ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's tennis team will split the weekend between the road and at home when it visits No. 37 Princeton on Friday, April 10 at 2 p.m. before returning home to meet No. 39 Penn on Sunday, April 12 at 1 p.m. Cornell head coach Silviu Tanasiou enters the weekend on the cusp of becoming just the 16th coach at Cornell across sports to reach 200 career victories for the Big Red with 199 to his credit.
Cornell, ranked No. 33 in the latest ITA rankings, is 13-3 on the season with ranked wins over Louisville, Yale, Penn (twice), and most recently Memphis and Middle Tennessee. The Big Red is coming off a 1-1 week, dropping a narrow 4-2 decision to No. 39 Yale before toppling Brown 4-1 on the road. Sunday's matchup with Penn will begin a four-game Ivy homestand to cap the regular season.
Sophomore
Rodrigo Fernandes, ranked No. 95 nationally, is 20-8 on the season from the top spot.
Eric Verdes (7-9) and
Petar Teodorovic (13-7) have also been steady in the top-half of the lineup, while
Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (19-5),
Felipe Pinzon (13-7) and
Aman Sharma (10-5) have done damage in the bottom half. The doubles tandem of Senthil Kumar and
Rushil Khosla is 14-5 on the season, while the NCAA qualifying pair of Pinzon and Teodorovic is off to a 15-3 start. Fernandes and
Eric Verdes sport a 10-4 record, with all three doubles teams ranked at some point in the season. Big Red head coach Silviu Tanasiou sports a 199-109 career record (.646) entering the weekend, and the program's all-time winningest coach will attempt to become the first Big Red tennis coach to reach 200 victories. He has four NCAA tournament appearances with first-round wins each year.
The Tigers are 14-8 on the season, but will be looking for its first Ivy League victory (0-3) after three straight heartbreaking 4-3 contests (at Penn, at Harvard and at Dartmouth). Princeton is an impressive 9-1 at home this year with victories over Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Columbia and Penn State. Head coach Billy Pate, in his 15th season on the Princeton sidelines, is led at the top of the lineup by NCAA semifinalist Paul Inchauspe, who sports a 29-4 record at No. 1 singles. He is ranked 13th nationally, while his pairing with Landon Ardila land them No. 24 in the rankings.
Penn enters the weekend with a 16-7 record (2-1 Ivy) following a 4-1 victory at Harvard its last time out. The Quakers are 5-7 away from home this season, but head coach Rich Bonfiglio's team owns victories over Harvard (twice), Yale, South Florida and Princeton. Manfredi Graziani is at the top of the lineup, with the NCAA qualifier going 19-8 in singles play this season. He is ranked No. 71 overall in the latest ITA rankings. The doubles teams of Graziani and Aaron Sandler (27-3) are ranked No. 28, while Vojtech Vales and Shaurya Bharadwaj sit No. 90 in the latest rankings.
