This past weekend, the men’s tennis team kicked off its 2007-08 campaign with a 2-1 finish at the 2007 ECAC Division 1 Invitational Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

Out of the 16 teams invited to the tournament, St. John’s was seeded tenth and ended up finishing 10th.

Match play began on Friday when the Red Storm took on seventh-seeded Brown University. Singles players Artem Vlasenko, Sasha Svetlakou and Martin Kosut were outstanding in their match-ups and picked up points for St. John’s.

Despite the great play of Vlasenko, Svetlakou and Kosut, the Red Storm were swept in the doubles match-ups and fell to Brown, 4-3.

In Saturday’s match play, the Johnnies would bounce back from the Brown loss to go on and defeat the 15th seed, St. Bonaventure, 6-1.

St. John’s pairs Alex Svetlakou/Derek Wallensteen, Pavel Cerny/Kosut and Jordan Talbot/Vlasenko all played well and picked up victories to sweep the Bonnies pairs teams.

St. John’s continued the success, concluding the tournament with a 5-2 win over the 14th seed, University of Maryland-Baltimore.

Singles players Vlasenko, Kosut, Cerny and Talbot were successful in their matches as they all picked up points for the Red Storm.

St. John’s will take a two-week break from match play and return to the courts on October 18 to compete in the ITA Regional Championships in Princeton, N.J.