NEW YORK—Columbia notched its second shutout win of the season as it notched a 4-0 victory over Brown in the ECAC Indoor Championship First Round Friday afternoon at Dick Savitt Tennis Center. With the win, No. 4 seed Columbia advances to play No. 1 seed Harvard on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Dick Savitt Tennis Center. The winner of tomorrow's match advances to Sunday's ECAC Indoor Championship Match.
 
Columbia needed just 27 minutes to claim the doubles point and a 1-0 lead. Junior Jennifer Kerr and first-year Shivani Amineni shutout Brown's Gabriella Dellacono 6-0 at No. 3 doubles, then sophomore Melissa Sakar and first-year Julia Haynes teamed for a 6-1 win at No. 2 over Brown's Ryan Peus and Julia Newman.
 
Kerr put Columbia up 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Brown's Britany Lau at No. 3 singles. Amineni then followed with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Brown's Ryan Peus at No. 4 singles. Seconds later, Sakar clinched the victory with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Devon Jack at No. 2 singles. Columbia also had leads on the other three courts as the needed just an hour and 38 minutes to seal the win.
 
With the victory, the Lions improve to 4-2 overall in dual matches, while Brown falls to 2-3 on the young season.
 
Columbia is hosting the ECAC Championship for the first time in six years. The ECAC Championship event will run Friday through Sunday and feature 12 matches over the three-day weekend. The teams will compete in a bracketed tournament featuring eight teams with championship and consolation brackets. Each team will play three matches. Along with host Columbia, the field comprises of seven Ivy League teams including Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, and Yale, along with Massachusetts.
 
Columbia is hosting the ECAC Championship for the first time since 2014. Head Coach Ilene Weintraub and the Lions have won three ECAC titles in program history: as hosts in 2014, 2016, and 2019. The Lions enter the weekend as the defending ECAC champions as they claimed the 2019 title with consecutive victories on three straight days over Yale (4-2), Penn (4-2) and Princeton (4-1).
 
2020 ECAC WOMEN'S INDOOR TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Feb. 7-9, 2020 | Dick Savitt Tennis Center | New York, N.Y.
 
Friday, February 7
Match 1: No. 1 seed Harvard 4, No. 8 seed Cornell 1
Match 2: No. 4 seed Columbia 4, No. 5 seed Brown 0
Match 3: No. 3 seed Yale (2-1) vs. No. 6 seed Massachusetts (3-2), 2 p.m.
Match 4: No. 2 seed Penn (2-2) vs. No. 7 seed Dartmouth (2-3), 5 p.m.
 
Saturday, February 8
Match 5: Loser Match 1 vs. Loser March 2, 8 a.m.
Match 6: Loser March 3 vs. Loser March 4, 11 a.m.
Match 7: Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2, 2 p.m.
March 8: Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4, 5 p.m.
 
Sunday, February 9
Match 9: Loser Match 5 vs. Loser Match 6, 8 a.m.
Match 10: Winner Match 5 vs. Winner Match 6, 11 a.m.
Match 11: Loser Match 7 vs. Loser Match 8, 2 p.m.
March 12: Championship: Winner Match 7 vs. Winner Match 8, 5 p.m.
 
All matches to be played at Columbia's Dick Savitt Tennis Center