ITHACA, N.Y. — The No. 7-ranked Cornell women's squash team (5-6, 1-4 Ivy League) will return to the Belkin Squash Courts for the first time in nearly a month on Saturday afternoon when it welcomes No. 9-ranked Columbia (3-7, 1-4 Ivy League) to conclude Ivy League play and host its final two home matches of the regular season.

First matches are scheduled to begin at noon. Match action will be streamed for free on Stretch Internet.

Cornell and Columbia will be vying to snap their respective four-match losing streaks on Saturday while registering their second Ivy League victory.

LAST TIME OUT
Freshman Sabine Ball registered a four-game victory over Fabiola Cabello at the No. 7 position for Cornell in its 8-1 loss to No. 4-ranked Trinity at the George A. Kellner Squash Courts last Sunday afternoon in Hartford, Conn.

Ball and Cabello traded victories in the opening two games, 11-4, 8-11, before the first-year Cornellian posted wins of 11-6 and 11-9 in the third and fourth games en route to her sixth victory of the season.

Sophomore Xin Ying Yee (No. 1), juniors Aishwarya Khubchandani (No. 2) and Alysa Ali (No. 4), and sophomore Saniya Jaggi (No. 8) lost their respective matches in four games.

SCOUTING COLUMBIA
Columbia comes into Saturday's match against Cornell with a 3-7 overall record and a 1-4 mark in Ivy League play. Like Cornell, the Lions' lone conference victory came to No. 11-ranked Dartmouth, 7-2, on Jan. 12 at SL Green StreetSquash. The other victories on the year for Columbia include 7-2 wins over Tufts (Nov. 22) and Williams (Dec. 8).

Simmi Chan has a team-leading five wins on the season, posting a 5-3 record at the top position on the Lions' ladder. Andreea Ghiorhisor and Eugenia Li are behind Sin Yuk with identical 4-6 records.

Chan advanced to the semifinals of the Ramsay Cup at the College Squash Association (CSA) Individual Championships in New York City two weekends ago. With her eyes set on winning her second consecutive national title, Chan was defeated by Stanford's Riya Nivani in an intense five-game match, 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 14-16, 11-9.

SERIES HISTORY WITH COLUMBIA
Cornell owns a 10-8 edge in the series history against its fellow Empire State-based Ancient Eight foe.

In the last meeting between the teams at the Belkin Squash Courts, the Big Red edged the Lions, 5-4, on Feb. 4, 2023, snapping Cornell's five-match losing streak to Columbia.

Cornell also prevailed by a 5-4 score in the most recent meeting on Feb. 29, 2024, in Philadelphia at last year's CSA National Team Championships. Aishwarya Khubchandani (No. 2) and Saniya Jaggi (No. 9) each posted straight-game victories for the Big Red, while Christa Kay won in four games. Wen Li Lai and Alysa Ali both had five-game victories in Cornell's round of 16 victory that clinched its spot in the quarterfinal round.