ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's tennis team swept Penn for the doubles point, but No. 45 Penn locked up the first four singles matches to claim a 4-1 victory over the 65th-ranked Big Red on Sunday afternoon at the Reis Tennis Center. Cornell fell to 16-8 (3-3 Ivy) while the Quakers improved to 19-5 (6-1 Ivy).
Cornell raced out to a 1-0 lead after doubles with the highlight coming from the 39th-ranked doubles team of
Alafia Ayeni and Vlad Melnic. The tandem earned a 6-2 victory over 49th-ranked Edoardo Graziani and Kevin Zhu, continuing to boost their season ranking.
Evan Bynoe and
Pietro Rimondini also earned a 6-2 victory at No. 3 to clinch the point, with
Nathan Mao and
Adit Sinha up 4-2 at No. 2 before the match was concluded.
The Quakers were able to grab the win with four straight sets victories, including from Graziani over Ayeni in a matchup of nationally-ranked singles players. Graziani picked up the 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 1. The No. 2 and No. 3 singles matches went unfinished after Cornell picked up first set wins. Melnic was up 3-2 in the third and
Radu Papoe trailed 123rd ranked Aditya Gupta at No. 3 by a narrow 4-3 score when play was concluded.
The Big Red closes out the regular season when it hosts nationally-ranked Columbia on Saturday, April 30 at 1 p.m. at the Reis Tennis Center.
#45 Penn 4, #65 Cornell 1
Doubles
1. #39
Alafia Ayeni/Vlad Melnic (C) def. #49 Edoardo Graziani/Kevin Zhu (P), 6-2
2.
Nathan Mao/
Adit Sinha (C) vs. Jason Hildenbrandt/Zachary Lim (P), 4-2 UNF
3.
Evan Bynoe/
Pietro Rimondini (C) def. Aditya Gupta/Harsh Parikh (P), 6-2
Singles
1. #78 Edoardo Graziani (P) def. #44
Alafia Ayeni (C), 6-2, 6-4
2. Vlad Melnic (C) vs. Jason Hildenbrandt (P), 6-4, 3-6, 3-2 UNF
3.
Radu Papoe (C) vs. #123 Aditya Gupta (P), 6-3, 3-6, 3-4 UNF
4. Kevin Zhu (P) def.
Pietro Rimondini (C), 6-2, 6-0
5. Harsha Parikh (P) def.
Evan Bynoe (C), 6-2, 6-2
6. Baylor Sai (P) def.
Bradley Paliska (C), 7-6, 6-2
