The Columbia Lions women's basketball team is the intercollegiate women's basketball program representing

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. The school competes in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

in Division I of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA). The

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the tip of its tail. It is se ...

play home basketball games at the

Levien Gymnasium Francis S. Levien Gymnasium is a 2,700-seat arena at Columbia University in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. Named for New York lawyer-industrialist Francis S. Levien (1905–95), it is home to the Columbia Men's and Women's Bask ...

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

, on the university campus. Columbia has won three Ivy League championships. The team has been coached by Megan Griffith since 2016.

History

After the 2023–24 season, the Lions have a 442–718 record since beginning play in 1984 after Columbia went co-ed in 1983. They joined the

in women's basketball in 1986 after two seasons in Division III play. The women's teams used to be known as the Barnard Bears, named for the affiliated women's college of the same name. For their first 23 seasons, they never finished higher than fourth in the eight-team conference. They received their first NCAA Tournament bid as an at-large bid in 2024, leaving only Yale as the one Ivy League team to never make the women's tournament. They won the Ivy regular season title once again in the 2024-25 season but lost in the championship game of the Ivy Tournament to Harvard. However, Columbia would receive an at-large bid to reach their second straight NCAA Tournament. ;All-Time Coaching Records

Postseason appearances

NCAA Division I

Columbia has appeared in two NCAA Tournaments.

WNIT

2019–Present

Megan Griffith's tenure as head coach has brought about a marked improvement in the Lions' standing in both the Ivy League conference and overall. In the 2019–20 season, the team qualified for the

Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament The Ivy League women's basketball tournament is the conference tournament in basketball for the Ivy League, and is held alongside the Ivy League men's tournament at the same venue. The overall event is currently marketed as Ivy Madness. As with ...

for the first time. They finished second in the 2022 Ivy League tournament, losing in the finals to

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

. In 2022, Columbia began receiving votes in the AP poll for the first time in program history. In 2023, the team won a share of the

women’s basketball title, also for the first time in program history. On March 17, 2023, Griffith became the winningest head coach in program history after picking up her 95th career win. Notable players on the Columbia Women's Basketball roster include junior Abbey Hsu, 2023 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award Semifinalist and 2022–23 First Team All-Ivy League, and senior Kaitlyn Davis, 2021–22 and 2022–23 First Team All-Ivy League. Both players joined the 1,000-point club in the 2022–23 season, along with senior Sienna Durr, becoming the 12th, 13th, and 14th Lions to do so in program history. On January 28, 2023, Kaitlyn Davis made history as the first player to ever record a triple-double in Columbia Women's Basketball history. The Lions made Ivy League history two seasons in a row, being the first Ivy League team to reach the WNIT quarterfinals in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

and the first to reach the semifinals or finals in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

References

External links

* {{Ivy League women's basketball navbox