ITHACA, N.Y. -- March closed with a bang for the Cornell men's tennis team, as the Big Red took down No. 9 Columbia, 6-1, on Saturday afternoon from the Reis Tennis Center. The win pushes the Big Red to 14-4 and 1-0 in conference action, while the Lions (14-3, 0-1 Ivy) had its eight-match winning streak snapped.

Cornell got things started early from inside the Reis Tennis Center, taking the doubles point with wins from the No. 2 and No. 3 position. The tandem of Eric Verdes / Petar Teodorovic took down its first ranked pair of the spring in No. 32 Nicolas Kotzen / Max Westphal by a 6-2 score. The win is also the third in the last five matches for the underclassmen. Upperclassmen Radu Papoe and Samuel Paquette made sure Columbia had no chance to steal the point from the No. 3 spot, pushing their winning streak to five consecutive matches via a 6-2 win over Alex Kotzen / Henry Ruger.

Jumping into singles play, Papoe and Michael Zheng were slated for an entertaining match, as both were in the top 20 in the latest ITA singles rankings. But feeding off the home crowd was all that Papoe needed, slaying his sixth-ranked opponent of the season with a straight-sets sweep (6-4, 6-0) to put Cornell ahead 2-0. The result is also Papoe's fourth straight victory. Columbia countered after the Papoe victory, with Hugo Hashimoto handing Nathan Mao his first loss in four matches (6-3, 6-2) from the No. 5 position to put the Lions on the board.

The Big Red flipped the coin back on its side immediately after off the racquet of Adit Sinha, as the No. 63 ranked singles player in DI men's tennis sweated out a 6-4, 6-4 win against No. 75 Alex Kotzen to clinch his seventh-straight victory and put Cornell in the driver seat for the match. And with the fans behind the Big Red, Teodorovic sealed the deal, rebounding from a 6-4 loss in the opener to take his match from the No. 3 position in three sets over Nicolas Kotzen (4-6, 6-3, 6-3) before his teammates mobbed him after knowing the upset was official.

The final two matches of the day did go on, with Bradley Paliska (4-6, 6-1, 6-2) and Felipe Pinzon (3-6, 6-1, 7-6, (10-6)) each dropping the opening set of their matches but rebounding to take wins from the No. 4 and No. 6 spots. With the victory, the Big Red has won two of the last three against the Lions and its first Ivy League opener since a 4-1 victory over Dartmouth on April 9, 2022. It was also the first time both teams matched up in its Ivy League opener since 2017.

UP NEXT
The Big Red continues Ivy League action with two matches next weekend. Cornell will host Penn on Friday, April 5, before heading out to New Jersey to battle Princeton on Sunday, April 7 from the Lenz Tennis Center.