This weekend, both the men and women’s polo teams, coached by David Elredge, will travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to face off against Eastern Regional opponent Harvard at the Myopia Outdoor Arena. The men’s team will ride at 2 p.m. on Saturday, while the women’s match begins at 2 p.m. on Friday.

The men’s team (3-1) is coming off its first loss of the season, an 8-19 19-8 defeat at the hands of the Virginia Cavaliers. However, the Red expects to return to its winning ways against the Crimson (1-2). In fact, the team will be playing without two of its usual starters — All-American senior Max Constant and freshmaen Branden Van Loon, its second leading scorer — in favor of some of the Red’s less experienced players.

“I personally won’t be traveling this weekend,” said Constant. “It’s a good opportunity for the younger guys to be able to play and get some exposure and some experience.”

The Red was 2-0 against the Crimson during the 2008-2009 season and plans to continue the trend. Instead of its usual lineup, the Red expects to start senior Dan Grew, junior David Dunstan and freshmen Connor Pardell and David Dunstan. While Grew started the Red’s first three games and Pardell is third on the squad with 10 goals, Dunstan hasn’t started a game yet this season.

The Harvard men, coached by Crocker Snow, are in their third season after coming back from a 12-year hiatus in 2006. The Crimson is suffering from the loss of last year’s captain, Nick Snow, who graduated last spring and so far this season, the team haves only one win. The Crimson played a close game against Yale before pulling away with a 13-11 win. In its Oct.ober 23rd match against Yale, the Red cruised past the Bulldogs by a score of 29-7.

“They really lost their best player last year,” said Constant. “He made that team and he was able to bring all of those players up to a totally different level.”

“The only chance they can come close to our team is if we just create an insane amount of fouls and they are able to convert on our fouls,” said Van Loon. “It really shouldn’t be that much of a contest but we’ll see.”

The women’s team (3-0) expects a similar situation against the Harvard women. The Red is coming off of a significant, 17-14, victory over the defending champion Virginia Cavaliers and is hoping to build momentum before its Sunday match against Connecticut.

Cornell expects to start its usual three at Cambridge — Ali Hoffman, Jess Cross and Lizzie Wisner — but the line up may be a game- time decision on Coach Elredge’s part.

Wisner, a senior, leads the team with 38 goals so far this season. Hoffman, a sophomore, is second with 10 and Cross, a junior, has 8eight. Like the men’s team, the women’s team was 2-0 against the Crimson during the 2008-2009 campaign, and all-time, leads the all-time series, 8-0.

Leaning in: Both polo teams face Ivy League rival Harvard this weekend. The men’s team took a tough loss to defending national champs UVa last weekend.

“Their program’s just not as strong as ours is,” said Hoffman. “They’re also pretty new so its going to take them some time to build up…we’ll have to take control of the game and set the pace for it.”

Against the Crimson, the Red hopes to sharpen its tactics and improve its chemistry on the field.

“I think what Coach Elredge wants us to work on is a lot of communication,” said Hoffman. “We’ve been working on that in practice a lot and this game it’ll be a good time to practice.”

Thus, this weekend is shaping up to be an opportunity for the men’s and womean’s polo teams to add girth to their records, and at the same time, form greater depth and cohesiveness as teams.