ITHACA, N.Y. — The No. 8-ranked Cornell women's squash team (5-4, 1-3 Ivy League) returns to action this weekend when it travels to the Nutmeg State to take on a pair of top-10 opponents in No. 7-ranked Yale (3-4, 1-3 Ivy League) and No. 2-ranked Trinity (7-1, 4-0 NESCAC).

Cornell will first face its Ancient Eight foe, Yale, on Saturday, Feb. 1, with first matches from the Brady Squash Center in New Haven, Conn., slated to begin at noon. Match action will be streamed live on Stretch Internet.

Rounding out the weekend's slate, the Big Red will take the quick trip northward on Interstate 91 to face Trinity in Hartford, Conn., at the George A. Kellner Squash Courts on Sunday at 1 p.m. Matches will be carried live on the Northeast Sports Network.

The Big Red has lost three of its last four matches, falling to top-ranked Harvard, 8-1, on Jan. 12, and suffering 7-2 and 9-0 setbacks to No. 4-ranked Princeton and No. 3-ranked Penn, respectively, two weekends ago.

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS REWIND
Cornell had three representatives at this past weekend's College Squash Association (CSA) Individual Championships in New York City, highlighted by a semifinal appearance in the Ramsay Cup by sophomore Xin Ying Yee.

Yee defeated Drexel's Moa Bonnemark in four games, 11-6, 11-8, 7-11, 11-4, before prevailing over Penn's Sohaila Ismail in straight games in the second round, 11-6, 11-4, 11-5. In her quarterfinal match against Yale's Heng Wai Wong, Yee cruised into the Ramsay Cup semifinals with a straight-game victory, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9, before falling to Princeton's Zeina Zeib, the eventual national champion, in three games, 11-4, 11-6, 11-8.

The semifinal appearance by Yee marked the fourth time in the last five CSA Individual Championships that a Cornell women's squash player had reached the final four of the Ramsay Cup. Former Big Red standout Sivasangari Subramaniam '23, reached the championship match on three occasions (2019, 2022, 2023), and lost in the semifinals in 2020.

Elsewhere at the CSA Individual Championships, junior Aishwarya Khubchandani fell in the first round of the Ramsay Cup to Princeton's Emma Trauber in four games, 6-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-2. Khubchandani defeated Virginia's Maria Moya and Lina Tammam before falling to Stanford's Madison Ho in the consolation quarterfinals.

Fellow junior Alysa Ali received a bye into the semifinals of the Holleran West bracket, where she lost to Virginia's Maryam Mian in four games, 11-5, 8-11, 12-10, 13-11.

SCOUTING YALE
Yale enters the weekend with a 3-4 overall record and 1-3 mark in Ivy League matches. The Bulldogs have also lost three of their last four matches, having also lost to Princeton, Penn, and Harvard, and defeating Dartmouth.

Whitney Taylor leads all Bulldogs players with her 5-2 record. Heng Wai Wong, Spring Ma, Christy Lau, Meghna Sreedhar, and Mika Bardin all have three wins on the season.

SERIES HISTORY WITH YALE
No. 7-ranked Yale owns the series lead over Cornell, 32-2, which includes the Bulldogs winning 27 of the last 28 meetings. The lone victory for the Big Red during the span came in Cornell's last trip to New Haven on Jan. 22, 2023, where it posted a 5-4 victory to snap the program's 25-match losing streak to its Ancient Eight rival.

In last year's meeting between the programs at the Belkin Squash Courts, Wen Li Lai, Maya Voloshin, and Saniya Jaggi registered victories for the Big Red in its 6-3 loss to the Bulldogs.

SCOUTING TRINITY
No. 3-ranked Trinity comes into the weekend with a 6-2 overall record and a 4-0 mark in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) play.

The Bantams are coming off a weekend sweep of Harvard (Jan. 17) and Dartmouth (Jan. 19), where it defeated top-ranked Harvard, 5-4, before posting a clean sweep of the Big Green.

Lujan Palacios (7-1) and Janna Ashmawy (7-0) have a team-leading seven wins on the season with Fabiola Cabello and Kara Lincou right behind with identical 6-1 records.

SERIES HISTORY WITH TRINITY
Cornell will be looking to post its first-ever victory over Trinity on Sunday as the Bantams have won all 21 prior meetings.

Last year, the Bantams posted an 8-1 win over Cornell at the Belkin Squash Courts. Lai was the lone Big Red player to register a victory, defeating Malak Ashraf Kamal in straight games.