LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- The Cornell men's tennis team battled hard in its first road dual of the spring, falling 6-1 to the Louisville Cardinals on Friday evening from the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. The Cardinals improved to 5-2, while the Big Red fell to 4-1.

The doubles portion of the match was entertaining, as Louisville took the opening match, as Etienne Donne and Natan Rodriques handed Adit Sinha and Radu Papoe their first loss of the spring, 6-1. Despite the Cardinals' opening win at No. 1 doubles, Cornell rallied, as the tandem of Samuel Paquette and Petar Teodorovic rallied past Will Mayew and Piet Steveker at No. 3 doubles, 6-4, setting up a tiebreaker at No.2 doubles for the first point of the afternoon.

It was an instant classic at No. 2 doubles between the duos of Louisville's Miguel Avendano and Andre Steinbach and Cornell's Radu Papoe and Eric Verdes, as both split the opening ten points to deadlock things at 5-5. Avendano and Steinbach would take control, racing out to a 40-0 lead and eventually taking a 6-5 lead, putting the pressure back on Papoe and Verdes. The junior and freshman continued to duke it out, but two errors gave Avendano and Steinbach the 7-5 victory, putting the Cardinals up 1-0 heading into singles play. 

The Cardinals would keep the early momentum into singles, jumping to a 3-0 lead in the match via two straight sets sweeps, as Piet Steveker took down Nathan Mao (6-4, 7-5) and No. 61 Will Mayew defeated Petar Teodorovic (6-3, 7-5). Bradley Paliska battled hard to keep the Big Red's hopes of a team comeback alive against Andre Steinbach at No. 4 singles. But Steinbach pulled off the victory, winning 6-4, 7-5 to put Louisville up 4-0 and clinch the match win for the Cardinals.

Despite the Cardinals grabbing the match win early, the Big Red battled hard. Adit Sinha and Natan Rodrigues went back and forth at No. 2 singles, but Rodrigues earned the 7-5, 7-5 victory to push the Cardinals to a 5-0 lead. Eric Verdes also put in a strong showing in his first road dual appearance of the spring season, rebounding from a 3-6 loss in the opening set to take the second, 6-4, setting up a tiebreaking third against Kosuke Nakanishi at No. 6 singles. However, Verdes could not sustain the momentum as Nakanishi earned a 6-4 win in the third set to take the match.

The Big Red's last chance for a victory came in the hands of Radu Papoe, as the No. 33 ranked singles player in the latest ITA rankings matched up with No. 34 Etienne Donne at No. 1 singles. And like his comeback from his last singles victory against St. John's Francisco Bascon, Papoe lost the first set. But the junior persevered, taking the second set by a 7-6 margin to set up a tiebreaker. And with everyone watching, Papoe delivered, completing the comeback with a 6-4 victory in the third set to grab the lone win on the night for the Big Red and move to 2-0 on the year.

UP NEXT
Cornell will stay on the road when it heads to Massachusetts for the 2024 ECAC Indoor Championships hosted by Harvard. The three-day event will run from Friday, Feb. 16 - Sunday, Feb. 18.