ITHACA, N.Y. — In its final Ivy League tuneup of the season, the women's tennis team will host Binghamton and Ithaca College on Saturday at Reis Tennis Center. The busy day begins at 9 a.m. with a match against the Bearcats, then concludes at 12:30 p.m. against the Bombers.
Cornell (4-5) rides a three-match winning streak into the weekend, including a thorough 7-0 defeat of Marist last Saturday. Not only did the Big Red won each match in straight sets, it didn't drop more than a total of three games in any of the singles or doubles matches. Junior
Jane Stewart has a five-match winning streak in singles, and the sophomore doubles team of
Marika Cusick and
Alexandra D'Ascenzo have won their last four straight. Junior captain
Dena Tanenbaum has won her last three matches from the No. 1 singles position.
Binghamton (7-5) has alternated wins and losses over its last nine appearances, including a 5-2 victory over Marist last Friday. While the Bearcats and Big Red have not officially met this season, individual players from both programs crossed paths during fall tournament play. Cornell's competitors were 7-0 in singles and 3-1 in doubles matches against Binghamton in those scenarios. The Big Red is 14-2 all-time in the series, which includes a four-match winning streak since
Mike Stevens became the Carl H. Meinig '31 Head Coach of Women's Tennis. Stevens was actually the head coach at Binghamton when it last defeated Cornell, which was on Feb. 19, 2010.
Cornell ends the day against Ithaca College in a match that was only recently added to the schedule. It marks the first time the Big Red has taken on the Bombers in a spring dual match since 1973 and 1974 — the first two years of the Cornell program's existence (the Big Red won both meetings). The match will mark the Big Red's first against a Division III opponent since a victory over Tufts on March 26, 2010. Ithaca is 12-3 and won its 10th consecutive Empire 8 Championship in October, which gives the Bombers an automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championships in May.
The Big Red was also originally scheduled to play Niagara on Saturday, but that match was canceled.
