SUPERIOR, Wis. – It may seem like the season just got started, but the Yellowjacket men's tennis team is in the stretch drive, and the final week of the 2023 regular season.

Weather has played a role of late, and Monday afternoon the Yellowjackets took to the court, taking on Bethany Lutheran College, in a match that was supposed to be played in Superior Saturday afternoon, only to have Mother Nature derail the proceedings. Monday's weather wasn't much better, so the Yellowjackets and Vikings moved indoors, with Lydia Thering Fieldhouse playing host to the final home matches on the schedule for the Yellowjackets.
 
And if these are indeed the final home matches of the regular season, the Yellowjackets sent the home portion of the schedule out with a bang.

The Yellowjackets rolled in doubles play and kept the pedal down when things shifted to singles, earning an 8-1 win over Bethany Lutheran to move to 18-3 overall and 6-0 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC). The Yellowjackets also continue to lead the North Division of the UMAC standings with the conference tournament scheduled to begin next week.
 
The Yellowjackets got off to a quick start in doubles play, winning the first two matches in about 20 minutes. Jace Gilbertson (Menomonie, Wis./Menomonie Senior) and Jacob Zacharias (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) combined to defeat Kyle Deyo and Caue Ribeiro at No. 2 doubles, 8-0. The same could be said for Vitor Sakakibara (São Paulo, Brazil/Colégio Saber) and Keisuke Sato (Fukushima, Japan/Fukushima), who team up for an 8-0 win at No. 3 doubles over Caike Ribeiro and Sam Liffengren.
 
At No. 1 doubles is where the tightest match was found, but the Yellowjackets emerged with the win by the slimmest of margins. Igor Guetten Chaves (Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil/Colégio Adventista) and Ren Kurachi (Yokohama, Japan/Yokosuka Gakuin) needed a tiebreaker to defeat Marcos Borobia Arias and Heitor Damaso 8-7 (7-2).
 
Things shifted to singles play and the Yellowjackets wasted little time winning the two matches they needed to get the team win. Sakakibara downed Caue Ribeiro 6-1, 6-2 at No. 3 singles to make the match 4-0. Then, Kurachi made it a Yellowjacket win, and a 5-0 lead, with his straight sets win at No. 2 singles. Kurachi took down Damaso 6-4, 6-1.
 
Zacharias rolled past Caike Ribeiro in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 4 singles.
 
Quick matches were also in order for Sato and Gilbertson and No. 5 singles and No. 6 singles, respectively. Neither lost a game, with Sato defeating Deyo and Gilbertson beating Calvin Hoppe by identical 6-0, 6-0 scores.
 
The only blemish on the day came at No. 1 singles, where Guetten Chaves fell to Borobia Arias in three. Guetten Chaves won the opening set 76 (7-5) before losing the second 4-6 and the third 0-1 (8-10).
 
The Yellowjackets will now travel to Duluth to take on St. Scholastica Tuesday, April 18. The opening serve is set for 2 p.m. at Longview Tennis Club.