No. 63 Lions Win Second Straight, Defeat No. 59 Yale 4-2

Sunday, April 17

Harrison, N.Y./LifeTime Westchester

1:00 P.M.

Columbia University

No. 59 Yale

Photo by: Mike McLaughlin

No. 63 Lions Win Second Straight, Defeat No. 59 Yale 4-2

4/17/2022 4:36:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Boxscore: Columbia 4, Yale 2 (PDF)

Lions get off to fast start with doubles win, then use singles victories by Jennifer Kerr, Akanksha Bhan and the clincher from Melissa Sakar to register third win over a nationally ranked team this year.

HARRISON, N.Y.—Following a dramatic minute-long rally, Melissa Sakar clinched the victory for No. 63 Columbia at No. 4 singles as the Lions registered a 4-2 Ivy League match over No. 59 ranked Yale Sunday at LifeTime Westchester.

The victory marks Columbia's second straight win and third over a nationally ranked team this season as the Lions improve to 12-10 overall and 2-3 in Ivy League play. Yale drops to 12-9 overall and 3-2 in the Ivy League.

Columbia claimed the doubles point in come-from-behind fashion to take a 1-0 lead. Yale took the advantage with a 6-4 win at No. 3 doubles when Vivian Cheng and Rhea Shrivastava won a 6-4 decision over Columbia's Winta Tewolde and Sophia Strugnell. But the Lions battled back with two key wins to take the lead. Jennifer Kerr and Shivani Amineni teamed at No. 2 doubles to win a 6-4 match against Yale's Kathy Wang and Caroline Dunleavy at No. 2. Then Columbia's Akanksha Bhan and Anna Zhang battled back from a 6-5 deficit at No. 1 to win a dramatic 7-6 (1) victory over Yale's Chelsea Kung and Jessie Gong.

With a 1-0 lead, Columbia took advantage of a strong start in singles. The Lions went up 3-0 after Jennifer Kerr defeated Yale's Mirabelle Brettkelly 6-3, 6-3 at No. 3 singles and Anna Zhang registered a 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 win over Yale's Caroline Dunleavy at No. 2 singles.

Yale battled back to cut its deficit down to 3-2 with back-to-back wins at No. 6 and No. 1 singles. Vivian Cheng won a 7-5, 6-1 decision at No. 6 over Columbia's Shivani Amineni and No. 71 ranked Chelsea Kung won a hard-fought 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) match against Columbia's No. 117 ranked Akanksha Bhan at No. 1.

Two matches remained but it was Sakar who emerged the winner of a 6-3, 7-5 decision over Yale's Jessie Gong at No. 4 singles, the final point coming after a minute-long back-and-forth rally.

Columbia closes out its regular season next weekend when its hosts Penn for Senior Night and travels to No. 50 Princeton on Sunday. First-serve for the Penn match is at 6:30 p.m. at LifeTime Westchester.