Dartmouth (1-4-1, 0-2 Ivy) was edged out 5-2 by the Big Red (10-5, 1-2 Ivy) on Friday before falling 7-0 to the league-leading Lions (13-4, 3-0 Ivy) on Saturday afternoon.
The Big Green's lone singles wins on the weekend were captured on Friday by Curtis Roby '11 and captain Ari Gayer '09.
Roby handled Cornell junior Jon Fife easily, downing him in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3.
Gayer dropped the first set to sophomore Andy Gautheir, but battled back in dramatic fashion to win, 5-7, 6-4, (10-7).
Gayer and Roby also teamed up in doubles to give the Big Green its closest contest in the first round of matches, but could not pull out a win against Jeremy Feldman and Gauthier, falling 8-7.
The Big Green got off to a slow start with three losses in doubles, but rallied to come close to winning several of the singles matches.
In No. 1 singles, Dan Freeman '10 threatened early against Cornell's No. 1, sophomore Jon Jaklitsch, but fell in the first set, 7-6. Freeman was not as close in the second set, falling 6-1 to lose the match.
At No. 2 singles, Stephen Greif '11 also started strong against Cornell senior Joshua Goldstein. Greif lost the first set 7-6, but rallied back to take the second, 6-3, before falling 10-8 in the decisive final set.
Freeman expressed his frustration about the slow start to the season.
"I think Cornell was a very disappointing match we could have won," he said.
Gayer concurred, but was hopeful about the rest of the season.
"I thought we played well," Gayer said. "Although it's disappointing to come out of the weekend with two losses, it's not very discouraging."
On Saturday, Dartmouth knew what it was getting into against Columbia, the number-one team in the Ivies with a lineup stacked with international talent, Gayer said.
"Generally, the stronger tennis teams have a stronger portion of international players," he said. "If you look at the top five teams in the country, only one or two [players] will be American."
Six of the 14 players on Columbia's roster hail from outside the United States.
Dartmouth gave the top-ranked Lions a run for their money in doubles, and threatened Columbia all afternoon.
The top doubles duo of Greif and Freeman easily beat Columbia's top team of Jon Wong and Bogdan Borta, 8-5.
Michael Laser '12 and Andrew Malizia '12 nearly snuck out the doubles point for the Big Green, falling 8-6 to Rajeev Deb-Sen and Dan Urban in the No. 3 spot.
"We've done a good job in doubles recently," Freeman said. "Greif and I are having a good run right now."
In singles, the matches were also close, with three going into a third set.
Gayer dropped a close contest to Haig Schneiderman, while Chris Ho '12 fell to Deb-Sen, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.
At the No. 1 spot, Freeman nearly took down Wong, who is one of the best players in the Ivy League, Freeman said.
"Against Columbia it would have been a huge upset if I had beaten that guy," he said. "I'm happy with that result. It's a good feeling to do well against a guy who worked you the year before."
The match went down to the wire, with Freeman eventually faltering in the final set to lose 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Although Dartmouth dropped both matches, Freeman and Gayer agreed that the team had nothing to hang their heads about.
"Columbia was very encouraging," Freeman said. "They are the best in the Ivies, and we competed well."
As was the case this weekend, all home matches for the rest of the season will be played indoors at the Boss Tennis Center
"The rule is supposed to be if its above 50 degrees you can play outside," Freeman said. "The problem is that our courts outside of Topliff are so beaten up that we can't use them."
"Topliff is close to the center of campus," Gayer said. "If we play there we usually get a bigger crowd, so it's unfortunate we can't get that home-court advantage."
Dartmouth will travel south this weekend to play Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania on the road this Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Both matches start at 2 p.m.
