ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's tennis team started its final non-conference road trip on the right foot Friday, taking down Virginia Commonwealth University, 4-1, from the Thalhimer Tennis Center. With the win, the Big Red has won five straight matches for the first time this season and pushes its record to 12-4 overall.

Cornell asserted itself early in the match by taking the first point of the afternoon in doubles. The tandem of Radu Papoe and Samuel Paquette started things by earning its fourth consecutive win as a pair with a 6-2 decision over Matisse Bobichon and Tristan Piombo to put the Big Red in the driver seat. Focus shifted to the No. 1 position in doubles between Adit Sinha / Nathan Mao and No. 45 Oscar Pinto Sansano / German Samofalov. Sinha and Mao, who came into the day with a two-match unfinished streak, would push through, knocking off its first ranked tandem of the spring with a 6-4 victory to put the red and white ahead heading into singles. 

Feeding off his momentum from doubles, Mao immediately got the train rolling from the No. 5 position, sweeping VCU's Hamza El Anime (6-2, 6-4) to put Cornell up 2-0. The Rams would counter after Mao's result with a victory from No. 120 Romain Gales, who took down Bradley Paliska, 6-3, 6-4, to put the Rams back within a point. The wave immediately shifted back to the Big Red on the shoulders of Petar Teodorovic, who matched up against No. 86 Matisse Bobichon. Teodorovic put on his hard hat and got the job done with a 6-4, 7-5 decision to earn his first upset victory of the season and his third win in the last five matches. 

With the Big Red within one point of clinching the victory, the focus turned to the No. 6 match between freshman Felipe Pinzon and junior German Samofalov. Amine, who had won five out of his last seven, took a 6-4 win in the first set and kept the hope of a Rams comeback alive. But Pinzon shook off the opening set defeat, rallying to take the next two sets (6-4, 6-2) to take down Samofalov, grabbing his eighth win of the spring and clinching the match for the Big Red. Cornell's victory also snaps a two-match losing streak to VCU and extends its winning streak over ranked opponents to three straight. 

UP NEXT
Cornell closes its non-conference slate with a trip to Bloomington to battle No. 52 Indiana University on Sunday, March 24, at 3 p.m. from the IU Tennis Center. The match will be broadcast live on iuhoosiers.com, with live scoring available via Stat Broadcast.