PRINCETON, N.J. — For the sixth consecutive season, the women's squash team will make a bid for a national championship this weekend at the Howe Cup. The Big Red enters the weekend ranked sixth, opening play with a 2:30 p.m. Friday quarterfinal against No. 3 Penn.
 
Cornell (8-5) has held steady at the No. 6 spot since Feb. 25, 2012, when it used a 5-4 victory over then-No. 6 Stanford in the Howe Cup consolation semifinals to overtake the Cardinal's ranking. Junior Danielle Letourneau and sophomore Olivia Wherry have the team's best individual record, going 8-4 in dual matches during the regular season. Sophomore Reut Odinak also has eight victories against five losses, and junior Lindsay Seginson has the next-best winning percentage with a 5-3 mark. Letourneau anchors the top of the lineup with senior Jessenia Pacheco (7-5).
 
The Big Red faces tough opposition Friday, having only beaten the Quakers twice in 23 all-time meetings between the programs. Both of those Cornell victories came during the 2001-02 season – once in an Ivy League match, and once at the Williams Tournament three months later. More recently, visiting Penn defeated the Big Red, 6-3, on Feb. 7 at Belkin International Squash Courts. Letourneau (No. 1) and junior Rachel Au (No. 6) had impressive five-game victories in their respective matches, and Seginson provided the other Big Red point by winning in four games to top her opponent at No. 4.
 
Simultaneous to action between Cornell and Penn, No. 4 Yale and No. 5 Princeton will clash on three of the other courts at Jadwin Squash Courts. The first wave of quarterfinals will precede those two matches at 12:15 p.m., pitting No. 1 Harvard against No. 8 Dartmouth and No. 2 Trinity against No. 7 Stanford.
 
The winner of the Cornell-Penn match will then take on the winner of the Trinity-Stanford match at 2 p.m. Saturday, while the losers will meet in a consolation semifinal at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. All four placement matches will take place Sunday.
 
Cornell has never won a Potter Cup quarterfinal in program history. The Big Red's best finish was in 2001, when it placed fifth following consolation bracket victories over Brown and Dartmouth. Cornell has finished sixth in 2009, 2012 and 2013, and seventh in 2010 and 2011.
 
Select courts and matches of this year's Howe Cup will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network throughout the weekend. For more information, click here.