ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's tennis team continues Ivy League play this weekend with a big rematch on the road against defending champion Princeton at 2 p.m. Friday, followed by a home match against Penn at 1 p.m. Sunday at Reis Tennis Courts.
 
Cornell (11-4, 1-0 Ivy League) got its league slate off to an emphatic start last Saturday, sweeping Columbia by a score of 7-0 at Reis. The Big Red has now won seven straight, which is the longest current streak in the Ivy League. Juniors Priyanka Shah and Lizzie Stewart have a team-high 11 singles victories from the middle two positions, while seniors Marika Cusick and Alexandra D'Ascenzo have matching 8-4 records from the top two positions. The Big Red has also been equally good in doubles, where it's a cumulative 29-11 in dual matches.
 
Princeton (10-6, 1-0) also won its Ivy League opener, 5-2, against Penn on Saturday in Philadelphia. The Tigers dropped the doubles point before winning the bottom five singles matches to keep pace with Cornell, Harvard and Brown atop the earliest of Ivy League tables. The Tigers have gotten the bulk of their success this season from the bottom two-thirds of the singles order, where they have posted a combined record of 39-13. Nicole Kalhorn (8-1) and Clare McKee (8-2) are part of that mix and tied for the team lead in singles victories. McKee has won seven straight. Kalhorn and Caroline Joyce are the primary No. 1 doubles entry and own a 7-2 mark, having only recently fallen out of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings.
 
The Tigers are three-time defending Ivy League champions for the first time in program history, having clinched the 2016 title with a final-day victory over Cornell last April at Reis Tennis Center. But it's the Big Red that owns the most recent success in matchups between the programs. Cornell defeated Princeton, 4-2, on Feb. 12 in a neutral-site match at the ECAC Indoor Championships. Cusick clinched the victory by rallying for a three-set victory at No. 1 singles, while D'Ascenzo (No. 2), Shah (No. 3) and Stevens (No. 4) won in straight sets to account for the Big Red's other victories after Princeton took the doubles point.
 
That victory marked just the third time Cornell has defeated Princeton in 39 all-time meetings between the programs since 1973. The other two Big Red victories against the Tigers came in 1995 and 1996 — which coincides with the program's best all-time Ivy League finishes.
 
Penn (7-7, 0-1) had won three straight before losing to Princeton, including three of four on a trip through the Sunshine State and a 5-2 decision over nationally-ranked Florida State. Kana Daniel has won seven straight matches from the No. 1 singles position and carries a national ranking of 89th. Ashley Zhu (8-6) and Ria Vaidya (5-7) also compete in the top half of the order, and Marta Kowalska (9-2) and Lina Qostal (9-4) are tied for the team lead in dual-match singles victories.
 
Cornell is just 6-30 all-time against the Quakers, but the field has been leveled recently with the Big Red emerging victorious in two of the last three years. Cornell earned a 5-2 victory last year in Philadelphia, simultaneously setting a program record with its 15th win of the season. Shah and sophomore Mariko Iinuma won in both singles and doubles.