NEW YORK — The men's squash team dropped its first match of the season Sunday, coming up on the short end of a 7-2 affair against Columbia at SL Green StreetSquash Center in the teams' Ivy League opener.
 
Sixth-ranked Columbia (3-0, 1-0 Ivy League) jumped out to a 4-0 lead before sophomore Harry Freeman got Cornell (2-1, 0-1) on the board with a four-game victory at the No. 5 spot.
 
The lone five-game match of the day was at the No. 1 position, where senior Aditya Jagtap improved to 4-0 on the season in impressive fashion against Ramit Tandon. Jagtap won the third and fifth games in extra points to topple the No. 4-ranked individual and first-team All-American from a season ago.
 
This was just the second time in nine all-time meetings that the Big Red fell to the Lions. Cornell will now break for final exams and the holiday break before starting a five-match home stand Jan. 10 vs. Brown and Jan. 11 vs. Yale.
 
#6 COLUMBIA 7, #8 CORNELL 2
at SL Green StreetSquash Center, New York
1. Aditya Jagtap (Cor) def. Ramit Tandon, 11-8, 2-11, 13-11, 4-11, 13-11
2. Osama Khalifa (Clm) def. Seb Obieta-Chichizola, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8
3. Seif Attai (Clm) def. Ryan Todd, 16-14, 11-9, 3-11, 11-13, 11-6
4. Rishi Tandon (Clm) def. Gustav Runersjö, 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-3
5. Harry Freeman (Cor) def. Mohammed AbdelMaksoud, 11-7, 12-14, 13-11, 11-9
6. Joshua Sekhar (Clm) def. Jordan Brail, 12-10, 11-8, 11-6
7. Arhum Saleem (Clm) def. Andrew Stone, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7
8. Daniel Saleem (Clm) def. Graham Dietz, 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-1
9. Jonathan Gill (Clm) def. Augie Jones, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8
Ex. Ian Rothweiler (Cor) def. Tarun Nambiar, 7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 16-14, 11-2
Records: Cornell 3-1, 0-1 Ivy League; Columbia 3-0, 1-0 Ivy League
Order of finish: 9,6,3,8,5,7,4,2,1