ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's tennis team plays its first road matches of the Ivy League season this weekend with a trip to take on Brown at noon Saturday and Yale at noon Sunday.
Cornell (8-6, 2-1 Ivy League) split its matches last weekend, upending visiting Harvard on Friday before suffering its first league loss of the season on Saturday against Dartmouth. That leaves the Big Red tied for second place with travel partner Columbia, which Cornell defeated in the teams' first league match of the season. Everyone is chasing Princeton (9-7, 3-0), which is also on the road this weekend at Dartmouth and Harvard.
Sophomore
Marika Cusick has won eight straight singles matches for the Big Red, most coming from the No. 3 position. Freshman
Priyanka Shah was the only other Cornellian to sweep her singles matches last weekend, and junior
Jane Stewart is 10-2 in singles play this season to tie Cusick for the most singles victories in dual matches this season. Shah and classmate
Lizzie Stewart are a perfect 5-0 in doubles.
Yale (7-8, 1-1) is ranked 75th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association after its split of Ivy matches last weekend. The Bulldogs cruised past Penn, 7-0, on Friday before suffering a 5-2 loss to front-running Princeton on Saturday. Senior Hanna Yu typically competes at the No. 1 singles positions, with juniors Madeleine Hamilton and Ree Ree Li in the No. 2 and No. 3 positions and the Bulldogs' No. 1 doubles combination.
Yale leads the all-time series with Cornell, 30-4, but the Big Red ended the Bulldogs' 17-match winning streak in the series with a 4-0 decision on Feb. 6 in a first-round match at the ECAC Indoor Championships. It marked the first time Cornell defeated Yale since April 12, 1997, and it was the first of three Big Red victories over ranked teams so far this season. Yale was ranked 48th at the time, and Cornell has also defeated No. 46 Columbia and No. 63 Harvard this season.
Brown (8-7, 1-1) also kicked off Ivy play last weekend with a win over Penn (5-2) and a loss to Princeton (5-2). Freshman Maddie Stearns has won her last three matches from the bottom two spots in the singles order, while sophomore No. 1 Dayna Lord has recently spent time in the ITA's national individual rankings before a recent four-match losing streak. Lord and freshman Alyza Benotto, who typically competes at No. 2 singles, team up to form the Bears' top doubles tandem. They have four victories in their last five matches.
The Bears holds a 26-9 lead in the all-time series, including a 4-3 non-league victory on Jan. 25 at a tournament hosted by Dartmouth. Cornell has won two of the last three Ivy League matches between the teams. Just two of the last 16 meetings between the squads has featured a margin of victory greater than two points.
