ITHACA, N.Y.—The No. 34 ranked Columbia women's tennis team has an opportunity to set establish a new school-record for most consecutive victories when it opens Ivy League play on Saturday against Cornell in Ithaca. First-serve for the match is at 1 p.m. ET at Reis Tennis Center.
 
Columbia enters the weekend on an 11-match win streak. It has tied the school-record for most consecutive wins as the Lions also won 11 consecutive matches from Feb. 28-April 13, 2014. Columbia is 11-1 on the season with its only loss coming in the season opener at No. 24 ranked Syracuse.
 
Columbia enters Ivy League play after coming off two wins on its 2019 Spring Break Trip to Las Vegas. The Lions defeated both UNLV (4-2) and Texas-San Antonio (4-0) in Las Vegas.
 
Five weeks ago, Columbia earned its first national ranking of the season when it was rated No. 38 by the ITA. Columbia is one of two Ivy League teams listed in the ITA rankings as Princeton is No. 38 this week.
 
The Lions open Ivy League play with three straight road matches: at Cornell (March 30), Yale (April 6), Brown (April 7).
 
SCOUTING CORNELL
 
Cornell enters the weekend on a three-match win streak after defeating Niagara, Siena and Marist in consecutive matches. The Big Red is 6-9 overall in dual matches. The Big Red is 6-1 at home this season. Leading the team in singles is Sarah Campbell with a 6-5 record, Katherine Nguyen is 3-10 and Valerie Ho is 7-6.
 
Columbia is 16-19 all-time vs. Cornell. The Lions have won five of their last seven matches against the Big Red, including a 5-2 home win last season.
 
COLUMBIA GAME NOTES
 
*No. 34 ranked Columbia (11-1) enters Ivy League play on an 11-match win streak.
 
*Seven Lions have won 10 or more singles matches: Akanksha Bhan (17-4), Christie Wan (15-4), Jennifer Kerr (14-10), Melissa Sakar (16-6), Yekaterina Alferova (11-7), Sarah Hu (12-5) and Andrea Kevakian (12-3). In doubles, Bhan and Paulina Ferrari are 11-5, Wan and Andrea Kevakian are 12-7 and Kerr and Hu have an 11-4 record. Overall, Columbia is 127-51 in singles matches and 52-27 in doubles matches.
 
*According to tennisrecruiting.net, Columbia welcomed the nation's No. 12 ranked incoming 2018 recruiting class in September. The four newcomers include first-years Melissa Sakar, Akanksha Bhan, Yekaterina Alferova and Caitie Sullivan. All four were ranked among the nation's top-100 players in the 2018 tennisrecruiting.net class: Sakar (No. 18), Bhan (No. 28), Alferova (No. 35) and Sullivan (No. 75).
 
*Head Coach Ilene Weintraub, CC '02 is in her 12th season at the helm of the Columbia women's tennis program. The winningest coach in school history, Weintraub guided the Lions to their first Ivy League Championship in 2013, led the program to a top-40 national ranking in 2016, captured three ECAC Championships (2014, 2016, 2019) and has recruited three national top-15 recruiting classes (No. 6 in 2015, No. 10 in 2017 and No. 12 in 2018) and four national top-20 recruiting classes in the last five years to Columbia. She was named the ITA Northeast Region Coach of the Year in both 2014 and 2016. Weintraub is joined by first-year assistant coach AJ Nelson and volunteer assistant coach Carlos Carrera.