PHILADELPHIA, Penn. – The Norfolk State men's tennis team opened its 2012 fall season at the Penn Invitational in Philadelphia, Penn., this weekend.

Freshman Dimitry Zyhmantovic competed in the Hamlin Flight of the singles bracket where he defeated Marko Knezevic of St. Peter's, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8.  Zyhmantovic suffered a 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 loss to Penn's Sylvester Wee in the quarterfinal round. 

Freshman Peter Pello lost to Penn's Nikola Kocovic 6-3, 6-2 in the Penn Flight.  Pello also lost to Damien David of Buffalo, 6-2, 6-3.  

Sophomore Igor Braga lost to Skylar Davis of Drexel 6-4, 6-7, 10-8, in the singles bracket Levy Flight.  Braga fell to Chris Jiminez of St. Francis 6-3, 7-5.

Sophomore Daniel Grauel suffered a 6-2, 7-5 loss to Brown's Ivan Kravtchenko in the Ben Franklin Flight before defeating Delaware's Jason Derene 6-3, 6-3, and Hernan Vasconez of Temple, 6-2, 6-3.   Grauel also defeated Buffalo's Jasom Simon 6-2, 6-4.

Junior Kent Austin competed in the Red Flight of the singles bracket where he lost to Kyle Roth of Penn, 6-4, 6-2.  Austin also suffered a 6-2, 2-6, 10-5 loss to Delaware's Evan Andrews in the consolation match.

Sophomore Shaheed Swift lost to Lehigh's Ricardo Prince 6-4, 6-3, in the Blue Flight.  Swift also fell to NJIT's Felich Jack 6-2, 6-2 in the consolation bracket.

Igor Braga and Peter Pello competed in Flight A of the doubles bracket where they defeated Penn's Austin Kaplan and Blaine Willenborg, 8-6, before falling to Delaware's Troy Beneck and Adam Lawton, 8-1.

Kent Austin and Shaheed Swift suffered an 8-1 loss in Flight B to Iowa's Chase Tomlins and Joey White.

Daniel Grauel and Dimitry Zyhmantovic fell to Dan Barrus and Tommy Gates of St. Joseph's 9-7 in Flight B of the doubles bracket.

The Spartans will travel to Charlottesville, Va., for the University of Virginia Fall Classic on Oct. 5-7.