PHILADELPHIA -- Felipe Pinzon was the hero for the Cornell men's tennis team on Sunday, rallying from an opening set loss to take a three-set thriller to give the Big Red a 4-3 victory over the Yale Bulldogs on the final day of the 2024 ECAC Indoor Championship from the Hamlin/Hecht Tennis Center. Cornell secured third place in the annual tournament for the second consecutive season with the win over its Ivy League rivals.

The Bulldogs opened doubles competition on a heater, as Walker Oberg and Theo Dean took down Eric Verdes and Radu Papoe, 6-3, to put the pressure on the Big Red to potentially push the opportunity for the first point into a winner-take-all third match. But Cornell could not get it done, as Petar Teodorovic and Samuel Paquette fell 6-4 to Eric Li and Jim Ji, allowing the Bulldogs to take a 1-0 lead heading into singles.

Samuel Paquette would shake off his doubles result by creating his own momentum from the No. 6 position, taking down Walker Oberg in straight sets (6-1, 6-1) to tie the match at one apiece. Yale would counter Paquette's victory, as Li took a straight sets victory (6-2, 6-3) over Teodorovic at No. 3 singles to shoot back up by one.

Once again, the seesaw tipped back in favor of the Big Red thanks to junior captain and No.33 ranked Radu Papoe, who used a 7-5 tiebreaker in the second set to sweep No. 73 Theo Dean at No.1 singles (6-4, 7-6, (7-5)) to move to 4-0 overall on the year and tie the match back up at two each. Yale countered again at the No. 4 position immediately after Papoe's win with a three-set victory (6-2, 2-6, 6-3) over Nathan Mao to take a 3-2 lead and all the momentum heading into the final two matches of the day.

With its backs against the wall, Cornell turned its attention to the No. 2 singles match between Adit Sinha and Vignesh Gogineni, hoping to stay alive and push the match to a seventh and final game. After dropping the first set, 3-6, Sinha roared back, taking an 8-6 tiebreaker to win the second set and force a third. And with the momentum riding on him, the junior delivered, cruising to a 6-3 victory in the third set and tying things up at three. 

The pressure was now on the outcome of the No. 5 singles matchup between Felipe Pinzon and Dylan Tsoi to decide who would take home third and bragging rights until both teams meet head-to-head again to close the regular season on April 21 in New Haven. Like Sinha, Pinzon dropped the first set (4-6), turning the mojo over to Tsoi, who looked to finish the job in the second set. The freshman for Cornell had none of it, taking the second set, 6-4, to set up a winner-take-all third set for the match. And with his teammates watching, Pinzon put the nail in the coffin, taking down Tsoi by a 7-5 margin in the final set to clinch the match for the Big Red and push the team record to 6-2 overall. 

UP NEXT
The Big Red will be on the road once again to close out the month of February as it heads to the Midwest to battle the University of Oklahoma on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 3 p.m. at the Headington Family Tennis Center. Cornell will close its road trip by heading to the Volunteer State to battle Middle Tennessee on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at noon.