ITHACA, N.Y. – For the second time this academic year, the Big Red women's tennis team found itself in a one-point match with Columbia, and this time Cornell came out on the winning side, defeating the Lions, 4-3, this afternoon at the Reis Tennis Center. With the win, the Big Red improved to 9-7 on the year and picked up its first conference win to improve to 1-2 in the Ivy League. Columbia evened its record at 9-9 and remains winless in the conference at 0-3.

Cornell opened the match by picking up the doubles point with wins at the top of the order by the tandems of Kelly Comolli/Shannon Comolli and Ryann Young/Christine Ordway.

Back-to-back singles wins by No. 4 Natasha Makarova and No. 5 Ioana Alecsiu put the visitors up, 2-1, but the Big Red responded with a pair of victories of its own by No. 2 Ryann Young and No. 3 Sinziana Chis to restore the 3-2 lead to Cornell.

Columbia evened the match with a victory at No. 1 by Nicole Bartnik, but the Big Red took the dramatic win with Sarah O'Neill's 7-6, 6-2 victory at the No. 6 spot.

Cornell is back in action this weekend as it travels to New England to take on No. 43 Brown and No. 35 Yale on Saturday, April 9 and Sunday, April 10, respectively. Both games are scheduled to begin at noon.

Cornell def. Columbia; 4-3
Doubles
1. K. Comolli/S. Comolli (COR) def. Bartnik/Makarova (COL); 8-4
2. Young/Ordway (COR) def. Sanon/Takenaga (COL); 8-4
3. Kovacevic/Alecsiu (COL) def. Chis/Dumitrescu (COR); 8-3

Singles
1. Bartnik (COL) def. Ordway (COR); 6-3, 7-6
2. Young (COR) def. Sanon (COL); 6-3, 6-3
3. Chis (COR) def. Kovacevic (COL); 6-3, 6-1
4. Makarova (COL) def. K. Comolli (COR); 6-1, 6-0
5. Alecsiu (COL) def. Dumitrescu (COR); 6-2, 6-1
6. O'Neill (COR) def. Takenaga (COL); 7-6, 6-2

Order of Finish
Doubles: 2, 1, 3
Singles: 4, 5, 2, 3 1, 6