ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's squash team gets one last chance to move up the national rankings before the Howe Cup this weekend when it plays matches against Penn, William Smith and Princeton. A win against either the Quakers or Tigers would give the Big Red a program record for Ivy league victories.
 
Cornell (7-3, 3-2 Ivy League) won two of its three matches last weekend at Belkin International Squash Courts. A 8-1 loss to No. 1 Harvard was bookended by a 7-0 sweep of Franklin & Marshall and a 7-2 triumph over Dartmouth. Sophomore Olivia Wherry was the only member of the squad to win three matches on the weekend, improving to 7-2 on the season. Freshman Sydney Francis also won her lone match of the weekend to go to 6-0.
 
Cornell opens with a 5 p.m. Friday match against Penn, immediately followed by an 8 p.m. clash with William Smith. The Big Red then hits the road for its final regular-season match at noon Sunday against Princeton.
 
Third-ranked Penn (8-2, 4-1) is enjoying a four-match winning streak, including impressive Ancient Eight victories against Princeton and Yale. The Big Red has topped the Quakers just twice in 22 all-time meetings, with both of those occasions coming during the 2001-02 season. Cornell is 11-0 all-time against William Smith, which is currently ranked 26^th in the country.
 
Princeton (7-3, 2-3) is ranked fifth in the country and has won all 18 of its meetings with Cornell in the programs' history. The Tigers' first two losses of the season were against No. 1 Harvard and No. 3 Penn, then they fell a spot in this week's rankings after a 5-4 loss last weekend to Yale. That result allowed the Bulldogs to jump from fifth to fourth in the national rankings.