ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's tennis team will look to stay in the Ivy League hunt this weekend when it plays a pair of pivotal matches against Harvard and Dartmouth at Reis Tennis Center. The Crimson is in town for a match at 1 p.m. Saturday, followed by a meeting with the Big Green at 1 p.m. Sunday. Both matches are free to attend and open to the public.
 
Cornell (7-9, 0-1 Ivy League), ranked 56th in the country by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, is coming off a 4-1 loss to two-time defending league champion and 28th-ranked Columbia last Saturday. Senior Stefan Vinti accounted for the Big Red's lone point with his team-leading eighth singles victory of the season, which also gives him five wins in his last six matches. Junior Colin Sinclair has won his last three singles matches to reach completion and has paired with freshman David Volfson to go 8-5 in doubles matches.
 
Harvard is ranked 47th coming into this weekend and riding a three-match winning streak. The Crimson is 12-8 overall, with Saturday's match serving as its first of the Ancient Eight season. Earlier this month, Harvard dropped decisions against San Diego and Denver in addition to a win over San Diego State on a trip to California. The Crimson then swept a pair of home matches on Sunday against Old Dominion and Amherst. Senior Nicky Hu is ranked 117th in singles with a 5-8 record from the No. 1 singles position, and he typically pairs with junior Brian Yeung to create the No. 1 doubles team.
 
Harvard leads the all-time series, 63-12, though four of those Cornell victories have come over the last nine meetings. The most recent clash came Feb. 13 at the ECAC Indoor Championships, when the Big Red upset the top-seeded Crimson by a score of 4-1 in the semifinals. Juniors Bernardo Casares Rosa and Chris Vrabel, and freshman David Volfson all won both their singles and doubles matches. Harvard was ranked 32nd in the country at the time. The Crimson won last year's Ivy league match despite singles victories from Cornell's Stefan Vinti (No. 3), Vrabel (No. 4) and Colin Sinclair (No. 5).
 
Dartmouth is 12-7 and ranked 40th in the country heading into Saturday's match at Columbia, though it has ranked higher for most of the dual season. Its recent five-match road swing through the South included four matches against nationally ranked teams. Dartmouth lost three of them before capping the trip with a 4-0 win at #33 Memphis. Senior Dovydas Sakinis is ranked 81st in the country in singles and teams with freshman Roko Glasnovic to form the 72nd-ranked doubles team. Junior George Wall leads the squad with a 13-2 singles record from primarily the lower half of the order, and sophomore Max Fliegner is 11-5 from the middle of the lineup.
 
Dartmouth holds a 44-22-2 advantage in the all-time series against Cornell, though the Big Red has won six of the last nine meetings. Cornell's first Ivy League victory in 2015 came on its annual visit to Dartmouth, when used the doubles points and singles victories from the bottom four positions to lock down a 5-2 win at Boss Tennis Center in Hanover, N.H.