Lions on the Road: October 1 - 6 - Columbia University Athletics

Friday, October 2

Montgomery, Ala.

Columbia

Blue Gray Tournament

Lions on the Road: October 1 - 6

9/30/2026 11:20:00 AM | General, Men's Soccer, Men's Tennis, Women's Golf, Women's Tennis, Volleyball, Cross Country

Composite Schedule @GoColumbiaLions on Instagram @GoColumbiaLions on X @GoColumbiaLions on Facebook

Tennis, Cross Country, Volleyball, Women’s Golf and Men’s Soccer featured in this week’s edition

NEW YORK — Tennis, Cross Country, Volleyball, Women’s Golf and Men’s Soccer are featured in this week's edition of Lions on the Road. Every week, GoColumbiaLions.com previews the upcoming games and events taking place away from home.

height=533
Men's Tennis
Men's Tennis returns to action this weekend when they participate in the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic hosted by Alabama in Montgomery, Ala. The tournament enters its seventh decade and begins play on Friday, October 2 and concludes on Sunday, October 4. Those not making the trip to Montgomery will be competing at the Penn State Invitational hosted by the Nittany Lions in State College, Pa.

Days	Event	Location	Time
Friday	Blue Gray Tournament	Montgomery, Ala.	TBA
Friday–Sunday	Penn State Invitational	State College, Pa.	TBA

height=533
Women's Tennis
Women's tennis returns to action this weekend when it travels to the Bronx to participate in the Fordham Four Invite hosted by Fordham at the Hawthorn/Rooney Tennis Courts. The Lions are off to a strong start this fall. At the ITA All-American Championships, three Lions made their Columbia debut led by sophomore Margot Phanthala who had a trio of wins in the main draw, including back-to-back wins over top-15 opponents. Back at home, the Lions wrapped up the three-day Columbia Invitational last Sunday, with the Lions winning all three doubles matches and all six singles matches. Gayathri Krishnan is off to a great start in her senior campaign. On Sunday she and partner Sabrina Lin earned a 6-1 win over Hofstra's duo of Aryanah Kahnamoui and Marcella Roversi. Krishnan wrapped up her play with a convincing 6-1, 6-3 win over Roversi in their singles match.

Days	Event	Location	Time
Friday–Sunday	Fordham Four Invite	Bronx, N.Y.	TBA

Cross
Cross Country
Columbia cross country heads to Bethlehem, Pa., for the Paul Short Run on Friday, Oct. 2. The Lions are coming off the Princeton Meadows Challenge, where Olivia Murray paced the women's 6K in 21:03.3 and Henry Koike-Sieira led the men's 8K in 24:20.0. Five Lions posted personal bests, including Dana Lehr, Caroline Jankowich and Meredith Wolfe for the women, and Finneas Colescott and Ryan Son for the men.

Day	Event	Location	Time	Live Results
Friday	Paul Short Run	Bethlehem, Pa.	11 a.m.	Click Here

Volleyball
Volleyball wraps up a season-long nine-match road schedule this weekend when the Lions take on Ivy League foes Princeton and Penn. Columbia battles the Tigers on Friday at 6 p.m. before wrapping up the road trip against the Quakers on Saturday at 5 p.m. Columbia is 6-4 overall and 0-1 in the Ivy League after falling to Cornell 3-0 in the Ivy League opener last Saturday. Junior Clara Yu looks to add to her impressive service ace total beginning Friday. Yu is tied for 55th in the nation and second in the Ivy League with 23 aces on the year. Yu's 23 aces in 2026 are 10 shy of cracking Columbia's top-10 in a single season. In her career, she has 59 aces, 13 shy of cracking the Lions' top-10. First-year middle blocker Danica Nordlicht is making an impact up the middle. The first-year middle blocker from San Diego, Calif., is averaging 3.25 kills and 4.75 blocks over the last four matches while hitting .434. Against Cornell, she had four kills on seven swings. For the year, she is hitting .346 with 26 kills and 28 total blocks in 24 sets played.

Day	Opponent	Location	Time	Stream	Live Stats
Friday	Princeton	Princeton, N.J.	6 p.m.	ESPN+	Click Here
Saturday	Penn	Philadelphia, Pa.	5 p.m.	ESPN+	Click Here

Sage

Men's Soccer
After last weekend's scheduled Ivy League opener was postponed, the Lions (3-1-2, 0-0-0 Ivy) will open the 2026 league season on the road this Saturday at Harvard (1-5-1, 0-1-0 Ivy). Columbia enters on a five-match unbeaten streak dating back through the entire month of September. As part of that streak, the Lions won three straight road matches at Fordham (1-0), Manhattan (2-0) and Temple (1-0). The three-match road winning streak and five-match unbeaten streak are each the first since 2018.

Sophomore goalkeeper Aris Taki continues to rank No. 1 in the NCAA with a perfect 0.00 goals-against average and 100-percent save percentage. He is the only keeper in the NCAA statistical rankings who holds perfect marks – keepers have to play in at least 50 percent of their team's total minutes to qualify. Taki is perfect through 360 minutes of collegiate action, starting in the win at Fordham on September 9 and having not allowed a goal through four starts. He was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week for games played Sept. 14-20.

This will be the 77th all-time meeting between Columbia and Harvard in a series that dates back to 1906. The Lions earned a 3-1 victory last year at Rocco B. Commisso Soccer Stadium. They will be looking for their first win at Harvard since 2018.

Day	Opponent	Location	Time	Watch	Live Stats
Saturday	Harvard	Cambridge, Mass.	4 p.m.	ESPN+	Click Here

Emily
Women's Golf
The women's golf team takes on a challenging field of power-conference teams on Monday and Tuesday in the Windy City Collegiate Classic. Hosted by 2025 NCAA champion Northwestern, the 12-team field includes the host Wildcats, Columbia, Purdue, Virginia, Tulsa, Iowa State, Arizona State, 2026 NCAA champion Stanford, Oregon, Arizona, Duke and Illinois. All 11 teams the Lions will face ended the 2025-26 season in the top 50 of the Clippd College Golf Scoreboard national rankings. All 12 teams, including the Lions, qualified for the 2026 NCAA Regionals. This year's Windy City Collegiate Classic will be hosted at Lake Shore Country Club in Chicago.

The Lions have had a solid start to the 2026-27 campaign. They finished runner-up out of 16 teams at the season-opening Bucknell Fall Invitational (Sept. 11-13). Sophomore Kristina Xu led the way with an individual runner-up finish at 2-over-par 212, including a 3-under 67 in Round 2. Seven Lions placed in the top 20 and five were in the top 10. Columbia also set a program record for low-54 hole team total with an 862 (+22). Last weekend, Columbia finished fifth out of 12 teams at the weather-shortened Princeton Invitational. Xu and Bridget Chantharath earned their second straight individual top-10 finish.