ITHACA, N.Y. — Juniors Priyanka Shah and Lizzie Stewart pulled out a pair of tight three-set singles matches, and the women's tennis team kept its Ivy League title hopes alive with a 4-3 victory over 49th-ranked league-leading Harvard on Saturday afternoon at Reis Tennis Center.
 
The win not only was just the fifth in program history for Cornell (13-6, 3-2 Ivy League) against Harvard (16-7, 4-1), but it pulled the Big Red back to within striking distance of a title entering the last two matches of the regular season. Harvard and Princeton are now tied for the top spot at 4-1 in Ivy play, with Cornell joining Penn and Dartmouth at 3-2 to set up a potentially wild final weekend — especially considering Harvard and Dartmouth oppose Penn and Princeton.
 
Cornell's No. 3 doubles team of Stewart and junior Madison Stevens moved to 4-0 in Ivy League play, but the Crimson won the other two doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead Saturday.
 
Senior Marika Cusick sailed to a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles to get the Big Red on the board, then sophomore Mariko Iinuma won in straight sets at No. 5 to improve to 5-0 in Ivy League play. The third point came from Stewart's dramatic rally to win in a third-set tiebreaker at No. 4, marking her 10th straight singles win.
 
That match was one of three that went to three sets, and Harvard won the next to be completed to tie the score at 3. That left it up to Shah at No. 3, where — after tiebreakers in each of the first two sets — a late break propelled the Big Red captain to a 7-5 win and a dramatic finish to the team's Senior Day, which celebrated the final home matches for Cusick and Alexandra D'Ascenzo.
 
Cornell is now 37-5 all-time against Harvard, though it has now won four of its last five meetings against the Crimson.
 
The Big Red hits the road for its final regular-season matches next weekend, visiting Yale at noon Saturday and Brown at noon Sunday.
 
CORNELL 4, #49 HARVARD 3
Singles
1. Marika Cusick (C) def. Erica Oosterhout, 6-1, 6-1
2. June Lee (H) def. Alexandra D'Ascenzo, 6-3, 7-6(4)
3. Priyanka Shah (C) def. Jenna Friedel, 7-6(1), 6-7(5), 7-5
4. Lizzie Stewart (C) def. Lexi Milunovich, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(2)
5. Mariko Iinuma (C) def. Irene Lu, 6-3, 6-3
6. Annika Ringblom (H) def. Madison Stevens, 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-4
Doubles
1. Lee/Oosterhout (H) def. Cusick/D'Ascenzo, 6-4
2. Ringblom/Sabrina Xiong (H) def. Iinuma/Shah, 6-3
3. Stevens/Stewart (C) def. Isabel Jasper/Milunovich, 6-2
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1), Singles (1,5,2,4,6,3)