SUPERIOR, Wis.: The Yellowjacket men's tennis team returned to action Wednesday afternoon, playing its final non-conference match of the 2019 season as it hosted Saint Mary's. The Yellowjackets were looking to extend their winning streak to five matches, but the MIAC contenders had other ideas, sweeping the doubles portion of the afternoon on the way to edging the Yellowjackets 5-4 at Lydia Thering Fieldhouse.

The Yellowjackets will close the season with three straight UMAC matches, all of them at home, and weather permitting will hopefully get a chance to compete outdoors before the schedule is through.

Saint Mary's came out strong, sweeping the doubles matches 3-0. The Yellowjackets' top pairing of Josiah Borst (Becker, Minn./Becker) and Leonardo Paredes (Uberlandia, Brazil/Colegio Sao Paschoall) had the lead early but were unable to hold on, falling 8-7 to to the team of Bobby Tiedeman and Brandon Kurilla. The Saint Mary's duo won the match by taking the tiebreaker, 7-4. The Yellowjacket team of Will Sherman (Baton Rouge, La./St. Michael) and Harry Simpson (Derby, England/Derby Moor Academy) fell in its match to Bobbie Sobczak and Trevor Smiley by a score of 8-5. Closing out doubles play was the Yellowjacket team of Gavin Mangan (Henderson, Nev./Basic Academy) and Brady Anderson, who fell 8-6 to Alec Rudh and Gabe Graves.

In the singles play the Yellowjackets were victorious in four of six matches. Top seed Borst started things off with a win, besting Tiedeman 6-4, 6-2. Saint Mary's rebounded in No. 2 singles as Sobczak got the best of Paredes, 6-1, 6-3. The Cardinals took the lead at No. 3 singles as Rudh beat Sherman 6-4, 6-3.

From there the Yellowjackets took over, sweeping singles 4-6.

Petar Bulatovic (Podgorica, Montenegro/Lee Academy) won at No. 5, easily dispatching Kurila 6-1, 6-0. At No. 6 Anderson had little trouble with Graves, downing him 6-2, 6-2. In the most entertaining match of the day, Simpson rallied at No. 4 singles to defeat Smiley. After getting blanked 6-0 in the first set, Simpson came roaring back to take the second set 6-4. The two then played a marathon third set, with Simpson finally breaking serve to get the 11-9 win.

The Yellowjackets (5-8, 3-0 UMAC) are back home against St. Scholastica April 17.