The women’s squash team, coming off a close 6-3 loss to No. 1 Princeton (5-1, 3-1 Ivy) last week, travels to Providence on Saturday to take on No. 7 Brown (8-6, 1-4).

The Bulldogs (9-2, 2-2) will go into the match as heavy favorites. Brown is coming off a 5-4 loss to No. 6 Dartmouth and has also lost to No. 9 Williams and No. 5 Trinity — three teams Yale has beaten decisively earlier this season. The Elis, on the other hand, have not had a loss to a squad outside of the top two in the nation.

The Bears have two players in the nation’s top 50 — No. 32 Megan Cerullo and No. 45 Charlotte Steel. Yale has six players who fall into that category, with three in the top 20 alone.

Although the Bulldogs are all but out of the Ivy League title race, this match, along with next Wednesday’s rivalry matchup against No. 3 Harvard, will prove important as preparation for the Howe Cup tournament. With losses to the nation’s top two teams — one early on in the season against No. 1 Penn and another that could have gone either way versus Princeton — the Elis believe this year could culminate with yet another Howe Cup for the women’s squash program.