After a three-week home stand the Red are back on the road. Cornell will have its first all-Ivy weekend away from Ithaca, taking on Penn tonight and Princeton tomorrow afternoon. The Red are currently tied for third in a wide-open Ivy League race.

First up for Cornell (6-11, 3-3 Ivy) are the first-place Quakers (14-4, 5-0). Penn has paraded through the rest of the Ivy League, opening its conference schedule with five-straight wins on the road. Their match with the Red will be their first chance to play against a conference opponent at The Palestra this season.

Penn has been getting the job done on both sides of the ball, ranking second in both hitting percentage (.207) and opponent hitting percentage allowed (.178). The team also ranks first in assists and kills with 14 kills per game off of 13 assists per game. On the other side of the net, the Quakers rank third in the league in blocks.Make it happen: Freshman outside hitter Deveney Pula (3) leads the team with 151 kills.

The Quakers are led by senior outside Elizabeth Semmens with 247 kills on the season, but have also seen the emergence of freshman right side Lauren Martin, who leads the team with 70 kills in conference play. Martin sits at second in the league with a .300 hitting percentage.

Junior outside Julia Swanson is the third and final Quaker with at least three kills per set, helping her classmate Megan Tryon to her Ivy League leading 11.22 assists per set. Senior Ashley Hawkins is Penn’s threat in the middle, with a .284 hitting percentage and a team high .97 blocks/game.

After a tough test against Penn, the Red will have to take on Princeton (4-12, 2-3). The Tigers lost their roar in non-conference play – finishing with just two wins to 9 losses – but have recovered since with wins over Dartmouth and Brown.

Of Cornell’s two opponents on the schedule this weekend, Princeton is more comparable to the Red on paper. The Tigers rank near the middle of the league in most offensive categories, and just above Cornell.

The Tigers and Red rank sixth and seventh in hitting percentage, respectively, and also are next to each other in the league rankings for opponent hitting percentage – fifth and sixth, respectively.

The Tigers have three players with at least 100 kills – senior outside Sheena Donohue, freshman outside Lydia Rudnik, and sophomore middle Cathryn Quinn. The trio has been working primarily with freshman setter Molly Bagshaw, who is one of two freshman among the top-three in assists per game among Ancient 8 signal callers.

Defensively, Princeton ranks last in blocks with just 1.44 a set, but the Red rank last in the league with 15.17 digs a set. Senior captain libero Megan Mushovic leads the team with 4.4 digs per set, getting the ball to sophomore Jordan Reeder who leads the team with 7.6 assists per game.

Like the Tigers, Cornell has at least three players with at least 100 kills on the season, including junior outside Alessa Cekauskas and senior captain middle Juliana Rogers. Freshman Deveney Pulla leads the Red with 151 kills and is second on the team with 131 digs. For Pulla and her six classmates, this weekend match will be their first conference-road game since the disappointing season-opening loss to Columbia.