ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's and women's squash teams will open the Ivy League portion of their schedules at 11 a.m. Sunday, when they travel to New York and take on Columbia in the Big Red's debut at SL Green StreetSquash Center.
The Big Red men's team (4-0) held steady at the No. 4 spot in the College Squash Association's rankings after its season-opening sweep Nov. 16-18 at the Cornell Round Robin, including victories over Western Ontario, Hamilton, Williams and Stanford. Aditiya Jagtap,
Ryan Todd,
Abhijit Malik and
Graham Dietz each swept all four of their respective matches over the weekend, while co-captains
Nick Sachvie and
Owen Butler were each 3-0.
Columbia has yet to play an official match this season, but it climbed one spot to ninth in the rankings after Penn lost to George Washington. The Lions get their season under way Friday night at home against Georgetown. Ramit Tandon leads Columbia after finishing as the national individual runner-up last season, also taking home Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Year honors. He accounted for the Lions' lone point against Cornell in their meeting last season, a 8-1 Big Red victory on Dec. 2, 2011 at Belkin International Squash Courts.
That meeting was the first since the resurrection of the Lions' program, which surfaced again in 2010-11. Cornell holds a 5-1 advantage in the all-time series, which had previously been idle since a 9-0 Big Red victory toward the end of the 1987-88 campaign.
The Cornell women's team (3-0) is riding high after a win over Stanford to conclude a perfect 3-0 start to the season Nov. 17-18 at the Cornell Round Robin. That victory — in addition to wins over Williams and Hamilton — strengthened the Big Red's hold on the No. 6 spot in the nation. Senior co-captain Maggie Remsen and freshman
Abbey Foster were a perfect 3-0 on the weekend.
Columbia is ranked 14th in the nation heading into its season debut on Friday night against visiting Georgetown. Junior Katie Quan was the highest-ranked individual player for the Lions at the end of last season, tabbed 60th by the CSA. Sophomore Alisha Maity (77th) and sophomore Kate Calihan return to a Columbia squad without any seniors on its roster. The Big Red defeated the Lions, 9-0, on Dec. 2, 2011 in the programs' only other all-time meeting.
