It’s the big one.

The men’s squash team will try to tame the Tigers in a top-5 showdown with Ivy League title implications Saturday in Princeton, N.J. The match is important, Rusty Feldman ’10 said, because the winner will most likely go on to win the Ivy League title.

Princeton went into the season ranked second in the nation, a position the Bulldogs (9–1, 3–0 Ivy) now hold. The Tigers (6–1, 3–0) lost a close match, 5–4, to No. 3 Rochester earlier this season, bumping them down the rankings to the No. 4 position. The Elis, meanwhile, defeated Rochester 6–3 on Jan. 10.

Even though the Tigers are currently lower in the rankings, they still are the Bulldogs’ biggest obstacle on their way to the Ivy title, Sharyar Aziz ’10 said.

“We know that we can’t count on [Princeton’s] previous matches to predict what will happen when we play them,” Aziz said.

The Elis round off their season with matches against Brown and Harvard before the College Squash Association’s National Tournament from Feb. 19–21. Yale will also play Columbia’s club team, though that match will not count in their season record. Harvard, ranked No. 5, and Brown, ranked No. 13, should not pose too much of a challenge for the Bulldogs, captain Todd Ruth ’10 said.

In their national tournament, to be held this year in Yale’s Brady Squash Center, the Elis hope to finally bring down perennial champions, No. 1 Trinity. The Bantams recently increased their winning streak to 215 consecutive matches after crushing Brown 9–0. Trinity defeated Yale, 8–1, on Jan. 20, putting a blemish on the Elis’ otherwise perfect record.

“The goal for team is to get another shot at Trinity,” Ruth said. “We played them pretty tough last time, if we could get another chance — things could go differently.”