ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's tennis team will play three of its five remaining matches before the start of the Ivy League season this weekend, hosting Indiana at 5 p.m. Thursday before hitting the road for matches at 2 p.m. Saturday at Nebraska and 11 a.m. Sunday at Drake.
 
After finishing second at the ECAC Indoor Championships on Feb. 14, Cornell (3-7) took 44th-ranked Penn State to the wire before suffering a 4-3 loss on Feb. 20. The Big Red is now ranked 65th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Freshman David Volfson leads the squad with five singles victories, all from the No. 1 position, and junior Chris Vrabel has won four of his last five matches from the No. 4 singles spot and teamed with classmate Bernardo Casares Rosa to win their last three doubles matches to be played to competion.
 
Indiana (4-6) will make the program's first trip to Reis Tennis Center on a four-match losing streak. The Hoosiers are ranked 58th and senior Sam Monette is ranked 37th in singles. The teams met last year for the first time in the programs' history, with Indiana securing a 4-3 victory on Jan. 23, 2015 at Dartmouth's Boss Tennis Center. Casares Rosa and Colin Sinclair won singles matches for Cornell, and the Big Red also won the doubles point.
 
Nebraska (5-3) is unranked as a team, though it is entering the weekend on the heels of consecutive victories against New Mexico State and Creighton. The Huskers are winless in three matches against ranked teams this season (Denver, Oregon and Wichita State). The doubles team of senior Dusty Boyer and freshman Toby Boyer is ranked 58th in the country. The programs have split two previous meetings — Cornell dropped and 8-1 decision in 1987, but won 5-2 on March 1, 2014 in Ithaca. Casares Rosa, Vrabel, Sinclair and senior Stefan Vinti all won singles matches that day.
 
Drake is ranked 36th coming into its first two matches of the weekend against Iowa and Michigan State. The Bulldogs have already played two opponents from the Ivy League so far this season, coming up on the short end of 4-3 scores against Dartmouth and Harvard in late January. The Bulldogs have been particularly strong in the middle of the singles order, with Vinny Gillespie and Calum MacGeoch a combined 14-6 from the Nos. 3 and 4 positions. This will be the first-ever meeting between the programs.