ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's squash team closes the semester with a pair of pivotal matches this weekend at SL Green StreetSquash in New York. The Big Red takes on upstart Virginia at 5 p.m. Saturday before the start of Ivy League play at noon Sunday with a meeting against Columbia.
 
Cornell (1-0) opened its season with a thorough 8-0 defeat of Williams on Nov. 17 at Belkin International Squash Courts. Samira Chatrathi conceded just seven points in her three-game victory at No. 8, and senior Lauren Leizman capped the victory by staving off her opponent to win 15-13 in the fifth at No. 4. The Big Red remains eighth in the Dunlop College Squash Rankings.
 
Virginia (3-4), which returned nine of its top 10 from last year's team, started the season with three sweeps at the Mid-Atlantic Championships before suffering losses to tougher competition more recently. Most notable among those matches for the 12th-ranked Cavaliers was a 6-3 decision against ninth-ranked Drexel and a 5-4 loss to fourth-ranked Penn. In that upset bid, Virginia's points all came from the bottom four positions. 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 seventh in the country after an identical finish in the Howe Cup last year – capped by a 7-2 victory over Cornell in the final consolation round. But the margin was far closer a month ago when the Big Red and Lions tangled at the Ivy Scrimmages, with Columbia on the long side of 5-4. The Big Red's two losses to the Lions last year trimmed its lead in the all-time series against its in-state Ancient Eight rival to 8-3.