ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men's tennis team will close out February with its third consecutive road trip as it heads Southwest for two matches in three days against the University of Oklahoma and Middle Tennessee State.
#57 CORNELL AT #38 OKLAHOMA
SITE: Headington Family Tennis Center – Norman, Okla.
DATE and TIME: Sunday, Feb. 25 at 3 p.m.
RECORDS: Cornell (6-2, 0-0 Ivy League), Oklahoma (7-2, 0-0 Big 12)
SERIES RECORD: Oklahoma leads, 2-1
WATCH LIVE: Playsight
LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast
#57 CORNELL AT #26 MIDDLE TENNESSEE
SITE: Adams Tennis Complex – Murfreesboro, Tenn.
DATE and TIME: Tuesday, Feb. 27 at noon
RECORDS: Cornell (6-2, 0-0 Ivy League), Middle Tennessee (7-5, 0-0 Conference USA)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 1-0
WATCH LIVE: goblueraiders.com
LAST TIME OUT: CORNELL KNOCKS OFF PENN IN THRILLER, EARNS THIRD AT ECAC INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Cornell will be looking to carry over momentum after knocking off Yale, 4-3, last Sunday to earn third place at the 2024 ECAC Indoor Championships in Philadelphia. It was the second consecutive season that the Big Red grabbed a podium at the event.
The back-and-forth affair favored the Bulldogs early, who took a 1-0 lead into singles play after earning the doubles point thanks to victories at No. 2 for Walker Oberg/Theo Dean over Eric Verdes/Radu Papoe (6-4) and the No. 3 position for Eric Li/Jim Ji over Petar Teodorovic/Samuel Paquette (6-4).
Paquette would rebound after losing in doubles to earn Cornell's first point of the day thanks to a straight sets sweep of Walker Oberg (6-1, 6-1) before another Yale victory at No. 3 singles for Li over Teodorovic (6-2, 6-3) pushed the Bulldogs back ahead, 2-1.
The seesaw of momentum started to flip in favor of the Big Red, as Radu Papoe moved to 4-0 on the year with a win over Dean at the No. 1 position (6-4, 7-6 (7-5)). But after another victory for the Bulldogs over Nathan Mao at No. 4, Cornell needed Adit Sinha and Felipe Pinzon to come through. Sinha delivered on his promise, roaring back from losing the first set to take a three-set thriller (3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4) to tie things at 3-3 heading into the final match of the day between Pinzon and Dylan Tsoi. After dropping the opening set, the freshman came in clutch, earning the win in three sets (4-6, 6-4, 7-5) to clinch the match for the Big Red.
ITA RANKINGS UPDATE: BIG RED SEES MOVEMENT
With the release of the newest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings, Cornell now finds itself inside the top 75 for the first time this season. Cornell comes into this week slated 57th, just ahead of Nebraska. The Ivy League is well represented, with six of the eight Ancient Eight ranked in the Top 75. Columbia is the highest ranked of the Ivy schools at fourth overall, followed by Harvard (eighth), Princeton (35th), Penn (42nd), Cornell, and Dartmouth (62nd). Ohio State is the top team in the rankings at 13-0.
On the individual side, Cornell junior Radu Papoe jumped up 16 spots from the last poll to sit at No. 17 overall after being ranked 33rd in the previous rankings released on Feb. 7. Two Ivy League players sit ahead of Papoe in Cooper Williams (No. 11) and Michael Zheng (No. 16).
INSIDE THE OPPONENT: OKLAHOMA
The Big Red and the Sooners have duked it out on the court three times in program history. Cornell won the first matchup of the two schools in Norman via a 4-3 decision on March 12, 2017, but Oklahoma has taken the past two in separate 4-2 decisions in Ithaca (3/31/2018) and Oklahoma (2/9/2019). Both teams were supposed to square off in 2020 but could not due to the cancelation of the rest of the season because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
It will also be a homecoming of sorts for Silviu Tanasoiu, Director of Intercollegiate Tennis and the Richard Savitt '50 – Stephen Weiss '57 Head Coach of Men's Tennis, as he played three seasons for the Sooners (2003-05), earning first team All-Big 12 honors in 2004 and served as assistant coach for Oklahoma for five seasons before becoming Cornell's head coach in 2011.
Oklahoma rolls into Sunday at 7-2 overall and looks to rebound after a 5-2 loss to No. 22 Florida State on Sunday, Feb. 11 in Tallahassee. The Sooners' two points came in singles, as #85 Kholo Montsi defeated Youcef Rihane in straight sets from the No. 3 position (6-0, 6-2), and #109 Luis Alvarez rebounded after dropping the opening set to defeat J. Dous-Karpenschif in three (5-7, 6-2, 6-4). Alvarez has been the top singles player record-wise for the Sooners at 13-3, while Alex Martinez and Montsi are the top doubles tandem for Oklahoma, sporting a 7-4 record.
INSIDE THE OPPONENT: MIDDLE TENNESSEE
Tuesday's match will be just the second time the Blue Raiders and the Big Red have met. Cornell took the lone matchup in a 4-3 thriller in Ithaca on March 1, 2014. That match came down to the wire, as Cornell needed an 8-1 victory from Bernardo Casares Rosa and Alex Sidney in the No. 3 position in doubles to escape with the win.
The Blue Raiders sit at 7-5 overall heading into the weekend, and have won all five matches held at the Adams Tennis Complex. Middle Tennessee will also be competing in the Blue Gray Championships running Friday thru Sunday before battling the Big Red on Tuesday. Five athletes have registered five or more individual wins in singles this season already for Middle Tennessee, led by senior Leo Raquin (7-4) and sophomore Ondrej Horak (6-3). Raquin and Horak have also dominated in doubles, earning an 8-1 record on the year, with seven of those wins coming at the No. 2 and No. 3 position combined.
UP NEXT
Cornell will finally return to the Reis Tennis Center for the first time since Jan. 28, as it welcomes Southern Methodist University (noon) and Hobart College (5 p.m.) on Saturday, March 2nd.
