In a final practice in their home gym before hitting the road for the NCAA tournament in North Carolina, the Columbia University women's basketball team heard a lot about executing and communicating as they prepared for a matchup with the Washington Huskies on Thursday night. 

“It’s super exciting. We have worked all season for this moment. We are definitely ready to go get the win,” Kitty Henderson, senior guard, said.

The Lions heard the news Sunday night they would be returning for a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

What You Need To Know

  • The Columbia University women's basketball team is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season 

  • The Lions were outright Ivy League regular season champions for the third straight year

  • Columbia will face Washington on Thursday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

The team had another successful season under coach Megan Griffith, winning a third straight outright regular season Ivy League Championship, finishing the season with a record of 23 wins and just six losses.

One setback came over the weekend when the Lions lost a close game to Harvard in the Ivy League Tournament final on Saturday. Still, Griffith says unlike last year when the Lions were invited to the tournament field for the first time in program history, she had a good feeling this year her “squad” would get in again. 

“We’ve had a lot of players in this uniform that have been in this exact situation, you know the way they are approaching this now it’s not desperation necessarily it’s more like we’ve been here we know what to do we know what to expect,” Griffith said. 

The Lions will face the Huskies of the University of Washington Thursday evening in Chapel Hill as an 11 seed. Players say they feel prepared, despite only finding out who they were up against during Sunday’s selection show.

“It is a quick turnaround but our coaching staff works tirelessly, but they have us super well prepared, and we are ready to go,” Riley Weiss, sophmore guard, said.

Junior guard Perri Page said they can learn from their mistakes made against Harvard and use it to their advantage as they move forward.

“Execute the game plan and then stay together and stay connected as family, and trust each other on the court and I think that’s a big thing, if we can do that we can survive and advance,” Page said.