ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's squash team will attempt to win the Kurtz Cup for the fourth time in program history this weekend, when it competes in the 'B' Division of the College Squash Association's National Collegiate Women's Team Championship at Murr Center in Boston.
 
The Kurtz Cup features the nation's ninth- through 16th-ranked teams, and Cornell (4-8) enters the weekend seeded first in the bracket and ninth overall in the country. That lands the Big Red a quarterfinal match at 3 p.m. Friday against #16 Bowdoin (11-7). It will mark the first meeting between the programs since 2009, with Cornell holding a 5-4 series lead.
 
Cornell, which won Kurtz Cups in its three appearances in the event (2007, 2008 and 2019), is coming off a 9-0 victory over St. Lawrence in its regular-season finale that broke a four-match losing streak. Within those setbacks was a 6-3 decision against Penn, which caused the teams to flip-flop in the national rankings to ultimately move now-#8 Penn into the top-flight Howe Cup and place the Big Red in the Kurtz Cup field.
 
The Big Red did, however, receive good news last Wednesday when senior Sivasangari Subramaniam was named the Ivy League Player of the Year – a first in the program's history. Having rolled to a 12-0 record through the regular season from the top spot in the lineup, Subramaniam is also joined on the All-Ivy League Team by sophomore Wen Li Lai, who is 8-4 from the #2 position.
 
One of the other Kurtz Cup quarterfinals, #12 Tufts vs. #13 Williams, will run concurrent to the action between Cornell and Bowdoin. The first wave of quarterfinals precedes those matches at 12:30 p.m., pitting #11 Brown against #14 Amherst, and #10 Dartmouth vs. #15 Bates.
 
The winner of Cornell's match and the Tufts/Williams match will square off against each other in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Saturday. The losers will play at 1 p.m. in the consolation semifinals. Sunday's potential match times are 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. or 2:30 p.m.
 
Results will be updated throughout the weekend on the CSA's website. The top six courts at Murr Center will also be streamed through College Squash YouTube – and while that doesn't include the Big Red's quarterfinal match, it does include the semifinals and the championship match.