Eighth-Ranked Columbia Men’s Tennis Sweeps No. 40 Cornell

Saturday, March 29

New York, N.Y.

1:00 PM

Columbia University

#40 Cornell

Eighth-Ranked Columbia Men’s Tennis Sweeps No. 40 Cornell

3/29/2025 5:50:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score (PDF)

Lions get the match started with terrific showing in doubles point

NEW YORK - The eighth-ranked Columbia men's tennis team swept No. 40 Cornell on Saturday afternoon at the Philip & Cheryl Milstein Family Tennis Center. A dominant performance in the doubles matches got the momentum going early for the Lions.

Columbia (11-4, 1-0 Ivy) picked up its first conference win of the season, and eighth win against a ranked opponent. At home, the Lions improve to 9-1 on the year. Cornell (10-6, 0-1 Ivy) falls to 2-3 on the road

The Lions made quick work of the Big Red in the doubles matches. Columbia's top duo of Michael Zheng/Nicolas Kotzen defeated Cornell's top doubles team of Rushil Khosla/Eric Verdes, 6-1. Max Westphal and Sachin Palta secured the doubles point with a 6-3 win over Cornell's Nathan Mao/Radu Papoe in the No. 2 spot.

In the singles matches, Cornell did not make it easy on Columbia. Jayden Templeman got a big win early at the No. 6 spot, defeating Nathan Mao in straight-sets (7-5, 6-3).

With the Lions leading 2-0, Max Westphal came back to defeat Jack McCarthy 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the no. 3 spot. Then, in the No. 1 spot, top-ranked Zheng clinched the dual match against No. 47 Radu Papoe, winning 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

RESULTS
#8 Columbia 4, #40 Cornell 0

Singles
1. #1 Michael Zheng (COL) def. #47 Radu Pape (CU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4
2. #42 Nicolas Kotzen (COL) vs. Adit Sinha (CU) 3-6, 7-5, 3-3 unfinished
3. #123 Max Westphal (COL) def. Jack McCarthy (CU) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
4. Hugo Hashimoto (COL) vs. Rodrigo Fernandez (CU) 4-6, 6-4, 4-1, unfinished
5. Sachin Palta (COL) vs. Felipe Pinzon (CU) 6-1, 4-6, 3-3, unfinished
6. Jayden Templeman (COL) def. Nathan Mao (CU) 7-5, 6-3

Doubles
1. #35 Michael Zheng/Nicolas Kotzen (COL) def. Rushil Khosla/Eric Verdes (CU) 6-1
2. Mas Westphal/Sachin Palta (COL) def. Nathan Mao/Radu Papoe (CU) 6-3
3. Hugo Hashimoto/Jayden Templeman vs. Adit Sinha/Jack McCarthy (CU) 3-3 unfinished

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (6,3,1)

UP NEXT
Columbia returns to action next weekend, when it hosts Brown and Yale in back-to-back days. The match against Brown takes place on Saturday, April 5 at 1 p.m. Sunday's game against Yale is also scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

FOLLOWING THE LIONS
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