No. 36 Tigers conclude regular season

Senior Dan Richardson played his last Ivy League match in the best way possible. He gave Princeton a shot at playing more tennis this season by clinching the win for Tigers in the final regular season match against Cornell. The No. 36 men’s tennis team (19-7 overall, 4-3 Ivy League) made the decision for the selection committee for the national tournament that much more difficult this weekend. After a 5-2 loss to Columbia (14-5, 7-0), Columbia defeated Penn to claim the outright Ivy League title and an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Tigers traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., after this loss to Columbia to play against Cornell (12-8, 4-3). The Tigers defeated Cornell 4-3.

On Friday, Columbia traveled to Princeton to put its perfect Ivy League record on the line. The Lions had won their previous five matches and were the highest ranked Ivy League team at 23rd in the nation. Columbia took an early lead in the match by sweeping the doubles point 3-0. The third doubles tandem for Princeton dropped their match first by a score of 6-3, before the ITA No. 37 team of senior Zack McCourt and sophomore Tom Colautti dropped their match to Columbia’s 56th ranked team. McCourt and Colauitti redeemed themselves in singles, however. Colautti was the first singles match off the court at second singles. He won his match 6-4, 6-3 to even the score of the match at one apiece, defeating No. 96-ranked Dragos Ignat. The remaining five singles matches would all go to three sets, one of the closest matches of the Tigers’ season thus far. Sophomore Alex Day was the second match off the court. After dropping the first set, he stormed back in the second to a 6-0 victory. He was not able to maintain this momentum into the third set, however, dropping the match, with final scores of 6-3, 0-6, 6-4. Senior Dan Richardson and freshman Diego Vives both won their first sets before dropping their next two. Along with a loss from freshman Kial Kaiser, Columbia sealed a victory over the Tigers. A bright spot for the match, however, was at one singles. The last match off of the court, McCourt defeated the 18th-ranked player in the ITA, Winston Lin, 6-7, 7-6, 11-9.

The Tigers once again fell behind early on Sunday in a must win match against the 48th-ranked Cornell Big Red. The team dropped the matches at first and third doubles to fall behind 1-0 early. Colautti once again drew the Tigers even with a swift 6-2, 7-5 victory at second singles. McCourt gave the Tigers the first lead of the weekend after, with a decisive 6-2, 6-4 victory. Cornell drew even again with a victory at third singles, before Kaiser brought the Tigers in front again with a 6-2, 7-6 victory at the sixth spot. With the Tigers a point away from winning the match, Richardson took matters into his own hands at fourth singles. After winning the first set and getting crushed in the second set, Richardson rebounded strongly in the third set to win 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Freshman Luke Gamble would lose at fifth singles as the last match off of the court, but the Tigers had already clinched their 10th victory of the season over a ranked opponent.

The Tigers posted 19 wins this season, the second most wins in the program's history, behind the 20 matches the Tigers won in 1995, and on Monday newly released rankings placed the Tigers in 36th in the country. The decision for who will play in the NCAA tournament this season will be decided on Tuesday, April 28. Unlike the women's team, the men did not receive an automatic bid, but things are looking good for the Tigers, as the highest-ranked team to not receive an at-large bid for the tournament last year was No. 42 Dartmouth, while the lowest-ranked team to receive an at-large bid was No. 43 Michigan.