EAST LANSING, Mich. -- A successful business trip was had to the Great Lake State on Sunday afternoon, as No. 46 Cornell men's tennis handed No. 16 Michigan State University its first loss at home this season with a 4-3 upset win from the MSU Indoor Tennis Center. With its victory, the Big Red moves to 9-4 on the year and extends its winning stream over the Spartans to three consecutive matches.
A highly contested battle began in doubles, with both teams eyeing to grab the first point. Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao started double action with their fourth win this spring, earning a 6-4 decision over Taym Alazmeh and Aristotelis Thanos. The Spartans countered immediately at the No. 2 position as Ozan Baris and Ronald Hohmann took down Eric Verdes and Petar Teodorovic (6-4), setting up the No. 3 position as the decider. And with the pressure on, Radu Papoe and Samuel Paquette got it done with a 6-4 victory over Max Sheldon and Graydon Lair to snap a two-match losing streak and push Cornell ahead heading into singles action.
Shifting to singles action, Nathan Mao earned the first point for the Big Red with his 6-3, 6-4 victory over Taym Alazmeh from the No. 5 position. The sweep by Mao also snapped a three-match losing streak for the junior. Mao's win did nothing to phase the Spartans, who scooped up consecutive straight-set wins at the No. 6 and No. 3 positions to tie the match at two.
With the match at a standstill, it was not a matter of if but when the Big Red or the Spartans would take advantage. Cornell would draw first blood off the racket of Sinha, who knocked off his third consecutive ranked opponent in No. 20 Ronald Hohmann (6-2, 7-5), putting Cornell within one point of clinching the match.
All eyes turned to the No. 1 position match featuring No. 12 Ozan Baris and No. 19 Radu Papoe, as the matchup would decide whether Cornell came home with the upset or Michigan State would stay alive. Papoe, who was coming off a loss to unseeded Trevor Svajda of Southern Methodist University last weekend in Ithaca, grabbed a thrilling first set by a 7-5 margin to put the pressure on Baris. With the momentum on his side, the captain rolled in the second (6-1), clinching the upset and keeping his undefeated record against ranked opponents intact at 4-0 through 13 matches this spring.
UP NEXT
Cornell will return to Ithaca for its final doubleheader of 2024 on Sunday, March 17 against Quinnipiac (10 a.m.) and Penn State University (2 p.m.) from the Reis Tennis Center.
