ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's tennis team will hit the road for two more Ivy League matches this weekend, visiting Harvard for a match at 2 p.m. Friday before playing at 2 p.m. Saturday at Dartmouth. Friday's match at Harvard will be broadcast on Ivy League Digital Network.
 
Cornell (11-6, 0-1 Ivy League) is coming off a narrow 4-3 loss last Saturday to Columbia, which is the Ivy League team carrying the highest national ranking from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The unranked Big Red got a big win from junior Alexandra D'Ascenzo at No. 2 singles to put the balance of the match into two three-set affairs, but Cornell could only win one of them to ultimately end up with a one-point loss. Sophomore Priyanka Shah won her match at No. 6 singles and helped the Big Red open the day with the doubles point with her seventh straight No. 2 doubles victory when paired with D'Ascenzo. Sophomore Lizzie Stewart lead the team with 13 singles victories, and freshman Michelle Wang is 10-1 in dual matches.
 
Harvard (10-6, 0-0) is ranked 54th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association on the heels of a five-match winning streak — including a 4-2 decision March 20 at 24th-ranked Fresno State. In Harvard's completed dual singles matches, 36 of the 56 victories have come from the bottom half of the order. Sabrina Xiong (11-4 from primarily the No. 5 spot) and Amy He (13-2 from primarily the No. 6 spot) are both on five-match winning streaks. The Crimson is 19-24 in doubles matches, with the most successful bearing consisting of Xiong and Annika Ringblom (8-4 in duals).
 
Harvard holds a 36-3 lead in the all-time series, but Cornell has won the last two meetings between the programs. When the teams met in Ivy play last year in Ithaca, the Big Red secured a 5-2 upset of the nationally-ranked Crimson to start the league slate 2-0 for the first time since 2009. Cornell then topped Harvard earlier this year on Jan. 24 during the first weekend of dual matches, winning 4-3 when sophomore Lizzie Stewart clinched the match with a straight-sets victory at No. 5 singles. The Big Red's other victory against the Crimson came in 2007.
 
Dartmouth (9-3, 0-0) enters its Friday match against Columbia having won eight of its last nine matches and carrying a national ranking of 49th. The Big Green wrapped up a three-match trip to California with a March 22 loss at Long Beach State before rebounding with a 6-1 victory over visiting Houston last Saturday. Kristina Mathis and Taylor Ng are the nation's 16th-ranked doubles team, having posted an 9-1 record from the No. 1 position in dual matches this year — including a win over the then-#1 tandem from Kentucky in late January. Ng also competes from the No. 1 singles position, though — like Harvard — Dartmouth has gotten more victories from the bottom half of the singles order through non-league duals. Allison Chuang is 8-2 from the No. 6 spot.
 
The Big Red is 7-26 all-time against the Big Green, though four of the last five Ivy League matches have ended in a 4-3 score. Cornell won all three of its singles matches against Dartmouth opponents at the USTA/ITA Northeast Regionals this fall. The Big Red's last team victory against the Big Green came in 2013.