HANOVER, N.H. — The Cornell men's tennis team defeated Penn in a nail-biting match, 4-3, to claim third-place at the 2023 ECAC Indoor Championships on Sunday afternoon.

Cornell, who improved to 8-1 on the season, earned the opening point of the day with victories at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles.

Freshman Petar Teodorovic and junior Samuel Paquette opened the day with a 6-4 victory at the No. 3 position, but a 6-2 win by Edoardo Graziani and Kevin Zhu led to the No. 2 match to be the decider in who received the opening point.

Like their teammates in the match at No. 3, sophomore Radu Papoe and senior Vladislav Melnic earned a 6-4 victory to give the Big Red its first point of the match.

Penn took a 2-1 lead following a pair of straight-set victories by the Graziani brothers at the No. 1 and No. 5 positions. Manfredi Graziani defeated sophomore Nathan Mao, 6-4, 6-2, at No. 5. The elder Graziani brother, Edoardo, who was ranked No. 52 in the most recent ITA singles rankings, defeated Papoe, who was ranked No. 50, posted 6-2, 7-5 wins.

Sophomore Adit Sinha claimed a pair of 6-4 set victories over Harsh Parikh to even the match at 2-all before Paquette came back from dropping the opening set to Baylor Sai with 6-3 and 6-2 wins in the final two sets to give the Big Red a 3-2 lead.

Aditya Gupta defeated Teodorovic at the No. 3 position in three sets, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, causing to No. 2 match between Zhu and Melnic to determine Sunday's winner.

Following a pair of 7-6 set victories, Melnic controlled the decisive third set and broke two of Zhu's serves to coast to a 6-1 victory.

The third-place finish for the Big Red is the team's best finish at the ECAC Indoor Championships since winning the 2020 Indoor Championships that were held in Ithaca.

Looking Ahead

Cornell will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 25, when it opens a three-match weekend homestand with a doubleheader against Indiana and Hobart. The homestand concludes the following day with a clash against Big 12 foe Oklahoma State.