NEW YORK — In a thrilling Ivy League showdown, the No. 14 Columbia men's tennis team pushed past Dartmouth, 4-1, at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon to advance to next month's 16-team National Indoor Championship.
 
The Lions move to 2-0 on the young season after a pair of wins in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend, while Dartmouth suffers its first loss of the season, falling to 3-1 overall.
 
"It's a good feeling to be going to National Indoors," said Columbia Tennis Alumni and Friends Head Coach of Men's Tennis, Bid Goswami. "Being ranked No. 14, it feels good to justify our ranking. Our guys are good and everybody is healthy now, so hopefully we can do some damage in Chicago. I think the guys did well this weekend and I'm proud of them."

From beginning to end, the tension was high as the Lions looked to avenge their 4-3 loss to the Big Green a season ago.

Columbia gained the early lead with doubles victories on the bottom two courts. The Lions' No. 3 tandem of Rian Pandole/Victor Pham took a quick win to get halfway there. After William Matheson/Jack Lin fell 6-3 on the top court, it was up to Adam Ambrozy/Jackie Tang. The duo went all the way down to a tiebreak, winning 7-6 (5).
 
"These guys are tough," added Goswami. "They beat Kentucky yesterday. Kentucky just beat Duke before that. So, it just goes to show we have a battle with them."
 
Gritting their way through singles, the Lions used wins from senior Timothy Wang, sophomore Austen Huang and senior Pham to finish the job.
 
Wang was the first to finish his singles match, stretching the Lions' lead to two with a 6-3, 6-0 victory at No. 6 singles. Defending Ivy League Player of the Year Pham gave Columbia a 3-0 lead at No. 2 singles, registering a quick win in straight sets over Dartmouth's Dan Martin.
 
Dartmouth got on the board as Lin fell to 27th-ranked Charlie Broom, 6-2, 6-2 on the top singles court.
 
The remaining matches were tight, with both the third and fourth singles courts needing a third set, but Huang pulled off a 7-5, 6-4 triumph on court five to clinch the match and send Columbia to the National Team Indoor Championship for the second-consecutive year and the fourth time in the last five seasons.
 
Columbia will have one final tune up before heading to Chicago for the indoor tournament. The Lions will welcome in St. John's to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 1:30 p.m. ET.

For the latest on the Columbia men's tennis, follow @ColumbiaMTennis on Twitter and on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.