The Binghamton University men’s tennis team lost its top three players to graduation last spring, but you’d never know it judging by this weekend’s performance.

The Bearcats finished in first place at the four-team, three-day Navy Blue Invitational, posting a combined singles and doubles record of 31-3 against Temple University, United States Naval Academy and St. Bonaventure University.

BU opened on Friday with a nine-game sweep of Temple, capturing all six singles and all three doubles bouts.

At No. 1 singles, senior Alexandre Haggai topped the Owls’ Filip Rams, 7-5, 6-0. Juniors Ruben Devos and Bastian Bornkessel also won their singles matches.

BU’s singles lineup was rounded out by sophomore Ruben Haggai and freshmen Jonathan Hefetz and Ismael Dinia, all of whom topped their opponents.

At doubles, the tandems of Dinia and Alexandre Haggai, Bornkessel and Hefetz and Devos and senior Rafael Rodrigues were all able to come out on top.

For head coach Adam Cohen, the match was a solid start to the season, but overall just a small step in getting ready for the spring.

“We just wanted the guys to get some matches in,” he said. “We were fortunate to win many of the matches, obviously, and it was good to get some confidence, but as always we’re going to try and keep improving so by the end of the spring we’ll be playing our best tennis. That’s always what we’re most concerned about, not how good we played in September.”

On Saturday, the Bearcats finished a combined 11-2, topping Navy 3-1 in singles and 8-1 in doubles. At No. 1, Alexandre Haggai topped Navy’s Marcus Rebersak 6-2, 6-2. Yet despite the dominating performance, Cohen still knows his team has a long way to go.

“A lot of the guys didn’t play too much over the summer with work and internships, so there’s certainly room for improvement,” Cohen said. “We only really had one week of practice, we started practicing pretty much when school started, and then last week we weren’t able to get in a full week of practice. We had abbreviated practice sessions indoors, but that’s not really the best way to practice for an outdoor tournament. But for one week of practice we played OK.”

BU closed the weekend with a 9-1 combined win over St. Bonaventure, falling only to the Bonnies at No. 5 singles. Alexandre Haggai again won in straight sets, finishing the weekend 6-0 as the team’s No. 1.

“[Alexandre] is the highest guy from the lineup a year ago,” Cohen said. “But we haven’t had any chances to play head-to-head matches amongst the team. But he has the most experience on the team so that’s why he’s taken over the No. 1 spot.”

Binghamton lost its top three players in seniors Sven Vloedgraven, Arnav Jain and Gilbert Wong, who graduated last spring. The group, which led the Bearcats to four consecutive America East titles, brought BU national attention, highlighted by Vloedgraven’s ranking as the No. 74 player in the country at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season.

Beginning a new era of Binghamton tennis will be a challenge for Cohen, but the sixth-year head coach is confident in Alexandre Haggai’s ability to pick up where last year’s No. 1 left off.

“Alex knows what I expect of him, and he can do what he can do,” he said. “He plays a different style than [last year’s players], but he’s still a tough guy to beat. If he continues to play No. 1 singles then he’ll be a tough beat for anybody. I don’t think he looks at it like he has big shoes to fill. He’s the captain of our team, he’s going to lead by example and he’s going to work hard and let the chips fall where they may.”

The Bearcats will travel to Princeton University this weekend for the Princeton Farnsworth Invitational, a tournament which Cohen says will help gauge where the Bearcats stand.

“It’ll be good to see how we respond,” he said. “It’s another chance to watch the guys play, and it’s just a good measuring stick to see where we are. I think the Ivy League is who we really measure ourselves against in this part of the country, so we’ll get to see them and see how our players do against those group of guys.”

The tournament is scheduled to begin on Friday, Sept. 16 and continue throughout the weekend.