In its first tournament of the season, the men’s tennis team gained valuable experience despite losing some disappointing close matches.

The team traveled to Princeton to compete in the Farnsworth Invitational and came away with two appearances in the doubles semifinals as well as solid play in the singles bracket.

Ryan Murphy ’05, the No. 5 seed, advanced to the singles quarterfinals and to the semifinals with doubles partner Brandon Wai ’07, while No. 6 seed Andrew Rosenfeld ’04 also advanced to the quarterfinals of singles play and the doubles semifinals with partner Rowan Reynolds ’06.

Reynolds reached the semifinals of the consolation singles bracket.

“It was a little bit disappointing, but it was our first tournament of the year,” Murphy said. “I think all of us wish we could have done a little bit better but we all played good matches.”

In the second round of the singles tournament, Murphy advanced by defeating Columbia’s Jimmy Moore in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, while Rosenfeld defeated Columbia’s Yoku Kiuchi by the same score.

While Wai fell to Pepperdine’s Pedro Rico in the second round, the rookie made a promising showing in his first round match, handily defeating last year’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year Darius Craton, 6-1, 6-4.

In the quarterfinals, Murphy lost a tough three-set match to No. 4 seed Scott Paltrowitz from Cornell after taking the first set. The final score of the match was 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. In the other Yale quarterfinal match, Rosenfeld fell to the No. 3 seed from Pepperdine, Scott Doerner, 7-6 (1), 6-1.

“That was a tough match,” Murphy said. “I was in control at moments and I just couldn’t quite pull it out.”

After losing early in the tournament, Reynolds advanced to the semifinals of the consolation bracket before losing to Rohan Saikia from Columbia, 6-4, 6-3.

The Elis saw more success in the doubles tournament, where both teams got through to the semifinals before being ousted. Murphy/Wai defeated Pepperdine’s No. 2 seed Doerner/Kevin Borzenski, 8-6 before falling to Moore/Akshay Rao in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Rosenfeld/Reynolds followed up a 9-8 win over Penn’s Justin Lavner and Mikhael Bekker by losing in the semis to the eventual champions Rico and Calle Hanson from Pepperdine.

This weekend, members from the tennis team also competed at the Cornell Invitational, with Dan Arellano ’04 getting the furthest in C Singles, reaching the third round after two straight-set victories.

Neil Tolaney ’04, Andrew Arons ’05 and Matthew Feldman ’06 all lost in the first round but won consolation matches for the Bulldogs.

Next weekend, the Elis return home to host the Yale Invitational before traveling to Flushing Meadows, N.Y., for the ECAC Championships.

“If we’re healthy we have a very strong team, but a lot of things have to happen and we have to keep working hard,” Murphy said. “It was good to get a lot of matches in this weekend.”