STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Coming off a second-place performance at the ECAC Indoor Championships, the men's tennis team will try to continue building momentum with a non-league match noon Saturday at Penn State.
 
Cornell (3-6) broke a five-match losing streak last weekend with a pair of a 4-1 victories over St. John's and Harvard in the opening rounds of ECACs. The Crimson represented the tournament's top seed and was ranked 32nd in the country at the time by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The Big Red would eventually fall to Princeton in the final, with junior Colin Sinclair providing Cornell's lone point with a three-set victory at No. 2 singles. That was his fourth victory in singles on the season, trailing only freshman David Volfson's five — all of which have come at the top spot. The No. 2 doubles team of juniors Bernardo Casares Rosa and Chris Vrabel — All-Ivy League second team selections in 2015 — was 2-0 on the weekend. Cornell remains at 60th in the ITA's national rankings this week.
 
Penn State (6-0), which is ranked 44th, remained perfect during dual matches with a 6-1 victory against Bucknell and 7-0 win over James Madison last Saturday. The Nittany Lions' lone other match against an Ivy League school to date was a 4-2 triumph over Dartmouth on Jan. 24. Leo Stakhovsky is ranked 47th in the country in singles, boasting a 6-0 from the No. 1 position. A trio of players have lifted Penn State to an identical record from the No. 6 position. As a team, they're also 13-4 in doubles.
 
In last year's match between these two squads at Cornell's Reis Tennis Center, the Big Red won the bottom four singles matches to secure a 4-3 victory over the Nittany Lions. Penn State was ranked 27th at the time, and it is believed to be the highest-ranked team that Cornell has defeated in program history. The Big Red is 26-11 all-time against the Nittany Lions, having both each of the last two meetings by a 4-3 margin.