ITHACA, N.Y. -- After starting the season with 19 straight contests away from home, the Cornell softball team will open up home play and its Ivy League schedule when it plays host to Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend. The defending champion Crimson will head to Niemand*Robison Field on Friday at 12 p.m., then will meet the Big Green on Saturday beginning at 12:30 p.m.

After opening the season at 9-10, Cornell will get an opportunity to play in the friendly confines of its home field. The Big Red has had one of the largest home field advantages of any team in the country over the last four season, posting a 56-12 mark overall and a 35-7 record against Ivy League opponents. The Big Red is 14-3 at home in its last 17 games, outscoring opponents 103-44 over that span.

The winner of three straight South division titles, the Big Red has gone 75-24 in league play since the league went to a 20-game Ivy League slate in 2007. It will look to improve on those marks this weekend.

Cornell's young offense has picked up the pace after getting off to a slow start batting .344 as a team over the last five games to raise its season average to .252. Senior Morgan Cawley (.345) and freshman Clare Feely (.321, HR) are each hitting better than .300, while All-Ivy junior Kristen Towne is batting .296 with a HR and five RBI. Jenny Edwards is batting .263 with three home runs and leads the team in RBI (11) and runs scored (10).

Coming into the season, the big question was how the Big Red pitching would respond after the loss of two-time Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Elizabeth Dalrymple to graduation. The group of seniors Lauren Marx (4-1, 1.77 ERA) and Jenna Stoller (0-5, 3.32 ERA), sophomore Alyson Onyon (4-2, 2.75 ERA) and freshman Brittany Sutton (1-2, 5.32 ERA) have done a nice job in the circle, keeping the Big Red in every game. Opponents are hitting .256 and are slugging just .316 with just 22 extra base hits in 19 contests.

After going 27-22-1 a season ago and claiming a third consecutive South Division title, Blood's squad will be looking for its 16th consecutive season with at least 25 wins. Blood is the all-time winningest coach in Cornell athletics history for a single sport and enters the week with 551 triumphs (551-253-2) and five conference crowns.

At 12-6 early in the season (prior to Tuesday's game vs. Quinnipiac), the defending Ivy League champion Crimson already have wins over Loyola Marymount, Oregon State, Utah State, Long Beach State and Lehigh. Reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Rachel Brown is 7-2 with a 0.83 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 67.2 innings pitched. She has completed all nine games wthat she has started. Opponents are hitting just .190 against them. Sophomore Kasey Lange his batting .362 with three home runs and 13 RBI in the team's first 18 games, while Jane Alexander is batting .386 with five doubles and eight RBI. Head coach Jenny Allard is the longest tenured skipper of any Ivy League program and has posted a 439-333-2 overall record, including a 191-71 Ivy mark. Harvard has a narrow 25-22 edge in the all-time series after the Crimson won three of four meetings a year ago, including sweeping the Ivy League championship series from the Big Red. Cornell won the 2010 Ivy League championship series in 2010, winning a tight 2-1 series in Ithaca.

Dartmouth brings a 7-8 record into a midweek series against Massachusetts and Friday's games at Princeton. Kara Curosh is hitting a team-best .400 wutg 29 guts ub 15 games, while Hillary Barker is batting .292. As a team, the Big Green has just 11 extra-base hits in its 15 games. On the mound, Barker is 2-3 with a 3.95 ERA, while Kristen Rumley is 3-3 with a 2.39 ERA to pace the team, while also striking out 49 in 41.0 innings. Second-year head coach Rachel Hanson led Dartmouth to a 17-22 record a season ago. The Big Red leads the all-time series against Dartmouth 35-8 after splitting a weekend set last spring in Hanover, N.H.