Providence, R.I.- The St. Johns mens tennis had a strong showing this weekend at the Northeast Invitational held in Providence, Rhode Island. The Red Storm earned one second-place finish and three third-place finishes. Head Coach Eric Rebhuhn was very happy with the teams play stating, It is the best my team has played since I started coaching at St. Johns.

St. Johns was led by freshman Raffi Wartanian (Bayside, N.Y.) who earned a second place finish in the B3 flight singles. Wartanian defeated Buffalos Chris Pyke, 6-1, 6-1, in his opening round match and moved on to defeat Assumptions Cory Erikson, 7-6, 6-0. In the semifinals, Wartanian dominated Montreals Geoffroy Desautels, 6-2, 6-4. In the finals against Boston Colleges Damon Vartabedian, Wartanian fell short losing a close match, 7-5, 6-3, for a second place finish.

The rest of the Red Storm would not be out done as Arnaud Agniel (France), Nick Stocker (England) and ,Boris Chiporukha (Brooklyn, N.Y.), finished third in their respective singles events. Agniel finished third in the A1 flight singles defeating Dartmouths Drew Dinkmeyer in the third place final. Angiel was a couple of points away from making the finals but fell in a heart breaking semifinal match against Dartmouths Neal Bobba, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4).

Stocker earned a third place finish in the A3 flight singles with a, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Marists David Slater. Chiporukha defeated Niagaras Jason Ramos, 6-1, 7-5, for the third place finish in the A4 flight singles.

The St. Johns mens tennis team returns to action this weekend at the Queens Invitational Tournament.