ITHACA, N.Y. -- The hunt for its first Ivy League title since 2017 begins this weekend when Cornell men's tennis welcomes Columbia for a Saturday afternoon showdown. Doubles action will start at 1 p.m. from the Reis Tennis Center.

LAST TIME OUT: BIG RED CLOSES NON-CONFERENCE SLATE WITH SWEEP OF VCU, INDIANA
Cornell is coming off a solid ending to its non-conference slate last weekend, taking down two ranked opponents in No. 41 Virginia Commonwealth University and No. 52 Indiana University. The Big Red's victory in Bloomington on Sunday also snapped an eleven-match home winning streak for the Hoosiers. 

Cornell split the doubles points on the weekend with a win against VCU and a loss to Indiana. Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao matched up against ranked duos for the third and fourth time this season, highlighted by a 6-4 upset over No. 50 Oscar Pinto Sansano and German Samofalov of VCU. That win was also the first for the duo since joining up during their freshman season in 2021-22. Radu Papoe and Samuel Paquette went 1-0 on the weekend with a 6-2 decision over VCU's Matisse Bobichon and Tristan Piombo to extend their winning streak to four consecutive matches. Petar Teodorovic and Eric Verdes were the lone Big Red duo to go winless, falling to Indiana's Facundo Yunis and Luc Bouler (6-3) and having their match against VCU's Hamza El Amine and Romain Gales go unfinished.

The Big Red made its money on the singles side of the coin, going 7-1. Teodorovic led the way with a 2-0 record from the No. 3 position in both matches with an upset win over No. 86 Matisse Bobichon (6-2, 7-5), followed by another sweep of Indiana's Michael Andre. The underclassmen run carried over to Felipe Pinzon, as the freshman also went unbeaten from the No. 6 spot against the Rams' German Samofalov (6-2, 6-4) and the Hoosiers' Deacon Thomas (7-5, 7-6 (7-5)). The other headliner was Papoe, as the No. 13 ranked player in DI pushed his streak over ranked opponents to five straight matches with a 6-2, 6-2 sweep of No. 55 Sam Landau of Indiana.

ITA RANKINGS UPDATE: CORNELL JUMPS FIVE SPOTS
After its weekend sweep of VCU and Indiana, the Big Red find themselves up five spots in the latest ITA team rankings at No. 36. Cornell was also one of three Ivy League teams that saw movement, as Princeton rose one spot to No. 30, while Yale jumped up two positions to No. 64. It is the highest ranking that Cornell has had since finishing the 2022-23 season at No. 37. The top five saw some movement with Virginia jumping up to No. 2, the University of Texas at Austin going from No. 8 to No. 4 and Wake Forest dropping from fourth to sixth overall. 

INSIDE THE IVY: COLUMBIA
Columbia and Cornell have met each other 103 times since its first match in 1906. The Lions hold a 61-41-1 edge over the Big Red and have taken nine out of the last ten matches. Cornell's lone win came in a 4-2 decision to close its 2021-22 season. 

The Lions have roared along this season, coming into the weekend at 14-2 overall and ranked No. 9 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings. Columbia has also not lost a match since falling to Harvard in the first round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 16. Since its season began, the Lions have also taken down seven ranked opponents in nine tries, headlined by an upset over then-No. 7 Tennessee on Feb. 9.

Diving into the individual side, Columbia has a conference-best three singles players inside the top 125. Sophomore Michael Zheng leads the charge at No. 17 with a 21-7 overall record over the fall and spring seasons. Since the calendar flipped to 2024, Zheng has dominated his opponents with a 12-3 overall record and has won eight straight matches, with five coming in straight sets. Alex Kotzen comes in next for the Lions at No. 75. The senior has also had a strong season, sporting an 11-2 clip, and is currently on a four-match winning streak. Nicolas Kotzen is the final ranked Lion at No. 112 with an 18-4 overall record and has secured a victory in six of his last seven appearances in the lineup. 

Shifting to doubles, two Columbia tandems are in the rankings. Theo Winegar and Zheng team up as the No. 16 ranked duo with a 15-6 record this spring. Winegar and Zheng have breezed through the opposition by ripping off ten wins over their last 12 matches. Kotzen and Westphal team up as the other ranked Columbia duo at No. 32 with a 10-3 record this spring and have won five out of its six matches. 

UP NEXT
Cornell will continue conference action with two matches in three days next weekend. The Big Red will host the University of Pennsylvania on Friday, April 5th, at 2 p.m. before heading to the Garden State to battle Princeton on Sunday, April 7, at 1 p.m.