ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's tennis team will kick off an impressive stretch of 11 consecutive home matches this weekend when it hosts Connecticut at 4:30 p.m. Friday and Albany at 10 a.m. Sunday at Reis Tennis Center.
 
Cornell (2-3) has lost its last three matches, including a pair of tilts against nationally-ranked Brown and Princeton at last weekend's ECAC Indoor Championships in Hanover, N.H. The Big Red won the doubles point in each match, but came up empty in singles. The No. 1 tandem of juniors Marika Cusick and Alexandra D'Ascenzo won both of their matches. Sophomore Lizzie Stewart leads the squad with a 3-1 record in singles, and Cusick has a pair of victories from the No. 1 position and is ranked 117th in the country.
 
Connecticut is 4-0 in dual matches, including a pair in the fall and two last weekend against Stony Brook and Army West Point. Senior Srna Stosljevic is 3-1 from the No. 1 position, and junior Emma Alderman (No. 2), freshman Jacquelyn Fitz-Randolph (No. 4) and junior Shea Flanagan (No. 6) are all 4-0 in duals.
 
This will be the first spring dual match in Cornell and Connecticut program history, though a few members of the squads crossed paths in fall tournament play at the West Point Invitational and USTA/ITA Northeast Regionals. Cornell won the lone doubles match and was 3-2 in singles, including victories from sophomores Priyanka Shah and Madison Stevens, and freshman Michelle Wang.
 
Albany is 2-1 after a sweep of Marist on Sunday. The Big Red has won both of its matches against the Great Danes in the programs' histories in 2007 and 2013. Competitors from both schools also had matches against each other at fall tournaments, with the Big Red winning all eight singles matches and the one doubles confrontation.
 
Connecticut and Albany will also compete against each other at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Reis. All of this weekend's matches are free to attend and open to the public.