ORLANDO, Fla. – The Yellowjacket men's tennis team has had an historic start to the 2023 season, winning its first 11 matches and rolling over the competition for the better part of the non-conference schedule.

After playing an exhibition match Thursday against NCAA Division I Rider University, the Yellowjackets closed out their Florida swing, back in the NCAA Division III ranks, taking on a pair of quality opponents Friday. They started the day with a hard-earned 5-4 win over Ohio Wesleyan, before falling to Carthage College 9-0.
 
The Yellowjackets will return home with an overall record of 13-2 (1-0 UMAC).
 
Match One
The Yellowjackets got off to a great start against Ohio Wesleyan, sweeping the doubles matches to take a commanding early lead.
 
At No. 1 doubles, Igor Guetten Chaves (Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil/Colégio Adventista) and Ren Kurachi (Yokohama, Japan/Yokosuka Gakuin), as they have done so many times this season, rolled to an 8-4 win over Jose Mancilla and Mark Siriwanichkul. The Yellowjackets teamed up Vitor Sakakibara (São Paulo, Brazil/Colégio Saber) and Jacob Zacharias (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) at No. 2 doubles, and they defeated Marcel Aguilar and Kobe Francis, also by a score of 8-4. Finishing things off on the doubles side was the team of Benedek Kaibas (Salgótarján, Hungary/Mikszáth Kálmán Gimnázium) and Mateus Miranda Silvestre (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/Colegio Torricelli), who routed Rainer Holl and Elliot Spicer 8-1.
 
Things shifted to singles play and the Yellowjackets continued their winning ways.
 
After Kurachi fell at No. 1 singles, Miranda Silvestre picked up a win at No. 5 singles, defeating Spicer 6-2, 6-2, to put the Yellowjackets up 4-1. Zacharias then clinched the match for the Yellowjackets, winning in three sets at No. 4 singles. He took the first set 75, before dropping the second set to Aguilar 4-6. Zacharias then took the tiebreaker 10-8 to give himself, and the Yellowjackets, the match.
 
Ohio Wesleyan's luck turned a little bit after the Yellowjackets clinched, winning the final two matches to make the final score 5-4.
 
Match Two
Things were a little more difficult for the Yellowjackets in the second match of the day, as they were swept by Carthage.
 
It was the first time this season the Yellowjacket men didn't win at least one match against an opponent.
 
After being swept in doubles play, the Yellowjackets had a close call at No. 3 singles, where Sakakibara dropped the first set to Nicolas Welker 4-6 before taking the second set 6-3. In the end, however, Welker won the tiebreaker to take the match from Sakakibara.
 
At No. 6 singles, Sato dropped the first set 1-6 to Marco Czosnyka. In the second, he made a run but couldn't get a service break, falling 4-6, losing in straight sets.
 
The Yellowjackets will be back in action Saturday, March 25 when they return home and begin UMAC play. The Yellowjackets will host Crown College and Minnesota Morris at the Lydia Thering Fieldhouse. The opening serves are scheduled for 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., respectively.