ITHACA, N.Y. – The women's tennis team will return to action for the first time in nearly three weeks when it plays host to Rutgers, Fairleigh Dickinson and Lafayette this weekend at Reis Tennis Center.
 
Cornell (2-2) is coming off a sixth-place finish at the ECAC Indoor Championships following two matches Feb. 7-8 in New York. The Big Red opened with a 4-2 loss to Brown, then suffered a 5-2 setback against Dartmouth at Columbia's Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The Big Red won the doubles point both days, then freshman Alexandra D'Ascenzo and senior Shannon Comolli each won one singles match on the weekend. The doubles team of D'Ascenzo and sophomore Dena Tanenbaum is ranked 46^th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
 
The weekend kicks off with a 10 a.m. Saturday matchup against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are 4-3, having split their American Athletic Conference debut last weekend with a loss at Louisville and win at Cincinnati. Lindsey Kayati has the team's best singles record at 6-1 from the Nos. 4 and 5 positions, with Vanessa Petrini and Gini Li posting 3-4 marks from the top two spots. The Big Red is 5-7 all-time against Rutgers in spring matches. Cornell won the last meeting between the teams, 5-2, on Feb. 21, 2010 in Ithaca.
 
Up next is a Sunday doubleheader, starting with Fairleigh Dickinson at 10 a.m. and wrapping up with Lafayette at 3:30 p.m. FDU is 3-2 following a narrow 4-3 loss to Army on Feb. 21. The Knights' victories this season have been against NJIT, Lehigh and Temple. Cornell is 5-0 all-time against FDU, with all five of those meetings coming since 2009. The Big Red won the last clash, 7-0, on March 2, 2013 at Reis Tennis Center.
 
The final match of the weekend pits Cornell against Lafayette (1-0). The Leopards haven't yet come out of their winter hiatus, last playing competitively on in October's Patriot League Kickoff. Lafayette's lone dual match to date was a 7-0 whitewashing of Wagner on Oct. 6, though the Leopards will play host to Saint Peter's on Saturday before making the trek to Ithaca. This will be the first meeting between the Cornell and Lafayette women's tennis programs.