ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's tennis team will look to keep its hopes for an Ivy League title or an NCAA tournament at-large bid alive this weekend when it plays its first league home matches of the season 1 p.m. Saturday vs. Brown and 1 p.m. Sunday vs. Yale at Reis Tennis Center. Live scores for both matches will be posted here.
 
Cornell (9-7, 1-2) rebounded from a 4-3 loss to Harvard last Saturday with a 5-2 win over Dartmouth on Sunday, which helped the team move up four spots to 51st in this weekend's Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings. The Big Red is chasing both Princeton and Columbia and their 3-0 record atop the league standings. The Big Red is also very much alive in the hunt to become one of the 64 teams in the NCAA tournament field, with a strong finish needed to earn an at-large bid.
 
Junior Stefan Vinti (No. 3) and sophomores Chris Vrabel (No. 4) and Colin Sinclair (No. 5) each won both of their respective singles matches last weekend. Vrabel's winning streak in singles play has now reached 11 matches, dating all the way back to January. Senior Alex Sidney also made his spring debut last weekend, winning his No. 6 singles match in three sets against Dartmouth's Sam Todd. The No. 3 doubles team of Vinti and senior Quoc-Daniel Nguyen also won both of their matches last weekend to improve to 9-4 on the season.
 
Brown (15-3, 1-1) is ranked 61st in the country after a split to its first weekend of Ivy League play. A 6-1 loss to Princeton last Saturday broke a nine-match winning streak, but the Bears rebounded with a 5-2 triumph over Penn the following day. Freshman Aaron Sandberg clinched the match with a straight-sets victory at No. 6 singles. The doubles team of senior Justin To and freshman Brandon Yeoh won both its matches from the No. 1 position last weekend and jumped 17 places in the national rankings to 61st this week. To typically competes at No. 1 singles, and sophomore Gregory Garcia is at the No. 2 spot.
 
Brown leads the all-time series against Cornell, 32-24, but the Big Red has won four consecutive matches over the last three seasons. The Big Red won last season's Ivy League meeting at Brown, with senior Sam Fleck (No. 1) and sophomore Bernardo Casares Rosa (No. 3) winning three-set singles matches to help the visitors clinch the match. All of the teams' last six league matches have been decided by final scores of 4-3 or 5-2.
 
Yale (11-7, 1-1) also defeated Penn (5-2) and lost to Princeton (6-1) last weekend. The Bulldogs' lone point against the Tigers came in doubles, spurred by an upset victory from the No. 1 pairing of freshmen Fedor Andrienko and Stefan Doehler against Princeton's nationally ranked duo of Thomas Colautti and Zack McCourt. Sophomore Tyler Lu traditionally competes at the No. 1 position in singles, and junior Martin Svenning is frequently found at the No. 2 spot.
 
The Big Red trails its all-time series with the Bulldogs, 13-57-2, but Cornell has won four of the last six meetings. Sidney rallied to win his No. 4 singles match in three sets last year to propel the Big Red to a 4-3 victory in New Haven, Conn. He also paired with Casares Rosa in the No. 3 doubles match, with their victory giving the Big Red the day's first point. Vinti (No. 2) and Vrabel (No. 5) also won singles matches.
 
Both matches this weekend at Reis Tennis Center are free to attend and open to the public.