STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Juniors Bernardo Casares Rosa and Chris Vrabel won the No. 1 doubles match and went on to win their respective singles matches, but the men's tennis team couldn't hold off Penn State's surge and eventually suffered a 4-3 loss on Saturday.
 
Ranked 60th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, Cornell (3-7) stormed out to an early lead with Casares Rosa and Vrabel clinching the day's first point. Junior Colin Sinclair and freshman David Volfson won the day's first doubles match played to completion at the No. 2 position. Penn State had entered the day 13-4 in doubles matches.
 
Cornell maintained its lead through the first wave of singles play, which included four matches. Penn State won the top two matches to momentarily take a 2-1 lead, but Cornell responded with Casares Rosa' win in straight sets at No. 3. Vrabel match at No. 4 went to a third set, and he eventually pulled out a victory to put the Big Red on the verge of clinching the match.
 
Penn State (7-0), ranked 44th in the country, went on to win the Nos. 5 and 6 singles matches to avoid suffering an upset loss to the Big Red for a second straight season.
 
Cornell will remain idle for 11 days before hosting Indiana in a non-league match at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 3 at Reis Tennis Center. The Big Red then hits the road for matches the following weekend at Nebraska and Drake.
 
#44 PENN STATE 4, #60 CORNELL 3
Singles
1. #47 Leo Stakhovsky (PSU) def. David Volfson, 6-2, 6-4
2. Constant De La Bassetiere (PSU) def. Colin Sinclair, 6-4, 6-4
3. Bernardo Casares Rosa (C) def. Aws Laaribi, 7-5, 6-2
4. Chris Vrabel (C) def. Matt Barry, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
5. Tomas Hanzlik (PSU) def. Stefan Vinti, 7-5, 7-6
6. Ben Lieb (PSU) def. Karlo Lozic, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
Doubles
1. Casares Rosa/Vrabel (C) def. David Kohan/Christian Lutschaunig, 7-6
2. Sinclair/Volfson (C) def. Barry/Stakhovsky, 6-3
3. Dylan Brown/Lozic (C) vs. De La Bassetiere/Laaribi, DNF (5-5)
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1), Singles (1,2,3,4,6,5)
Records: Cornell 3-7, Penn State 7-0