NEW YORK — The Columbia men's soccer team secured a long-awaited first victory by defeating Yale, 1-0, Saturday night at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium. Sophomore
Jackson ten Oever netted his first career goal in the 81st minute to lift the Lions to victory.
Columbia (1-7-0, 1-1-0 Ivy) erupted on the score. First-year
Peter Chang sent in a corner that
Rafa Romo won in the box. Romo headed the ball down to the center for ten Oever, who got his right foot to it and poked it past the goal line to give the Lions the lead with 9:50 remaining.
"First win of the year so there are definitely a lot of emotions from that," ten Oever said postgame. "As a team, scoring has been an issue, but just getting that goal no matter how it came was amazing. Hopefully, it gives us momentum to keep pushing forward and start adding on more and more wins … It finally came and it was just lucky to be me."
The Lions held on over the final 10 minutes, thanks in part to a big stop from junior goalkeeper
Dean Kelliher. He made two saves on the night, none more important than the one that came with just under four minutes remaining. Yale (4-5-1, 1-1-0 Ivy) got the ball to Jonathan Seidman inside the box and Kelliher reacted to save his shot from close range and hold on.
"Credit to my team and the guys in front of me. I think this was a full team effort the full 90," said Kelliher, who picked up his first collegiate shutout. "For me, just doing my job, as always, but the guys talking, staying into it the full 90, giving it their all … I really appreciate it being back there and seeing everything. This is a culmination of a lot of hard work that we've been putting in, especially defending, and I'm super excited for the win."
Not only did Columbia win its first match of 2024, it won its first Ivy League match since 2019 – they drew nine times over that span.
"It's such a big moment for us," second-year head coach
Michael Casper said, "The reality is that we've struggled to get results this year and we've struggled to score goals, but the boys have consistently been fighting and battling and grinding to try and see if something could be different. I'm just very proud of their effort, very proud of their mentality and really excited about how they performed today."
Columbia outshot Yale, 11-6, including 4-2 in shots on goal.
Jack McDaid's shot in the first half from well outside the box was the best of the rest, requiring a diving stop by Yale goalkeeper Chris Edwards. The two teams finished the match 3-3 in corners.
Columbia steps out of conference for a midweek matchup at Villanova (0-6-4) on Tuesday. First kick in Philadelphia is scheduled for 3 p.m.
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