ITHACA, N.Y. — With a strong finish to its regular season this weekend, the men's tennis team would strengthen its case to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament for just the second time in program history. The Big Red travels to Penn for a match at 2 p.m. Friday, before returning to Reis Tennis Center for a Senior Day showdown against Princeton at 1 p.m. Sunday.
 
Cornell (11-7, 3-2 Ivy League) is on a three-match winning streak, including league victories over Dartmouth, Brown and Yale. Those victories have helped bump the Big Red up 13 spots to 48th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's national rankings over the last two weeks. Cornell can still possibly win a share of the Ivy League title if it wins both matches this weekend, but it can also make a strong case for the program's first-ever at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
 
Sophomore Chris Vrabel extended his winning streak in singles matches to 13 last weekend. Senior Sam Fleck (No. 1), sophomore Bernardo Casares Rosa (No. 2) and senior Alex Sidney (No. 6) also won both of their respective singles matches against Brown and Yale. The No. 3 doubles team of senior Quoc-Daniel Nguyen and junior Stefan Vinti is now 4-0 in Ivy play, and the No. 2 team of senior Sam Fleck and sophomore Colin Sinclair has debuted in the ITA national rankings this weekend at No. 85.
 
Penn is 14-8 overall and 0-5 in the Ivy League heading into its final non-league match of the season on Wednesday afternoon against St. John's. The Quakers have gotten a lot of production from its top singles players. Nicolas Podesta is 8-2 from the No. 1 spot, but hasn't competed over the last couple of weeks. That's pushed Josh Pompan (17-4) up the No. 3 position. Jeremy Court (No. 1) and Blaine Willenborg (No. 2) have matching 12-6 records in singles this year. Court and Westergaard are the 74th-ranked doubles team in the country.
 
The Quakers lead the all-time series, 44-38-1, dating back to the teams' first meeting in 1906, but Cornell has won the last seven Ivy League meetings and 15 of the last 17 dating back to 1997. Last year, the Big Red won, 4-3, in its season finale. Fleck clinched the victory with a three-set win at No. 1 singles.
 
Princeton (18-6, 3-2) is ranked 35th in the country after suffering a pair of league losses last weekend to Dartmouth and Harvard. The Tigers had won nine of their 10 matches before that. Like Penn, Princeton is particularly strong at the top of its singles order. Zack McCourt is 15-6 from the No. 1 position (including a 5-7 record against nationally ranked foes), and Thomas Colautti is 13-4 from primarily the No. 2 spot. They also traditionally team up as Princeton's No. 1 doubles entry, where they ranked 37th in the nation.
 
Princeton holds a dominating 89-9-1 record against Cornell since the squads first met in 1906, but the Big Red has won six of the last nine meetings. Their last matchup was in February's ECAC Indoor Championship, with the Tigers ekeing out a 4-3 marathon match at Harvard.
 
Sunday's match will also serve as the Big Red's Senior Day, where it will honor the final home match in the careers of Kyle Berman, Patrick Fiaux, Sam Fleck, Jason Luu, Quoc-Daniel Nguyen and Alex Sidney. The match is free to attend and open to the public.