MERION STATION, Pa. – The Saint Josephs' men's tennis team kicked off the eighth annual SJU Invitational on Friday afternoon, placing two pairings into the semifinals of the second flight.

Seniors Tristan Boustany and Valentijn van Erven rolled through three matches, defeating Ethan Binder and Chris Kim of Lafayette at love before topping Loyola's Matt Bejian and J.J. Good, 8-5.  The pair then booked their spot in the semifinals, cutting down Timber Erskine and Colin Sacco of Bucknell, 8-6.

Junior Nick Ringle and freshman Scott Battaglia were 8-5 first-round winners over John Ferruzzi and Colin Kanuch of Loyola before taking an 8-1 result against junior Alexander Schneider and Lehigh's Sam Bencheghib in the quarterfinals.  Schneider and Bencheghib had earlier topped Niagara's Chris Grossi and Jason Wisely, 8-5.

Rounding out the second flight action were sophomore Dan Tan and freshman Luis Janko, who won their first matchup against Kyle Gower and Jack Shortell of Loyola, 8-4.  The pair then fell to Hamza Laalej and Youssef Lahlou of Drexel, 8-1.

In the first flight, senior Kyle Chalmers and sophomore Michael Santa Lucia dropped their first round tilt, 8-2, to Niagara's Felipe Fuentes and Josh Wilson.  Junior Peter Dewitt and sophomore Tim Stierle fell to Balaji Lakshmanan and Alex Zenonos of Drexel, 8-1, and sophomore Andre Fick and freshman Beekman Schaeffer suffered an 8-5 defeat at the hands of Blest Jones and Brett Shriver of Loyola.

Play continues on Saturday with singles matches beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the SJU Tennis Complex.