NEW YORK – The men's tennis team went toe-to-toe with a Columbia squad ranked 18th in the country on Saturday in a match that was a lot closer than the 7-0 final score would indicate.
 
The Big Red won one of the three doubles matches, then three of the six singles matches went to a third set. But Columbia prevailed in each contest to record the shutout. The match end a five-match winning streak for Cornell (10-5, 0-1 Ivy League).
 
The doubles team of juniors Jason Luu and Quoc-Daniel Nguyen earned an 8-5 victory at the No. 2 spot, but Columbia locked up the match's first point with an 8-5 victory at No. 3.
 
Then came the highly competitive singles portion of the match. Three matches were decided in straight sets, though Luu and Nguyen suffered close losses in both sets of their matches at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. Freshman Chris Vrabel won the second set of his match at No. 4 to force a third set, but Columbia's Ashok Narayana eventually won.
 
Freshman Bernardo Casares Rosa (No. 2) and sophomore Stefan Vinti (No. 3) both won a set in their matches, but both also came up short on tiebreakers to force a third set. With the match already decided, both matches were completed with a super tiebreaker – with Columbia recording wins in both.
 
Cornell continues Ivy League play at home next weekend, playing host to Harvard on Saturday and Dartmouth on Sunday at Reis Tennis Center.
 
#18 COLUMBIA 7, #42 CORNELL 0
Saturday's results; at Reis Tennis Center; Ithaca, N.Y.
Doubles
1. #12 Ashok Narayana/Max Schnur (Clm) def. #69 Sam Fleck/Chris Vrabel, 8-3
2. Jason Luu/Quoc-Daniel Nguyen (Cor) def. Winston Lin/Mike Vermeer, 8-5
3. Richard Pham/Bert Vancura (Clm) def. Bernardo Casares Rosa/Stefan Vinti, 8-5
Singles
1. #14 Lin (Clm) def. Fleck, 6-2, 6-3
2. Schnur (Clm) def. Casares Rosa, 7-6, 4-6, (10-7)
3. Dragos Ignat (Clm) def. Vinti, 3-6, 7-6, (10-6)
4. Narayana (Clm) def. Vrabel, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
5. Vancura (Clm) def. Luu, 6-4, 6-4
6. Vermeer (Clm) def. Nguyen, 7-5, 7-5