ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's squash team gets its regular season started with a trio of non-league matches this weekend at Penn Squash Center in Philadelphia. The Big Red opens against Stanford at 6 p.m. Friday before taking on Bates at 1 p.m. Saturday and Virginia at 11 a.m. Sunday. Live scoring is scheduled to be available through csasquash.com.
 
Cornell is returning for the first time since a 2019-20 season that saw the team post a 7-11 record. Two of those victories came in the College Squash Association's Kurtz Cup – the 'B' flight of the team national championships – leading to a third-place finish in that particular event and a final national ranking of 11th. The College Squash Association's preseason rankings are more bullish on the Big Red, currently pegging the team at seventh – which, if Cornell can maintain or exceed that mark by season's end, would lead to the program's first return to the top flight of the national championships since 2017-18.
 
At the forefront of the optimism around the Big Red is the return of its top two players on the ladder from 2019-20 season, seniors Sivasangari Subramaniam and Lily Zelov. Zelov was 8-10 from the top two positions on the ladder, and Subramaniam is not only one of the top players in the country – she's one of the top players in the world. Subramaniam posted a 15-1 individual record en route to a second-place finish at the CSA's National Individual Championships in her last collegiate action, and has since been climbing a current PSA World Rankings to a current post at 29^th.
 
Among the junior class are a trio of competitors that competed in nearly all of the Big Red's matches in its last season. McKenna Stoltz (10-7) ranked second in individual victories on the team, and Alexis Shatzman (7-10) has the most experience of the group from the middle third of the lineup, and Ania LaDow (7-9) found success from the lower third.
 
The six newcomers consist of three freshmen and three sophomores, including sophomore Wen Li Lai – a decorated compatriot of Subramaniam that enters her first collegiate season ranked 94th in the world.
 
Though all three of this weekend's matches are of the non-league variety, they are likely to prove pivotal in determining if the Big Red will maintain its current placement in the CSA's top eight by season's end or if it will need to climb again to earn a Howe Cup berth.
 
Cornell opens against Stanford, which will be celebrating a return to varsity status after the program was nearly cut over the pandemic. Part of the fallout from the program's uncertain future have created factors that have nudged the Cardinal down the rankings from a season-ending sixth in 2019-20 to currently 10th. That leaves the Big Red as favorites in a series that it holds a slight lead in, 11-10, though Stanford has won each of the last three matches between the squads by a cumulative score of 24-3.
 
Saturday's match with Bates at 1 p.m. will be the programs' first since 2013, with Cornell securing a 9-0 sweep. Since then, the Bobcats have captured three Walker Cup (national championship 'C' flight) titles and enter this season ranked 15th, fueled by an experienced lineup.
 
The weekend concludes with an 11 a.m. match on Sunday against Virginia. While the Cavaliers carry a preseason ranking of ninth, they have already made a case to vault up after a 5-4 upset of fourth-ranked Columbia last weekend. Even though Cornell and Virginia have only clashed since the latter's ascension to varsity status in 2017, there are all the makings of rivalry. The Cavaliers won a pair of close matches in 2019-20, while Cornell's last victory in the series was a 6-3 upset en route to the program's last Kurtz Cup title in 2019.