ITHACA, N.Y. — Unbeaten since early February, the women's tennis will kick off its Ivy League schedule at noon Saturday when it hosts 60th-ranked Columbia at Reis Tennis Center.
 
The Big Red has won five straight matches to bring its record to 6-5 on the season. Four of those five wins have been dominating 7-0 decisions, with the lone exception being a hard-fought 4-3 win March 7 at West Virginia. Cornell started its current six-match home stand with sweeps of Marist on March 14 and Binghamton and Ithaca College on last Saturday. Junior Jane Stewart, in her first semester competing with the Big Red since transferring from Rice, hasn't lost in her 10 singles matches from the lower half of the order — a stretch that includes seven victories in straight sets and three matches she was leading when they were halted. Sophomore Marika Cusick has won five straight, and senior Dena Tanenbaum and sophomore Alexandra D'Ascenzo have each won four consecutive singles matches.
 
Columbia (8-5) is coming a off a three-match trip to Las Vegas, where it defeated Drake and UNLV by matching 5-2 scores around a 4-3 loss to Purdue. The Lions are now ranked 60th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association after grabbing an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament last season. Sophomore Tina Jiang typically competes at the No. 2 singles position, and the team of freshman Rima Asatrian and junior Kanika Vaidya won the doubles title at USTA/ITA Northeast Regionals last fall. Senior Crystal Leung is 5-0 from the No. 4 singles position, though she competed last weekend at the No. 5 spot.
 
Cornell leads the all-time series against Columbia, 19-17, though the Lions won last year's matchup at Dick Savitt Tennis Center in New York by a 6-1 score. Cusick accounted for the Big Red's point with a victory at No. 2 singles. Cornell's last victory in the series was a 4-3 decision on April 6, 2011 in Mike Stevens' first season as The Carl H. Meinig '31 Head Coach of Women's Tennis