Princeton University
Cornell
Players Mentioned
Men's Tennis Falls Just Short of Ivy Title, NCAA Auto Bid
April 17, 2011 | Men's Tennis
ITHACA, N.Y. -- By the slimmest of margins, the Princeton men's tennis team fell just short of clinching the Ivy League title and getting an NCAA tournament automatic bid Sunday at Cornell as the Big Red took a 4-3 win.
The win clinched a share of Cornell's first Ivy League title and will send the Big Red to the NCAA tournament. Cornell can win the outright title and deny Princeton a share by defeating Columbia next Saturday in Manhattan.
Cornell took the doubles point by winning two of the three matches in 9-8 tiebreaks and followed it by winning three of the first four singles matches to be decided. Augie Bloom's three-set win at third singles pulled Princeton within 2-1 in the overall team score, but Cornell's Andy Gauthier won a second-set tiebreak over Matt Spindler and Jeremy Feldman completed a win over Princeton's Matt Siow at fourth to clinch the win.
The Tigers finish the regular season at 13-7 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League, their best record since men's tennis became an Ivy League sport in 1999. Prior to that, Princeton and the other Ivies played with Army and Navy in the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association, in which Princeton finished 7-2 in the final season of 1998.
Matija Pecotic, Princeton's top singles player, completed a perfect 7-0 Ivy League season with his three-set win over Jonathan Jaklitsch, while senior Alex Faust won in a third-set tiebreak to win his career's final Ivy League match.
(50) Cornell (24-4, 6-0) 4, (58) Princeton (13-7, 6-1) 3
Doubles
1. Bernstein/Jaklitsch (C) def. Pecotic/Siow (P), 9-8
2. Michael Lin/Yohei Shoji (P) def. Feldman/Gauthier (C), 8-6
3. Klis/McElwain (C) def. Bloom/Faust (P), 9-8
Order of finish: 2,1,3
Singles
1. Matija Pecotic (P) def. Jonathan Jaklitsch (C), 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
2. Andy Gauthier (C) def. Matt Spindler (P), 6-3, 7-6(5)
3. Augie Bloom (P) def. Mirza Klis (C), 6-2, 2-6, 6-1
4. Jeremy Feldman (C) def. Matt Siow (P), 7-6, 6-4
5. Evan Bernstein (C) def. Dan Richardson (P), 6-2, 6-1
6. Alex Faust (P) def. Evan McElwain (C), 6-1, 1-6, 7-6(0)
Order of finish: 5,3,2,4,6,1