The women’s basketball team hits the road this weekend, attempting to hold onto to its first-place spot in the Ivy League. The Bulldogs (4-11, 2-0 Ivy) play at Columbia (4-12, 1-1 Ivy) on Friday and at Cornell (9-6, 1-1) on Saturday. The 2-0 Ivy League start is the Elis’ best in 12 years — helped, however, by playing a single-win Brown team twice to start the season.

The games against the Lions and Big Red should represent the first indicators of how far the Bulldogs can go this season. Are we Ivy League championship contenders or pretenders? The time to translate the experience from tough non-conference road games is now.

Cornell is currently the only team in the Ivy League with a winning record, although the Big Red lost last Saturday at Columbia, 76-59. In a game the week before in Ithaca, the score went the other way, with Cornell taking the victory, 73-57. These scores should tell the Elis that both teams are tough to play at home, making a weekend sweep even harder.

The Bulldogs will need guard Stephanie Marciano ’08 to provide crucial leadership and leading scorer Melissa Colborne ’10 (15.3 PPG) to continue to play efficiently in the conference in order to succeed this weekend.