the sophomores, they didn't have a season this year. So the people that are the most fresh in the game are some of those 'new kids on the block' and they've got a lot of a lot of energy behind them. A lot of athleticism behind them. And I think once they kind of shook their nerves out there a little bit quieter in the first half," Murray said "But once they had that moment to make the mistakes that they needed to make. They started to just go and kind of rely on what they know of the game. So they are a huge spark for us and as a coaching staff, they were a spark we were kind of anticipating and hoping would come out."
Next up, Long Island University will travel to Inwood for a mid-week matchup on Wednesday, Feb. 23. The game will take place on Robert Kraft Field at Wien Stadium.
"Everybody is happy. Light, a lot of smiles. And they're enjoying this," Murray said. "Then we're ready to get back to work because we got a lot more coming up.
Matt Sugam '23 SPS has been covering sports in the NYC Metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last eight years covering college and professional sports as a stringer for the Associated Press, while also contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He will be covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. Follow him on Twitter @MattSugam.
