ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's tennis team begins its dual match season at 1 p.m. Friday, when the Big Red hosts Buffalo for a non-league match at Reis Tennis Center. Cornell begins its season ranked 47th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
 
The Big Red was 12-8 overall and 4-3 in Ivy League matches last season, which marked the second straight year in which it narrowly fell on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble and the program's first at-large berth. Cornell returns the bulk of its key competitors, and the early returns this year leave the program optimistic about the upcoming campaign.
 
Freshman David Volfson, juniors Colin Sinclair and Chris Vrabel, and senior Stefan Vinti earned ITA Northeast Region rankings earlier this month. Ranked the second-best newcomer in the nation by the ITA in September, Volfson will start his collegiate career ranked third in the Northeast Region behind Dartmouth's Dovydas Sakinis and Columbia's Victor Pham in singles. Volfson advanced to the semifinals of the USTA/ITA Northeast Regionals in October and later won a match in a Knoxville Challenger qualifying event in November. Volfson also teams with Sinclair to form the No. 6-ranked doubles tandem in the region. The duo debuted at the Ivy Plus Tournament in September, advancing to the finals of the top bracket. They later advanced to the semifinals of regionals before being eliminated in a tiebreaker.
 
Sinclair is also ranked 10th in the region in singles. He made a run into the quarterfinals at regionals after winning the Lenz Bracket of the Ivy Plus Tournament. Vrabel is ranked 17th and Vinti is tabbed 20th, having both advanced as far as the third round of regionals. Junior Bernardo Casares Rosa also returns to the Big Red after posting a 11-6 from the Nos. 2 and 3 positions in singles and All-Ivy League second team recognition alongside Vrabel in doubles. During non-league play, Casares Rosa battled back from a set down and through a second-set tiebreaker before winning his match at No. 3 singles to clinch the squad's upset 4-3 victory over Penn State at Reis Tennis Center. The Big Red was ranked 64th in the country at the time, and the win over the 27th-ranked Nittany Lions is believed to be the program's first against a team ranked that high. Yet another incumbent is junior Dylan Brown, who posted a winning record as the Big Red's primary No. 6 singles entry a season ago.
 
Buffalo opened its season last weekend with two matches at Dartmouth, first suffering a 6-1 setback against the host Big Green on Saturday before rebounding with a 5-2 triumph over Bryant on Sunday. The top of the Bulls' lineup is laden with seniors. Sergio Arevalillo won both his matches from the No. 4 singles position. Amar Hromic competed at the No. 1 singles spot, and Pablo Alvarez slid into No. 2 — a position in which he posted an 8-2 record last year. Cornell has historically dominated Buffalo with a 24-1 series lead. That lone loss against the Bulls came recently, with the injury-riddled Big Red falling, 4-3, on Jan. 19, 2014 at Reis Tennis Center.
 
Friday's match is free and open to the public.