NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The men's tennis team will get an early look at its Ivy League competition this weekend when it competes in the ECAC Indoor Championships, hosted by Yale at Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center.
Cornell (2-3) bounced back from a 4-0 loss to Memphis on Friday with a 4-2 victory over Penn State on Sunday at Reis Tennis Center in Ithaca, N.Y. Senior
Daniel Grunberger and freshman
Evan Bynoe surged to victories in the third set of their respective singles matches to give the Big Red the winning margin. Grunberger is now 4-1 in singles matches, and sophomore
Pietro Rimondini returned to competition last weekend and promptly won comfortably at No. 4 against the Nittany Lions.
This year's ECAC Indoor Championships features seven of the eight Ivy League programs. Monmouth in the lone exception, with Columbia's absence creating space for the Hawks' inclusion.
The Big Red has been seeded third, meaning it will open up at 6 p.m. Friday against sixth-seeded Penn. The Quakers have responded from three January losses to Old Dominion, William & Mary and VCU with convincing 7-0 home victories against DePaul and Georgetown. Kyle Mautner is a perfect 5-0 from the top of the singles lineup, and Max Cancilla (4-0) and Noah Makarome (3-0) are also undefeated from the lower half. Penn is just 5-8 as a team in doubles so far.
The Quakers lead the all-time series, 44-41-1, dating back to the teams' first meeting in 1906, but Cornell has won the last 10 Ivy League meetings and 18 of the last 20 dating back to 1997. Last year, the Big Red earned a 4-2 victory over the Quakers on April 9 in Philadelphia.
The Big Red last won the ECAC tournament in 2013, which was also the last time it was staged at Reis Tennis Center in Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell finished second in each of the last two seasons, falling to Princeton (2016) and Columbia (2017) in the most recent championship matches.
Cornell will move on to play either second-seeded Dartmouth or seventh-seeded Brown on Saturday, either at 6 p.m. after a win or 3 p.m. after a loss. The quarterfinals on the other side of the bracket pit top-seeded Dartmouth against eighth-seeded Monmouth and fourth-seeded Princeton versus fifth-seeded Yale. Sunday's possible match times are 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m. or 4 p.m.
