NEW YORK — Sophomore Ben Francis won handily in three sets from the No. 8 position, but that was all the men's squash team could muster on Sunday in an 8-1 loss to third-ranked Columbia at SL Green StreetSquash.
 
Cornell (6-6, 1-2 Ivy League), which entered the weekend ranked 13th in the nation by the College Squash Association, started its weekend by fending off 15th-ranked Franklin & Marshall. With the win, the Lions evened up the all-time series against the Big Red, 3-3.
 
Francis, who led the Big Red in victories last season with 13, improved to 4-2 on the year with his victory. Cornell forced four sets in two matches in the opening rotation and five sets in the other, but Columbia ultimately won all of them to take a 3-0 lead. The hosts then clinched the match with wins at the Nos. 2 and 5 positions.
 
Cornell will compete next in a pair of Ivy League matches with noon start times next Saturday at Dartmouth and Sunday at Harvard.
 
#3 COLUMBIA 8, #13 CORNELL 1
1. Osama Khalifa (Clm) def. Harry Freeman, 11-5, 13-11, 11-1
2. Rishi Tandon (Clm) def. Andy Muran, 11-3, 11-1, 11-7
3. Adham Madi (Clm) def. Perry Hanson, 7-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-4
4. Arhum Saleem (Clm) def. Jack Greenwood, 11-8, 7-11, 11-2, 11-7
5. Rahul Sehrawat (Clm) def. Augie Jones, 11-5, 5-11, 11-3, 11-9
6. Robin Mann (Clm) def. Alex Jung, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-2
7. Joshua Sekhar (Clm) def. Kenan Ong, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7
8. Ben Francis (Cor) def. Richard Soper, 11-6, 11-3, 11-5
9. Salmaan Amin (Clm) def. Nik Gilevskiy, 11-4, 6-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-4