DURHAM, N.C. — Freshman Petar Teodorovic's three-set victory against Auburn's Finn Murgett, who entered ranked No. 111 in the ITA's most recent singles rankings, helped lead the No. 41-ranked Cornell men's tennis team to a 4-3 victory over No. 23-ranked Auburn at the Angler Tennis Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

To open doubles action, Auburn's No. 17-ranked tandem of Raul Dobai and Murgett cruised past Cornell sophomores Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao, 6-1.

Junior Samuel Paquette and Teodorovic posted its own 6-1 victory over No. 60-ranked Jan Galka and Billy Blaydes, leading to the No. 3 doubles to match to decide the first point of the day.

A close contest throughout, sophomores Aman Sharma and Radu Papoe clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 triumph over Tyler Stice and Alejandro Moreno.

After taking the first point, Auburn would leap out to a two-point lead, 3-1, after winning the first three singles matches in straight sets.

Blaydes dropped just two games to Sharma, 6-0, 6-2, while Moreno logged a pair of consecutive 6-2 victories against Sinha. Paquette battled with Dobai at No. 5 singles, but ultimately fell, 6-4, 7-5.

The comeback victory for Cornell was sparked by a straight-set victory by Mao at No. 4 singles over Galka, 7-5, 6-3.

Cornell needed victories from Papoe and Teodorovic at the respective No. 1 and No. 3 courts to advance to the Round of 32.

Papoe, who entered the match ranked No. 88 in the nation, tied the match at 3-all following a 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Stice, the No. 51-ranked player in the nation.

Teodorovic took the opening set over Murgett, 7-5, before falling to the nationally-ranked Tiger in the second set by a 6-4 decision.

A service ace by Teodorovic with the game at 40-all solidified the victory for Cornell, its second-ever win in the NCAA Tournament. The other win came against Rice in the first round of the Waco Regional in 2017.

Match Notes

• Cornell made its third appearance in the NCAA Tournament and its first since 2017. The Big Red is now 2-2 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

• Saturday was the second all-time meeting between Cornell and Auburn in men's tennis. With the win, Cornell evened the series at 1-1 following the first match went Auburn's way in 2012.

• The match marked the fifth time in the last six years of competition in which the Big Red played an SEC opponent, joining Tennessee (Jan. 29, 2017 in Cambridge, Mass.), Ole Miss (Feb. 2, 2018), Arkansas (Jan. 26, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio), and Vanderbilt (Feb. 27, 2022 in Cambridge, Mass.).

• The victory for Paquette and Teodorovic was their fourth in the last five matches. It was just the second time the duo played at No. 2 doubles, they previously won 7-6 (7-3) over Yale's Theo Dean and Aidan Reilly on April 23.

• Sharma and Papoe played their second doubles match of the season and improved to 2-0 on the year. They previously won, 6-3, on April 1 against Western Michigan.

• With his victory, Mao improved to 11-2 in his last 13 completed matches, with one unfinished match during in the stretch. It was Mao's first win at No. 4 singles this season – he previously lost in three sets against Western Michigan's Fynn Lohse on April 1 and retired in the third set against Brown's Matthew Mu on April 22.

• After having his nine-match win streak snapped last weekend, Papoe improved to 10-1 in his last 11 completed matches – all of which have come at No. 1 singles.

Looking Ahead

Cornell will await the victor of the other match between in the Durham Regional between UNCW and Duke. The Big Red will play either the Seahawks or the Blue Devils at Ambler Tennis Stadium at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Game action will be broadcast on PlaySight.com, as well as on the Cracked Racquets' YouTube page.