ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's tennis team will start Ivy League play at 1 p.m. Saturday against Columbia at Reis Tennis Center — and if last season was a fair indicator, every match could prove pivotal in determining the champion yet again this year.
 
Cornell (10-4) and Columbia (4-10) were two of the four teams that finished last season with a 4-3 record in Ivy League play, just match behind eventual champion Princeton. While Dartmouth is the none Ancient Eight program to crack the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Top 50 this week, there are five more teams ranked between 55th and 79th, according to TexasCollegeTennis.com.
 
The Big Red is one of those squads, having won six consecutive matches in its tune-up to league play. Last week, Cornell cruised to victories against Colgate (6-1) on Wednesday and Binghamton (7-0) on Sunday. Junior captain Priyanka Shah leads the team with a 10-2 record in doubles a 10-1 mark in singles. She typically competes at the No. 3 position in singles behind seniors Marika Cusick and Alexandra D'Ascenzo, who have matching 7-4 records in singles and also frequently comprise the No. 1 doubles pairing. The contributions continue down the lineup, with juniors Lizzie Stewart (10-4) and Madison Stevens (8-3).
 
Columbia rebounded from a three-loss trip to Texas with a 6-1 victory Sunday against LIU Brooklyn. Alex Solovyev leads the team in singles victories with a 6-7 record in dual matches, and Andrea Kevakian is 5-3. They typically are joined in the top four singles positions by Rima Asatrian (1-12) and Ali Pollock (4-7). The Lions are 5-5 from each of the top two positions in doubles.
 
The Lions won last year's meeting between the two teams, 4-3, to take a 20-19 lead in the all-time series. The Big Red won the doubles point with Mariko Iinuma and Stevens clinching at the No. 3 position, 7-5, then Cornell got singles victories from D'Ascenzo at No. 2) and Shah at No. 6.

Saturday's match is free to attend and open to the public.