NEW YORK ? The Columbia men's tennis team clinched at least a share of the Ivy League Championship with a 5-2 win over Penn at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.  The Lions improved to 5-1 in the Ivy League and by virtue of Harvard's 6-1 win over Brown and Cornell's win over Princeton, Columbia secured at least a share of its second Ivy League Championship in three years. The Lions can win the title outright with a win at Princeton on Sunday in the regular-season finale.

Columbia swept the doubles with Borta and Nichifor winning 8-3 at #1, Wong and Schneiiderman winning at #2 8-4 and Urban and Deb-Sen winning 8-3 at #3.

Mihai Nichifor was first off the court at #3 singles with a 6-1, 6-3 win, to give the Lions a 2-0 lead.  Schneiderman won 7-5, 6-2 at #5 to make it 3-0 Columbia. 

In the meantime, Bogdan Borta won his first set at #2, Jon Wong dropped his first set at #1 and both Ekin Sezgen and Rajeev Deb-Sen each droped their first sets at #4 and #6 respectively, but Deb-Sen battled back and took the next two sets to seal the Lions' win.

With the outcome of the match decided, Sezgen retired from his match (on serve at 1-2 in the second) to give Penn its first point of the day. At the first two singles spots, Wong and Borta experienced opposing fortunes in the super tie-breakers played in lieu of third sets, Borta prevailed 10-8 while Wong fell 10-7 to make the final score 5-2.

Columbia (5-1 Ivy League) travels to Princeton to take on the Tigers (3-3 Ivy League) at 1 p.m. on Sunday.


Columbia 5 - Penn 2:

Doubles:
1. Borta/Nichifor (C) def. Laleej/Schwartz (P) 8-3
2. Wong/Schneiderman (C) def. Roth/Law (P) 8-4
3. Urban/Deb-Sen (C) def. Lin/Karsch (P) 8-3

Order of finish: 2,1,3

Singles:
1. Laleej (P) def. Wong (C) 7-5,5-7,1-0(7)
2. Borta (C) def. Boym (P) 7-5,2-6,1-0(8)
3. Nichifor (C) def. Schwartz (P) 6-1,6-3
4. Law (P) def. Sezgen (C) 7-5, 2-1, ret.
5. Schneiderman (C) def. Lin (P) 7-5,6-2
6. Deb-Sen (C) def. Roth (P) 2-6,6-0,6-2

Order of finish: 3, 5, 6*, 4, 2, 1