MINNEAPOLIS -- The UW-Superior men's tennis team captured its first Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship Saturday with a 5-4 victory over Northwestern at Baseline Tennis Center.
 
The Yellowjackets (16-5) earn the league's automatic qualification into the NCAA tournament and will learn of their destination when the selections are announced Monday.
 
UWS battled back from a 2-1 hole after doubles to win four matches in singles play with sophomore Jacob Zacharias (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) sealing the match with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Tyrus Studer at No. 6.
 
Andre Luiz de Melo Guedes (Brasilia, Brazil/Centro de Ensino Médio Paulo Freire) and Gergo Potz Nagy (Budapest, Hungary/Veres Pálné Secondary Grammar School) opened doubles with an 8-3 win over Adam Ryerse and Jack Geurkink at No. 1 before the Northwestern pairs of Studer and Darin Rupp and Stewart Morrell and Jacob Weddle won their matches, 8-5 and 8-6, respectively.
 
Weddle beat Potz Nagy at No. 3 singles, 6-2, 6-4, to give the Eagles a 3-1 lead, before Luiz de Melo Guedes defeated Ryerse, 6-1, 6-4, at No. 2.
 
Michael Janes (Bismarck, N.D./Legacy) then topped Morrell, 6-1, 6-7 (1-7), 10-1 to pull his team even at 3-3.
 
Geurkink topped Sato at No. 4, 6-3, 6-2 forcing Jace Gilbertson (Menomonie, Wis./Menomonie Senior) and Zacharias to win their matches at Nos. 5 and 6 for the title. They did just that, as Gilbertson beat Isaac Velgersdyk, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 prior to the clincher from Zacharias.
 
The victory over the Eagles (20-7) is the fifth consecutive in the all-time series.