Princeton Makes Final Push In Ivy League, Will Honor Seniors Sunday vs Cornell

Princeton experienced both the highs and lows of emotional 5-4 road matches last weekend, and it will try to build off both experiences during the final weekend of the Ivy League season. The seventh-ranked Tigers will open the weekend Friday in New York City, where they will face the second-ranked Columbia Lions, and then they'll return home Sunday for a Senior Day showdown against the Cornell Big Red.

Princeton (8-3, 3-2 Ivy League) opened last week with a thrilling 5-4 road win at sixth-ranked Penn, a dramatic victory that wasn't decided until freshman Youssef Ibrahim repeated his World Junior Championships victory over Penn freshman Andrew Douglas. The Tigers didn't have long to celebrate that win, as they were immediately back on the road for a daunting New England trip. Following a tough loss at Harvard, the Tigers pushed the fifth-ranked Dartmouth Big Green to the fifth game of the ninth match, but a veteran Dartmouth squad held on at home for a 5-4 win.

The Tigers are mathematically alive in the Ivy League race, though they will need to take care of business Friday against Ivy-unbeaten Columbia (12-1, 5-0 Ivy) and then get some help in various spots the rest of the weekend. Regardless, Princeton would love to put up a good showing against a Columbia team that could be the Tigers' first-round matchup in the CSA team championships. While there will be plenty of good matches, all eyes will be on the #1 showdown between reigning CSA individual champion Osama Khalifa and Princeton's Ibrahim, who brings a 10-1 record to New York City.

The match is set to begin at 6 pm and will run simultaneously with the women's match at Columbia.

Princeton will return home Sunday and will honor senior co-captains Anhimanyu Shah and Komron Shayegan during the Senior Day matchup with Cornell (2:30 pm), a match that will be streamed live on the Ivy League Network. The Big Red (6-9, 0-5 Ivy) have struggled this season, but they have won four of the last five against Princeton, including each of the last two in Jadwin.

Shah and Shayegan have teamed up to help Princeton break through from the struggles of the last few years, and into a team in good position to return to the CSA team championships. Shah, a two-year captain, needs one victory this weekend to record his third season of double-digit wins. Shah had one of the most thrilling wins of the season, a fifth-game comeback at Penn that helped the Tigers overcome Penn. Shayegan has improved his win total each year at Princeton, and he had a win at the #7 spot during this season's 7-2 victory over Drexel.

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