Unfortunately, Bethea has already been bitten by the injury bug that seems to gorge on Crimson tennis players. He will have surgery to repair torn knee cartilage.
Strong competition can be expected from players on perennially-strong teams like Princeton and Columbia, as well as conference-newcomer Penn State.
The tournament, however, will serve mainly as a tune-up for the fall season and the ECAC tournament, held October 7-9.
"The Yale Invitational will let us warm up and evaluate things," Rueb said. "It doesn't really mean much in itself.
The women's Harvard Invitational tournament, held today, Saturday and Sunday at the Beren Tennis Center, will also be an open event consisting of six singles flights and three doubles flights.
The tournament includes players from Notre Dame and Tennessee, both top-25 teams nationally, as well as the Iowa and North Carolina squads.
"It should be a really good tournament," women's head coach Gordon Graham said. "We'll have a great field here."
The Crimson will be represented by two players in each of the singles flights, while the other schools will enter either one or two players.
Sophomore Gina Majmudar and freshman Mylin Torres will play the flight A singles matches for Harvard.
Majmudar won the Flight A singles tournament at the Harvard Invitational last year as a freshman. Torres was ranked as high as second in the girls 16-under division.
Like the Yale Invitational, the Harvard Invitational will have little relevance to team standings, counting only for individual rankings and personal records.
The netwomen also boast a deep, talented line-up that was strengthened not only by incoming freshmen, but also by sophomore transfer Rona Mayer.
Mayer, playing in Israel, has been ranked as high as 312th in the world, and will be a welcome addition to the squad.
At present Mayer is suffering from a sore shoulder and will only compete in doubles matches during the tournament.
The depth of the women's team was evident this week as the players went through a series of challenge matches to determine a starting line-up.
"Our challenge matches didn't resolve much since everyone was so tightly matched," co-captain Kelly Granat said. "That's good because everyone will have to keep their individual games up knowing there are so many good players behind them."
Following this tournament the Crimson will face off in a couple of dual matches against area schools before competing in the ITA Regional Team Championships.
"Our main focus this fall is to win the ITAs," Graham said. "That would give us an automatic bid to the Nationals."
Last year the Crimson lost in the finals of the ITAs to Virginia.
Both men's and women's teams have more significant tournaments in the near future. Their performances in this weekends' matches, however, should reveal just what we can expect from the Netters this fall.