PRINCETON, N.J. — The women's tennis team concluded its turnaround season with a narrow 4-3 loss to Princeton on Sunday at Lenz Tennis Center. After going winless in Ivy League play in 2014, Cornell was 9-9 overall and 3-4 in league play in 2015 without any senior and just two juniors on its roster.
 
The Big Red, which entered the week in the hunt for a share of the league crown and ranked 75th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, started Sunday's match by losing the doubles point for just the second time in Ivy play this season. Cornell rebounded to split the six singles matches with 40th-ranked Princeton (12-8, 6-1), which won its 13th straight league match against the Big Red.
 
Sophomore Marika Cusick won in straight sets at the No. 3 position, giving her 11 victories in her final 12 singles matches of the season. But the Tigers had a 3-1 lead by the point, and clinched the match — and the outright Ivy League title — with a win in three sets at the No. 2 position.
 
Cornell finished the match strong with freshman Priyanka Shah winning her No. 5 match via two tiebreakers for her fourth Ivy League victory of the season. Junior Jane Stewart, competing from the No. 6 position, won her 11th match of the dual season when she blanked her opponent in a mid-third-set tiebreaker to conclude the match.
 
The Big Red finished with three Ivy League victories for the second time in Mike Stevens' five years as the Carl H. Meinig '31 Head Coach of Women's Tennis. It marks just the third time in the last 18 years the program has won three Ivy League matches.
 
#40 PRINCETON 4, #75 CORNELL 3
Sunday's results; at Lenz Tennis Center; Princeton, N.J.
Singles
1. Lindsay Graff (P) def. Dena Tanenbaum, 6-1, 6-4
2. Amanda Muliawan (P) def. Alexandra D'Ascenzo, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
3. Marika Cusick (C) def. Alanna Wolff, 7-6(6), 6-2
4. Katrine Steffensen (P) def. Lizzie Stewart, 6-1, 6-2
5. Priyanka Shah (C) def. Dorothy Tang, 7-6(5), 7-6(3)
6. Jane Stewart (C) def. Katie Goepel, 7-5, 3-6, 1-1 (7-0)
Doubles
1. D'Ascenzo/Tanenbaum (C) vs. Graff/Wolff, (DNF)
2. Muliawan/Tang (P) def. Shah/L. Stewart, 8-2
3. Emily Hahn/Steffensen (P) def. Madison Stevens/J. Stewart, 8-5
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3), Singles (4,1,3,2,6,5)