Lions host Cornell for final Ivy League match

Despite having already assured itself of representing the Ivy League in the 2011 NCAA Championships and at least a share of the 2011 title, the Cornell men’s tennis team has one last obstacle in its conference schedule. The Lions, the two-time defending Ivy champions, will be looking to give the Big Red its first conference blemish and end their season on a two-match win streak.

Cornell, ranked No. 50 in the nation and the highest-ranked Ivy squad, is coming off an emotional 4-3 win over No. 58 Princeton, which was 5-0 coming in. The win guaranteed that Cornell would represent the Ancient Eight in the NCAA for the first time in program history. The win also gave Cornell a share of its first-ever Ivy League title and first conference title since the team won the EITA (the predecessor to the Ivy League) in 1949. Cornell came in second place in the Ivy League the past two seasons before winning it this spring. The title this year comes in the first season for new head coach Tony Bresky.

“I think it’s the same team we played last year,” Columbia head coach Bid Goswami said. “Maybe they got a bit better with another year, but I don’t think it’s any better of a team than we played last year and we beat them twice. I take it like we’re a bit weaker than last year with Mihai [Nichifor] and Jon [Wong] not here, but we are starting to play much better the last four matches.”

Cornell is led by a core group of five seniors who play No. 1 through five singles and also make up five of the six players that play on the three doubles teams. At No. 1 singles for Cornell is senior Jonathan Jaklitsch, although fellow senior Andy Gauthier has also seen time at the top spot.

Cornell comes in with a record of 25-4 and has won nine matches in a row going into this weekend. Cornell also beat Columbia 6-1 earlier this spring at the ECAC Championships. Sophomore Nate Gery was the only Columbia player to win his singles matches, and all other players lost in straight sets.

“They beat us handily and we played really poorly,” Goswami said. “It was really disappointing. I think it was one of the matches we didn’t play well this year. If they beat us really badly now then we’ll know it was not a fluke, but I really believe it’ll be a competitive match.”

Columbia, after struggling all year, finally seemed to gather some momentum last season with a tough loss at Princeton and a quick rebound at home to win 5-2 against a talented Penn team. The Lions have split their last four matches, all Ivy, 2-2, and appear to have finally hit their stride after a season of tough losses, but the Light Blue 8-14 (2-4 Ivy) is guaranteed its first losing season since 2001-02. Sophomore Haig Schneiderman has played No. 1 singles all year, and has also split his last four matches. Freshman Tizian Bucher has been strong at No. 5 singles in Ivy play, going 4-2.

The match will be the final match for senior co-captains Kevin Kung and Sho Matsumoto.

“It’s always a sad day for the last match,” Goswami said. “It’s the end of the season we’ve been playing since September. Kevin and Sho, they’ve played on the team for four years, and it’ll be bittersweet. Bitter because it will be the last time they’ll be around but sweet because they’ve been great, and they’ll always be part of our family.”