Tennis: Men's

The Penn State men's tennis team kicked off its 2012-2013 campaign at the Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational yesterday. The Nittany Lions had some up and down moments, but freshman Matt Barry highlighted the team's first day of competition.

Barry, who is competing in his first collegiate tennis tournament, beat Ivan Vereschaga of Buffalo and Ibrahim Shams of Fairleigh Dickinson, without dropping a set. He will continue his singles journey, as the sixth seed, through the Cordish bracket when he takes on Princeton's own, Matt Spindler, in the semifinals later today.

Junior Chris Young, seeded 9th, started off his singles competition for the year by defeating Peter Skvarka of FDU in straight sets in the first round of the Lenz bracket. But, Young lost to St. John's Mike Lampa, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, in the quarterfinals.

Cornell's Brett Cromwell ousted 14th seeded sophomore Ramy Labna in the first round 6-2, 6-3. Labna rebounded in the consolation bracket by defeating Dom Devaux-Lovell of FDU and later Labna bested Penn's Jason Magnes in his second round match. He will take on Binghamton's Elliot Hureau in the semifinals.

Six-seeded senior C.J. Griffin lost in the first round of the Tiger draw to Yale's Marc Powers, 6-0, 6-3. Griffin was placed in the Tiger consolation bracket and will compete later today.

Teams from Yale eliminated both of the Lion's doubles pairs. In the doubles "A" group, the fifth seeded duo of Barry and Griffin dropped their match, 8-2, to Patrick Chase and John Huang.

Labna and Young, who were slotted as the 11th seed, lost in their doubles “B” match to the pair of Daniel Faierman and Matt Saiontz, 8-3.