NEW YORK – With a long road of fall tournaments and winter non-league dual matches in its wake, the Cornell men's tennis team kicks off Ivy League play at 2 p.m. Saturday with a match against Columbia at The Dick Savitt Tennis Center.
 
Cornell (11-4), ranked 41st in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, won two of its four matches on a trip to Alabama and Florida over Spring Break. After starting out the Blue-Gray Invitational in Montgomery, Ala. with a 4-0 sweep of William & Mary, the Big Red dropped a pair of matches against teams ranked higher by the ITA, Texas Tech and Notre Dame. Cornell then traveled south to defeat Central Florida, 4-3, on March 20 before inclement weather canceled a match against South Florida two days later.
 
Columbia (10-5), ranked 44th, was also competing at the Blue-Gray Invitational and also notched a loss to Texas Tech and a win over William & Mary. The Lions then went on to beat Nebraska in the fifth-place match before concluding its trip with a three-match swing through Texas. A loss to No. 36 TCU was bookended by victories against SMU and Texas-Arlington.
 
The Lions lead the all-time series against the Big Red, 51-40-1, though Cornell has already defeated Columbia once this season — and it was one of the Big Red's biggest moments of the season so far. Seeded fourth in the eight-team field for the ECAC Indoor Championships, the Big Red blew by the Lions for a 4-0 victory in the finals. Sophomores Sam Fleck, Alex Sidney and Quoc-Daniel Nguyen won their respective singles matches in straight sets to lock up the match after the Big Red secured the doubles point. Cornell has now won four of its last five meetings with Columbia.
 
For the Lions, Winston Lin is ranked 52nd in the nation in singles, traditionally holding down the No. 1 position. He was taken into a third set by Cornell junior Venkat Iyer in ECACs, but the match was never completed with the outcome of the team competition already decided. Columbia's No. 1 doubles team of Ashok Narayana and Max Schnur is ranked 36th by the ITA and holds a 10-3 record in dual matches. The Big Red's No. 1 team of Iyer and Sidney is 9-2.