ITHACA, N.Y. — Senior Stefan Vinti won in straight sets at No. 5 singles, but the men's tennis team dropped a 4-1 decision to Columbia on Saturday in its Ivy League debut at Reis Tennis Center.

Vinti won his fifth singles match in six tries this month for Cornell (7-9, 0-1), which entered the weekend ranked 55th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The victory was the 19th in a row within the Ivy League for 29th-ranked Columbia (11-5, 1-0), which has advanced to the Round of 16 in the NCAA tournament in each of the last two seasons. A pair of nationally ranked tandems secured the doubles point for the Lions. Each team then won one singles match in straight sets, making the score 2-1 in favor of the visitors.

The remainder of the matches required a third set to decide, though the Lions won the first two to reach completion before the match was halted. Cornell returns to Reis for its next two Ivy matches against Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend.

#29 COLUMBIA 4, #55 CORNELL 1
Singles
1. #64 Shawn Hadavi (Clm) def. David Volfson, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
2. Colin Sinclair (Cor) vs. Victor Pham, DNF (6-7, 6-4)
3. Chris Vrabel (Cor) vs. Eric Rubin, DNF (6-7, 6-4, 2-3)
4. Mike Vermeer (Clm) def. Bernardo Casares Rosa, 6-2, 6-2
5. Stefan Vinti (Cor) def. Michal Rolski, 6-3, 6-2
6. Richard Pham (Clm) def. Karlo Lozic, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
Doubles
1. #28 Rolski/Vermeer (Clm) def. Casares Rosa/Vrabel, 6-4
2. #15 Hadavi/Pham (Clm) def. Sinclair/Volfson, 6-4
3. Dylan Brown/Vinti (Cor) vs. Miguel Alda/Christopher Grant, DNF (5-5)
Records: Cornell 7-9, Columbia 11-5