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Cornell University Athletics

Radu Papoe returns a shot during a men's tennis match between Cornell and Harvard on Saturday, April 13, 2024 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Lexi Woodcock/Cornell Athletics
4
Winner Harvard HAR (18-5)
2
Cornell COR (15-6)
Winner
Harvard HAR
(18-5)
4
Final
2
Cornell COR
(15-6)

Match Recap: Men's Tennis |

#13 Harvard Spoils Senior Day, Tops #30 Big Red, 4-2

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The No. 13 Harvard Crimson (18-5, 4-0) came into Ithaca and took down No. 30 Cornell (15-6, 2-2) in front of a packed Reis Tennis Center by a score of 4-2 on Saturday afternoon. Cornell, who was looking for its first conference win over the Crimson since 2018, has lost back-to-back matches for the first time this season. 

The battle for momentum started in doubles between the conference foes. Harvard drew first from the No. 2 position, as Melchior Delloye and Ronan Jachuck handed Petar Teodorovic / Eric Verdes their first loss in conference action with a 6-3 victory. Cornell countered with a 6-4 decision at No. 3 doubles from RaduPapoe / Samuel Paquette against David Lins and Alan Yim to set up a winner-take-all at the No. 1 position. Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao battled with one of the best duos in the nation in No. 7 Daniel Milavsky and Cooper Williams. But the junior combination came up short, suffering its third consecutive loss (6-4) to give Harvard the early lead heading into singles.

Before beginning singles action, Cornell stopped to recognize its four seniors (Muhammad Dossani, Matthew Druyanoff, Bradley Paliska, and Samuel Paquette) and their contributions to the program. Once the celebration was over, the Big Red got back into action, looking to shake off a tough draw in doubles.

The attention shifted immediately towards the No. 1 battle between No. 12 Cooper Williams and No. 13 Radu Papoe. Both players had already faced off this fall in the ITA Super Regional finals, with Williams taking a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 decision. But with the home crowd behind him, Papoe took off running and pulled the upset with a 6-1, 7-5 victory and his third victory of the spring over an opponent ranked inside the top 20. The win did not phase the Crimson, as Milavsky swept Teodorovic with a 7-5, 6-3 win from the No. 3 spot to retake the lead and put the pressure back on the Big Red. Once again, Cornell countered with a straight-sets victory for Mao over Delloye (7-6 (8-6), 6-1) to tie the match at two. The win also snapped a three-match losing streak for the junior from Maine. 

The chess match flipped back to the Crimson immediately after Mao's win with a 7-5, 6-2 sweep by Ronan Jachuck over Bradley Paliska, putting the visitors a point away from clinching the match. With the pressure on, eyes turned to the second ranked battle of the day between No. 73 Henry Von Der Schulenburg and No. 85 Adit Sinha at the No. 2 spot. Sinha grabbed the early wave with a 6-3 opening set victory before Von Der Schulenburg grabbed the coin and took a 6-2 decision to push the match to a decisive third set. The push to keep the Big Red alive favored Sinha early in the third, as he grabbed a 2-1 lead out of the gate. But Von Der Schulenburg ended the thoughts of the match coming down to the final battle of the day with a 6-4 decision to hand Cornell its fourth consecutive loss to its conference rival.

UP NEXT
The Big Red closes out its 2024 home slate against Dartmouth tomorrow afternoon. First serve is set for 1 p.m. from the Reis Tennis Center. 

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