ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 8-ranked Cornell men's squash opens its 2022-23 season on Saturday with a tough test when the Big Red welcomes No. 11-ranked Western Ontario to the Belkin Squash Courts on Saturday.

Game action is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and will be broadcast on Stretch Internet. Live scoring will be provided by csasquash.com.

Last year, Cornell swept Western, 9-0, at the Belkin Squash Courts on Feb. 11, which featured the Big Red posting eight straight-set victories.

Cornell is hoping to continue its trend of opening its season on a positive note as the Big Red have won 12 of its last 13 season-opening matches. The lone blemish was a 7-2 loss to Western to open the 2019-20 campaign.

This year, Cornell and David Palmer, the James Boradhead '57 Head Coach of Squash, hope to improve upon the program's Hoehn Cup victory last year, which is the 'B' flight of team championships.

Senior Veer Chotrani is coming off a 9-7 season at the No. 1 spot for Cornell last year. His nine wins were the third-most by a Cornell player last year, trailing Charles Culhane (11-5 at No. 4) and Humza Khan (10 total wins – seven of which came as the No. 8).

Chotrani recently won first-place at the Pyramid Squash Satellite in Tuckahoe, N.Y. in early October before becoming the first person from Cornell to win at the prestigious Price-Burlington Invitational in Richmond, Va., earlier this month.

Along with Chotrani, the Big Red returns its No. 2 and No. 3 players from last year in junior Spencer Yager and sophomore Arnaav Sareen.

Yager logged a 6-10 record while playing solely as the No. 2 for the Big Red last season, while Sareen was 7-9 at the No. 3.

Western brings back eight of its nine starters from last year, losing only its No. 4 player from last year's squad.