The Harvard men's tennis team ventured into the Deep South for four days of top-ranked competition as it participated in the Blue-Gray Classic held in Montgomery, Ala.

While the relatively young team was involved in some close, intense matches, it only managed to beat Tulsa while falling to UNLV, Alabama and Indiana St.

The Crimson, rated No. 41 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings, had a bye in the first round of the 18-team field and faced off against No. 55 UNLV on Thursday. Heavy rains forced the start of the match all the way back to 6:30 p.m.

Harvard started the match poorly, with all but one of the six singles players losing his first set. Sophomore Oli Choo dropped first, losing 6-3, 6-3 to Nemad Zivkovic at No. 2 singles, and freshman George Turner followed suit with a 6-1, 6-4 loss at the hands of Danny Evez at No. 3. Harvard co-captain Anthony Barker made the score a little closer when he won at No. 6, 7-6 (3), 6-2.

At that point freshman Ryan Browne, playing in the No. 5 spot, broke serve to win the second set of his match in a tiebreak and force a third. His Running Rebel opponent, Arin Tafazoli, quickly regained form and took the third set 6-3, putting UNLV up 3-1. Similarly, at No.4 singles junior William Lee won a second set tiebreak. Lee, however, had the momentum and defeated Greg Sorkin 6-3 in the final set. At the same time, No. 1 freshman Cliff Nguyen won a thriller, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 (4), to tie the match at three apiece and force team doubles.

"It was just a dogfight," Turner said. "It was 11:30 at night, it was getting chilly. We expected to win."

The Crimson split the Nos. 1 and 3 doubles pairings, and the match came down to the result of the contest between the Harvard pair of Browne/Mark Riddell and Thomas Schneiter/Evez. While the freshmen fought, the UNLV duo came out on top, 8-5.

On Friday Harvard faced off against No. 20 Alabama in the backdraw. The Crimson never stood a chance and got blown off the court by the Crimson Tide.