ITHACA, N.Y. -- After being away from home for over a month, the Cornell men's tennis team returned to the Reis Tennis Center with a split against Southern Methodist University and Hobart College on Saturday.

Cornell fell 5-2 to the Mustangs in the afternoon before finishing the nightcap with a 5-2 over the Statesmen. With the Saturday split, the Big Red are now 8-4 on the year.

SMU RECAP

The Big Red found itself behind the eight ball early after the Mustangs snagged the first point of the afternoon in doubles. Trevor Svajda and Louis Cloud handed Petar Teodorovic and Eric Verdes their first loss as a pair (6-4) since appearing for the first time against No. 38 Oklahoma. Julian Steinhausen and Maks Silagy followed up their teammates with a 6-3 victory over Samuel Paquette and Radu Papoe at the No. 3 position to earn a 1-0 lead heading into singles action.

Trevor Svadja would pull the first upset of the day rather quickly at No. 1 singles, handing Papoe his second loss in the last three matches with a 6-1, 6-3 decision to put the Mustangs ahead 2-0. Cornell would counter with an upset of its own right after, as Adit Sinha cruised to a straight sets decision (6-1, 6-2) over No. 97 Adam Neff to give Cornell its first point of the afternoon.

SMU's Maks Silagy immediately switched the momentum back towards the Mustangs with his 6-1, 7-5 victory over Felipe Pinzon at No. 5 singles to put them within a point of clinching the match. Liam Krall ensured Cornell did not have a chance to pull off the comeback, earning a three-set victory over Teodorovic (6-2, 4-6, 6-2) to put the match away for the Mustangs. Despite not being able to get the team win, Bradley Paliska and Aman Sharma battled hard in their singles matches at the No. 4 and No. 6 spots. Paliska recovered from a 6-4 loss in the opening set to take down Eric Hadigian in three (4-6, 6-4, 10-6) to move to 4-3 on the spring, while Sharma made his first appearance in the lineup since Jan. 28 against Le Moyne, falling in a straight sets decision to Jerry Barton (7-6 (10-6), 7-6 (9-6).

HOBART RECAP

Cornell would get things started early in doubles as the tandem of Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao earned a 6-3 victory over Sean Pesin and Nick Fischer for its fifth win of the spring season. Eric Verdes and Petar Teodorovic rebounded from their loss against SMU with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5) victory against Troy Steiner and Hyat Oyer to secure the opening point. Matthew Druyanoff and Noah Eisenberg also debuted as a duo at the No. 3 position, grabbing a 7-6 (7-2) win over Aidan Staunton and Jose Martinez Barell.

Shifting into singles play, Papoe took down Sean Pesin in straight sets at the No. 1 position (6-0, 6-2) to jump ahead 2-0. The Statesmen would earn their first point of the match at the No. 5 position, as Nick Grosso earned a 6-1, 6-3 over Druyanoff to make the match 2-1. Cornell put the hammer down over the next two, with Eric Verdes (6-1, 6-3) and Noah Eisenberg (6-4, 6-2) grabbing straight-set victories to secure the match for the Big Red. Muhammad Dossani followed his teammates with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Winter Fagerberg for his third win of the year. The final match came down to a battle at the No. 6 position, with Hobart's Troy Steiner taking a three-set thriller (6-4, 4-6, 10-5) over Maxwell Moadel.

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