NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The women's tennis team swept all six singles matches to record a 6-1 win Saturday at Yale, keeping the Big Red in the hunt for a share of the Ivy League title entering tomorrow's final matches of the regular season.
 
While the senior tandem of Marika Cusick and Alexandra D'Ascenzo was ahead in their match at No. 1, Cornell (14-6, 4-2 Ivy League) dropped the doubles point on Saturday after Yale (7-15, 0-6) prevailed in the other two tilts. But it was all Big Red from there, with the visitors winning five of the six singles matches in straight sets. D'Ascenzo then put the exclamation point on the day with a win at No. 2 in a super tiebreaker.
 
Junior Lizzie Stewart extended her personal single winning streak to 12 matches, and she joins sophomore Mariko Iinuma as a perfect 6-0 in Ivy League singles matches.
 
Cornell is now tied for second place with two other teams, trailing just #49 Harvard (17-7, 5-1) after the Crimson's 5-2 victory over defending champion Princeton on Saturday. A Cornell win at 1 p.m. Sunday at Brown (12-8, 3-3) coupled with a Harvard loss at Penn would give the Big Red a share of its first-ever Ivy League championship. Additionally, Cornell can also win the tiebreaker to determine the recipient of the Ivy League's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA tournament if those results are joined by a Princeton victory over #44 Dartmouth on Sunday.
 
A Cornell victory Sunday would also tie the program record for victories in a single season, matching a mark set just last year. Already the program's winningest Carl H. Meinig '31 Head Coach of Women's Tennis at Cornell, Mike Stevens has also led the Big Red to consecutive winning records in the Ivy League for the first time since the 1995-96 seasons.
 
CORNELL 6, YALE 1
Singles
1. Marika Cusick (C) def. Carol Finke, 6-4, 6-2
2. Alexandra D'Ascenzo (C) def. Amy Yang, 4-6, 6-2, (10-8)
3. Priyanka Shah (C) def. Valerie Shklover, 6-3, 7-5
4. Lizzie Stewart (C) def. Elizabeth Zordani, 6-4, 6-3
5. Mariko Iinuma (C) def. Caroline Lynch, 6-3, 6-3
6. Madison Stevens (C) def. Opala Dhingra, 6-4, 6-1
Doubles
1. Cusick/D'Ascenzo (C) vs. Shklover/Zordani, 5-4 (DNF)
2. Finke/Yang (Y) def. Iinuma/Shah, 6-2
3. Tina Jiang/Lynch (Y) def. Stevens/Stewart, 6-3
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3), Singles (1,4,6,5,3,2)