ITHACA, N.Y. -- The No. 30 ranked Cornell men's tennis team (16-6, 3-2 Ivy) closed its 2024 home slate on a high note with a 4-0 sweep of Dartmouth (8-14, 1-4 Ivy) on Sunday afternoon from the Reis Tennis Center. Cornell, who extended its winning streak over the Big Green to five matches, also finished with ten or more wins in Ithaca for the third consecutive season.

Cornell had to work for the opening point in doubles play. Dartmouth took the first match from the No. 3 position, with Waleed Qadir and Miles Groom handing Radu Papoe and Samuel Paquette their second loss in the past five in a 6-1 decision. The Big Red battled back for the No. 2 spot, as Petar Teodorovic and Eric Verdes' took control early and grabbed their eighth victory with a 6-3 win over Henry Ren and Alex Knox-Jones. Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao came into Sunday on a three-match losing skid. But the junior duo took care of business (6-3) against Carlos Guerrero Alvarez and Hikaru Takeda to put Cornell ahead 1-0 going into singles.

The Big Red immediately laid the hammer down in singles. Nathan Mao picked up his third consecutive and eighth overall win of the spring via a 6-3, 6-2 sweep against Yujiro Onuma to push Cornell ahead, 2-0. Junior Radu Papoe also cruised in his No. 1 spot battle with Henry Ren (6-0, 6-2) to put the Big Red a point away from clinching. With his victory, Papoe has won seven of his last eight matches. The honor of clinching the match ended up falling to Samuel Paquette. The senior, who saw his first action in singles in nearly a month, earned his seventh win of the spring over Hikaru Takeda (6-2, 6-2) in his final match played at the Reis Tennis Center. All three other singles matches went unfinished. 

With the win, the Big Red also has clinched three conference wins or more at home for the third time in the last five seasons. 

UP NEXT
Cornell closes its 2024 regular season with a weekend of conference road action. The Big Red travels to Rhode Island to face Brown on Saturday, April 20, before heading north to take on Yale on Sunday, April 21. Both matches are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.