ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's squash team takes to New York for its final two matches before the semester break at SL Green StreetSquash. The Big Red opens the weekend by taking on fledgling Virginia at 5 p.m. Saturday before the start of Ivy League play at noon Sunday with a meeting against Columbia.
 
Cornell (1-1) opened its season two weeks ago with a 9-0 sweep of Williams before a jaunt up to Rochester resulted in an 8-1 loss. Backing up his performance as the team's most valuable player a season ago, senior Andy Muran won both of his matches from the No. 1 perch. Freshmen Charles Culhane, Alex Dworetzky and Nicholas Göth Errington, and sophomore Yohann Surti all won their first collegiate matches. The Big Red remains 16th in the Dunlop College Squash Rankings
 
Virginia (2-3) is in its second season at the varsity level, continuing a steady climb in the national rankings. The Cavaliers went from 18th to start last year to 14th at the conclusion, thanks in part to a 5-4 victory over the Big Red early in the campaign. A preseason ranking of 13th this year has been backed up with a 5-4 victory over Princeton on Nov. 11 to warrant a boost to a program-best 12th. The match against Cornell will be Virginia's third of four on the weekend in New York, following ties against Fordham and Columbia and preceding the finale against NYU.
 
Columbia, which is debuting this weekend, is ranked third in the country after an identical finish in the Potter Cup last year. The Lions will look different after losing three of their top five to graduation, including first-team All-American Osama Khalifa. Cornell has already had a look at Columbia when the squads clashed in the Ivy Scrimmages a month ago, with the Lions earning a 6-3 victory.
 
With a 7-2 victory last year, Columbia took a 4-3 lead in the all-time series with Cornell since the Lions resurrected their program for the 2011-12 season.