ITHACA, N.Y. -- The No. 13 Cornell men's tennis team (15-4, 2-0 Ivy) kept the train rolling in Ivy League action on Friday afternoon, taking down No. 55 Penn (14-9, 0-2 Ivy), 4-0, from the Reis Tennis Center. With the victory, the Big Red has won eight consecutive matches for the first time since 2021-22 and the first 2-0 start in conference action since winning four straight during the 2019 season.

Cornell took the doubles point with wins from the No. 3 and No. 2 position. Radu Papoe and Samuel Paquette were on cruise control for their match against Matthew Rutter and Baylor Sai, taking a 6-3 victory for their sixth-consecutive match victory of the season and seventh of the spring season. Petar Teodorovic and Eric Verdes had to fight for their win, rebounding from a 5-4 deficit to rip off the next three games to grab a 7-5 win over Manfredi Graziani and Parashar Bharadwaj. That win was also the seventh of the season since the pair first appeared in Cornell's 4-3 loss to Oklahoma on Feb. 24. 

The train kept rolling in singles action as No. 63 Adit Sinha burst out to a 4-0 lead in the first set before Kian Vakili withdrew because of retirement, putting the Big Red up 2-0 and pushing the junior's winning streak to three. It was a little bit of revenge too for Sinha, who lost his last matchup to Vakili in straight sets during the 2024 ECAC Indoor Championships. Classmate Radu Papoe followed Sinha's win with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Manfredi Graziani to put Cornell within a point of clinching the match. Papoe, who came into the weekend as the No. 13 ranked singles player, has also won a season-high five straight matches. 

With the momentum in the hands of the Big Red, the action shifted to the No. 5 match between Nathan Mao and Matthew Rutter to see if the Quakers could stay alive. Mao would win the first set by a 6-3 score but needed a small rally after falling behind 4-3 in the second. The junior won the next two games to put himself on the doorstep of clinching the match before Rutter countered to push the second set into a tiebreaker. But Mao put together a masterclass in the tiebreak, winning 7-0 to clinch his fourth win in the last five matches and give the Big Red its first win in the Reis Tennis Center over the Quakers since a 4-1 decision on April 15, 2016.

UP NEXT
The Big Red will continue into the thick of Ivy League action with an afternoon showdown in the Garden State against No. 30 Princeton on Sunday, April 7, from the Lenz Tennis Center.