A slight favorite against Cornell, Harvard came into Saturday’s matchup knowing it would face a tough opponent in its first road contest of the year.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, the Big Red took an early lead over Harvard, winning the first three matches of the day at the No. 3, No. 6, and No. 9 spots, respectively, on the way to a 7-2 victory over the Crimson.

“The men fell a little bit flat against Cornell,” Way said. “The Cornell men’s team is very strong, and they have a good shot at both titles—the Ivy League title and the national title. We were a little flat coming out of the gate.”

Endresen earned one of Harvard’s two wins against the Big Red, defeating Cornell junior David Hilton in three games at the No. 5 spot.

The Crimson’s other victory came in the No. 4 matchup, as Koh took sophomore Arjun Gupta in five games.

Despite the score of the match, individual contests were closer than they appeared, as Harvard won a total of 11 games on the day.

Scherl narrowly lost his five-game match against Cornell sophomore Rishi Jalan, despite winning the first two games.

“They felt very down in the dumps [Saturday],” Way said. “[Yesterday] they had to redeem themselves.”

Though it was the Crimson’s first loss of the season, the match against the Big Red does not remove Harvard from Ivy League title contention.

“We can still win [the title] if we win out because Cornell lost to Princeton,” Endresen said. “So we’re still in the race, still in the hunt.”

Though the weekend results were disappointing for the Crimson, Harvard remains optimistic about the rest of the season.

“We were confident that we could beat [both Rochester and Cornell],” senior Richard Hill said. “But they showed they were the better teams this weekend.”

“We’re going back to the drawing board and talking with the coaches,” Hill continued. “A lot of really important matches aren’t until February. It’s only the first half of the season.”

—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger@college.harvard.edu.