BOSTON – Vladislav Melnic and Radu Papoe won singles matches, but the Cornell men's tennis team was handed a third straight loss on Sunday morning when Vanderbilt rallied for a 4-3 victory at Harvard's Murr Center.
 
Cornell (8-3) started the day by securing the doubles point with victories from the bottom two positions. Vanderbilt (7-1) then won all of the matches from the lower half of the singles order in straight sets. Papoe won a second-set tiebreaker to close out his match at #3 to account for the Big Red's second point. The Commodores clinched with a three-set victory from the top spot.
 
Closing out the match, Melnic rebounded from a marathon tiebreaker loss in the second set of his match at #2 to take down his opponent in the third for the Big Red's third point.
 
Cornell returns home for a week off before a busy weekend of four matches in the form of two doubleheaders at Reis Tennis Center in Ithaca. The Big Red takes on Nebraska (1 p.m.) and Colgate (4 p.m.) on Saturday, March 12 before clashing with St. John's (1 p.m.) and Binghamton (5 p.m.) on Sunday, March 13.
 
#64 VANDERBILT 4, #52 CORNELL 3
Sunday's results; at Murr Center; Boston
Singles
1. #54 George Harwell (V) def. #34 Alafia Ayeni, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3
2. Vladislav Melnic (C) def. Joubert Klopper, 6-3, 6-7(10), 6-2
3. Radu Papoe (C) def. Marcus Ferreira, 6-4, 7-6(4)
4. Max Freeman (V) def. Pietro Rimondini, 6-4, 6-3
5. Jeremie Casabon (V) def. Adit Sinha, 7-5, 6-2
6. Siim Troost (V) def. Jack McCarthy, 6-4, 6-2
Doubles
1. Ayeni/Melnic (C) vs. Michael Ross/Troost, DNF (6-6)
2. McCarthy/Rimondini (C) def. Freeman/Harwell, 6-3
3. Nathan Mao/Sinha (C) def. Ferreira/Klopper, 6-1