The Yale women’s field hockey team (5-3, 1-1) will face two formidable opponents in Ivy League rival Cornell and No. 9 UMass this weekend as the Elis try to carry a winning record into the second half of their season.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 1-1 weekend which included a loss to Princeton and a strong showing against Hofstra. In the Big Red and Minutewomen, they now face two teams who have combined to post a 14-2 record thus far in the season. Cornell (7-0, 2-0 Ivy) will take the field on Saturday undefeated, having posted a 7-0 record, 2-0 in Ivy League play.

When the Elis travel to Amherst, Mass., on Sunday, it will be the first time the Bulldogs and Minutewomen have shared the turf since 1997. UMass (7-2), the nation’s ninth ranked team, comes into the game with a 7-2 record, and fresh off a 7-1 drubbing of Quinnipiac on Sunday.

As usual, Yale will be led by forward Ashley MacCauley ’10 (eight goals) and midfielder Katie Cantore ’10, whose 10 assists in eight games give her the fourth best ratio in the country. They will be joined by the rest of Yale’s balanced scoring attack, particularly back Erin Carter ’12 who tallied twice last weekend for the Elis, once on a penalty stroke.

The tough weekend begins at 12 p.m. when Cornell visits Johnson Field as part of Yale Athletics’ “Team Up to Fight Cancer Weekend,” and continues at 3 p.m. on Sunday when the Bulldogs visit UMass.