ITHACA, N.Y. – The women's tennis team begins the dual match portion of its schedule this weekend, taking on Buffalo and Maryland-Baltimore County at Reis Tennis Center.
 
The Big Red enters this portion of the season on the heels of a solid performance at the Cornell Winter Invitational. Freshman Marika Cusick won the "A" Singles title and classmate Alexandra D'Ascenzo finished atop the "B" Singles bracket, plus the duo combined to win the "A" doubles championship. While they didn't compete together last weekend, the doubles team of D'Ascenzo and sophomore Dena Tanenbaum is currently ranked 31^st in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
 
The weekend kicks off with a match against Buffalo on Friday evening, immediately following the conclusion of the Big Red men's team's 2 p.m. clash with Radford. The Bulls are 1-0 after opening the season with a dominating 7-0 victory against St. Bonaventure.
 
The only fall meeting between competitors from Cornell and Buffalo was a doubles match in the Round of 64 at regionals. D'Ascenzo and Frazier came up on the short end of an 8-3 decision against Margarita Kotok and Miranda Podlas. The Big Red is 3-2 all-time against the Bulls, including a 7-0 victory on Feb. 12, 2012 in Buffalo.
 
Maryland-Baltimore County opened its season last weekend in Texas. After starting off with a 6-1 victory over Prairie View, the Retrievers dropped a 6-0 decision to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi the following day. UMBC opens this weekend with a match against Buffalo at 11 a.m. Saturday at Reis. Senior Kim Berghaus has experience at the No. 1 singles position, but she opened the season at the No. 2 spot behind freshman Olga Baikulova.
 
Cornell is 6-1 all-time against UMBC, including a pair of victories under head coach Mike Stevens in each of the last two seasons.