The Cornell men’s tennis team will host No. 22 Columbia on April 25 at the Reis Tennis Center, with both the Ivy League championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line. The match, scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m., will also serve as Senior Day, honoring seniors Noah Eisenberg, Aman Sharma, and Petar Teodorovic before their final home appearance.
This matchup is significant because it could result in Cornell’s third Ivy League title in program history. If Cornell defeats Columbia, both teams would finish with a 6-1 conference record, but Cornell would claim the league’s automatic NCAA berth due to a head-to-head tiebreaker. Both teams are also considered strong candidates for at-large selections regardless of Saturday’s outcome.
Columbia enters the contest with a perfect 6-0 Ivy League record and has already secured at least a share of the title. The Lions have won their last 19 Ivy matches; their most recent conference loss was against Cornell in Ithaca in 2024. In that previous meeting, All-American Radu Papoe led Cornell with a straight-set win over Michael Zheng.
Cornell holds a national ranking of No. 29 and boasts a season record of 17-3, including wins over several ranked opponents such as Louisville and Yale. The Big Red has won eight out of its last nine matches against ranked teams and recently defeated Dartmouth and Harvard at home. Sophomore Rodrigo Fernandes leads singles play for Cornell with a national ranking of No. 62 and a season record of 22-10.
Columbia brings three nationally ranked singles players into Saturday’s match: Michael Zheng (No.5), Nicolas Kotzen (No.44), and Sachin Palta (No.96). Their doubles teams are also nationally ranked under head coach Howard Endelman.
The all-time series favors Columbia by a margin of 55-26; however, recent history shows competitive matches between these two programs.
