ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's tennis team will kick off its dual season with a pair of in-state non-league matches Thursday at Reis Tennis Center. The Big Red opens against Buffalo at 11 a.m., then takes on Binghamton at 4 p.m.
Cornell will be embarking on its sixth season under the direction of
Silviu Tanasoiu, the Director of Intercollegiate Tennis and Savitt-Weiss Head Coach of Men's Tennis, with plenty of optimism after an impressive fall season. Senior
Chris Vrabel is ranked 62nd nationally in singles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association after his impressive run to the USTA/ITA Northeast Regional championship.
Senior
Colin Sinclair (singles and doubles), sophomore
David Volfson (doubles) and freshman
Lev Kazakov (singles) also join Vrabel in the regional rankings. Volfson is the region's reigning rookie of the year after competing exclusively at the No. 1 singles position for the Big Red last year.
While Cornell would almost assuredly be in the national team rankings, the ITA has changed its format this season and only released a Top 25 through a ranking panel instead of publishing a Top 75 based on computer rankings. The ITA will shift the rankings back to the old format in mid-February.
Both of the Big Red's opponents on Thursday advanced as far as the MAC Championship semifinals last year. Buffalo was 11-8 overall last year with a few key contributors graduating. Junior Vidit Vaghela has transferred in from Monmouth and freshman Hao Sheng Koay was 10-2 in the fall season with a trip into the Round of 16 at the USTA/ITA Northeast Regionals.
Binghamton finished up last season 13-9, with its top two singles entries departing via graduation. The Bearcats started their season last weekend with a 4-3 loss to Bryant in Verona. Freshman Tiago Lourenco (No. 2), senior Thomas Caputo (No. 3) and freshman Kushaan Nath (No. 4) accouted for the Bearcats' points.
Cornell has historically dominated both Binghamton and Buffalo, though the Bulls' lone victory in 26 all-time clashes with the Big Red came two years ago. The Big Red then rebounded with a 4-3 victory last year. Cornell is 25-3 all-time against Binghamton, including 7-0 victories in the previous three meetings in 2013, 2015 and last year. The Bearcats' last victory over the Big Red came at the start of the 2010 dual season.
Thursday's matches are free and open to the public.
