NEW YORK — No. 13-ranked Columbia defeated No. 40-ranked Cornell, 6-1, at the Milstein Family Tennis Center on Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, Cornell concludes the spring portion of the season with a 17-6 overall record and a 4-3 mark in Ivy League play. Columbia concluded the regular season with a 19-3 record and 6-1 in Ancient Eight play.

Columbia posted victories at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to take the first point of the day. Sophomores Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao were leading 5-4 at the time their match was halted due to the Lions' pair of victories.

A straight-set victory by Alex Kotzen, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 4 singles gave Columbia a 2-0 lead and the lead was further increased when No. 33-ranked Michael Zheng snapped No. 77-ranked Radu Papoe's nine-match win streak with a 6-4, 6-3 straight-set win.

Mao logged the lone point of the day for Cornell with a 7-5, 6-2 victory at No. 5 singles over Nicolas Kotzen.

No. 111-ranked Max Westphal solidified the victory for Columbia when he won after senior Vladislav Melnic retired in the second set.

Play continued after the result of the match already determined and Henry Ruger defeated Aman Sharma, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, at No. 6 singles and Hugo Hashimoto won over freshman Petar Teodorovic in straight sets, 7-6 (6), 6-4.

Looking Ahead

Cornell will await to see if it will be one of the 64 teams selected to participate for the 2023 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship.

The selection show for the team championships will take place on Monday, May 1 at 6:30 p.m. on NCAA.com. Individual selections for the singles and doubles championships will be released the following day on Tuesday, May 2.

Should the Big Red be selected for the team championships, first- and second-round action will begin next weekend (May 5-7). The singles championships will open with Round of 64 action on May 22 and the doubles championships with Round of 32 play on May 23.