Forward Kate Buesser, who was named to the All-ECAC Hockey first team this season, as well as earning Ivy League first-team honors, will lead her squad against the Big Red tomorrow at home at 7 pm.

It may be the last home game for the Harvard women’s hockey team’s seniors, but a win would give two of them—co-captain Kathryn Farni and Anna McDonald—the chance to finish their collegiate careers back home.

If the No. 4 Crimson beats No. 5 Cornell in tonight’s NCAA quarterfinals at 7 pm, it will head to the Twin Cities for the women’s Frozen Four, 15 minutes away from Farni’s hometown of Minnetonka, and not far off McDonald’s New Brighton.

But in order to do so, Harvard will have to get past a Big Red team it has not yet beaten this season—a squad fresh off an ECAC title run.

Cornell first stumped the Crimson in its second game of the season, when Harvard’s freshmen were still getting familiarized with college hockey, and the squad was still getting accustomed to the graduation of its top scorers.

Since then, the newcomers have excelled—led by ECAC rookie of the year finalist Jillian Dempsey—and the Crimson has used a balanced attack to stump opposing defenses.

“I think throughout the entire season, we’ve been improving,” senior Randi Griffin said.

But when Harvard and Cornell met again in January, the Crimson was still unable to come away with the victory, ending the game in a 4-4 stalemate after overtime.

“We didn’t perform as well as we would’ve liked to against Cornell this year,” co-captain Cori Bassett said. “But it’s playoffs now. None of that really matters.”

Up to this point, the narrative resembles the one surrounding Harvard’s first round of the ECAC playoffs, where it faced Princeton.

Just like in its games against the Big Red, the Crimson had not been able to solve the Tigers in the regular season, losing to them in the fall before tying them in January.

But a strong February gave Harvard the momentum to soundly defeat Princeton in the playoffs, knocking it off in two games by a combined margin of seven goals.

But the speedy Cornell squad will not be as easy to dethrone.

“They’re a fast, skilled team,” Griffin said. “They have some very talented both forwards and defensemen. They’re a strong skating puck possessing team.”

It will be a different matchup than the one the Crimson faced last weekend against the more physical Clarkson.

“We’re ready for them to come out fast,” Griffin said. “We’re a fast team too so it’s the kind of game we want.”