ITHACA, N.Y. — A total of seven matches will take place this weekend at Belkin International Squash Courts, with just two weeks of play remaining before seeding is set for the national championships.
 
The Cornell men's team (4-3, 2-1 Ivy League) is looking to rebound from three consecutive losses to Yale, Trinity and St. Lawrence – all ahead of the Big Red in the national rankings. Cornell continues to hold steady at the No. 8 ranking, which would be the final spot for the Potter Cup. This weekend's matches feature teams both above and below the Big Red in the rankings.
 
The weekend starts at 2 p.m. Friday against No. 6 Franklin & Marshall (10-2). While the Diplomats are enjoying a seven-match winning streak, none of those victories have come against teams ranked in the top 8 in the country. The Big Red is 24-22 all-time against F&M, including a split of 5-4 decisions last season.
 
Up next for just the men's team is a 7 p.m. matchup with No. 13 Navy (13-4). The Midshipmen will face the Big Red for the first time since CU's 6-3 victory in 2008 to take a 13-12 lead in the all-time series. The match was to decide 11^th place in the national championships.
 
Ivy League play then resumes at noon Saturday against No. 2 Harvard (9-0). The Crimson have won all of its matches by 8-1 or 9-0 final scores. The Big Red is 2-44 all-time against Harvard, but the last match between the squads at Belkin was as close as it gets. Cornell held three-point leads twice before dropping the final four matches to suffer a dramatic 5-4 loss on Feb. 5, 2012.
 
The weekend concludes with a noon Sunday match against No. 11 Dartmouth. The Big Green is 2-6 overall and 0-3 in the Ivy League coming into its Saturday match at Columbia. Dartmouth split a pair of 6-3 matches last weekend against Bates and Western Ontario. The Big Red is 8-14 all-time against the Big Green, but that includes seven consecutive victories.
 
On the women's side, Cornell (5-2, 2-1) is plodding along as No. 6 in the nation after an easy 9-0 victory over St. Lawrence on Jan. 18. Junior Danielle Letourneau and senior Jessenia Pacheco anchor the top of the lineup with identical 5-2 records, shared with freshman Rachel Scherman and sophomore Reut Odinak. Freshman Sydney Francis is 5-0 from the lower third of the order.
 
F&M (5-10) is ranked 18^th in the country and coming off a 1-3 weekend at the Yale Round Robin. The Big Red is 9-1 all-time against the Diplomats, including the last eight matches.
 
Attention then turns to Ivy League play for the balance of the weekend, starting at noon Saturday with national No. 1 Harvard (7-0, 3-0). The Crimson has won all 19 matches against the Big Red in the programs' history, including a 9-0 decision last season in Cambridge, Mass.
 
Cornell then wraps up the three-match stretch with a pivotal clash with No. 8 Dartmouth (2-5, 0-3 Ivy) at noon Sunday. The Big Red is 8-14 all-time against the Big Green, including a six-match winning streak. Cornell won last year's meeting, 7-2, and the 2012 clash, 5-4.