NEW YORK, N.Y. — Senior Arjun Gupta surged ahead for a four-game victory at the No. 4 spot and lock up the men's squash team's 5-4 victory over Columbia on Sunday at SL Green StreetSquash Center. The win improves the fourth-ranked Big Red to 5-0, while dropping ninth-ranked Columbia to 1-1 in the teams' Ivy League opener.
 
Freshman Abhijit Malik (No. 6) accounted for the Big Red's lone point after the first rotation, defeating Graham Miao in four games. Down 2-1, Cornell then rallied to sweep the second rotation and take control of the match. Freshman Graham Dietz (No. 8) defeated Andrew Tan in three games, then sophomores Ryan Todd (No. 5) and Aditya Jagtap (No. 2) came back from first-game losses to win their respective matches in four games and give the Big Red a commanding 4-2 lead. That set the stage for Gupta to clinch the match with his 11-5, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7 victory over Hyun-Ho Rhee.
 
Jagtap, Todd, Malik and Dietz all improved to 5-0 on the season. Cornell is now 6-1 all-time against Columbia, with Sunday's meeting serving as the first clash between the Empire State's Ivy League schools since the 1987-88 campaign.
 
Cornell has an extended hiatus for final exams and the holiday break before returning to action Jan. 12-13 with three matches at Belkin International Squash Courts against Yale, Brown and St. Lawrence.
 
No. 4 CORNELL 5, No. 9 COLUMBIA 4
Sunday, at SL Green StreetSquash Center, New York
1. Ramit Tandon (Col) def. Nick Sachvie, 11-2, 11-5, ret.
2. Aditya Jagtap (Cor) def. Tony Zou, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8.
3. Mohamed AbdelMaksoud (Col) def. Owen Butler, 11-6, 4-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-6.
4. Arjun Gupta (Cor) def. Hyun-Ho Rhee, 11-5, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7.
5. Ryan Todd (Cor) def. Daniel Saleem, 7-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9.
6. Abhijit Malik (Cor) def. Graham Miao, 11-4, 5-11, 14-12, 11-6.
7. Alec Goldberg (Col) def. Matthew Shang, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-6.
8. Graham Dietz (Cor) def. Andrew Tan, 11-9, 12-10, 11-5.
9. Alex Nalle (Col) def. Geoff Keating, 10-12, 11-4, 11-4, 11-4.
10. Theo Buchsbaum (Col) def. Carter Clarke, 11-4, 11-2, 11-6