WACONIA, Minn. – The final weekend of the regular season has arrived for the Yellowjacket men's tennis team. The Yellowjackets, who control their own destiny with regard to winning the 2023 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) North Division, will play four matches over the next three days to close out the regular season, and hopefully punch their ticket to the UMAC tournament.
 
The busy weekend kicked off Friday, as the Yellowjackets to take on Crown, playing a match rescheduled from last weekend.
 
The Yellowjackets swept away the Polars when the two teams met a little less than a month ago, winning 9-0 at Lydia Thering Fieldhouse March 25. Friday the venue was different, but the result was the same.
 
Wasting little time, the Yellowjackets pounced on the Polars and made quick work of them, defeating Crown 9-0 on the courts at Waconia High School.
 
With the win, the Yellowjackets improve to 19-3 on the year and 7-0 in UMAC play with three regular season matches remaining.
 
The doubles team of Mateo Abarca Pino (Riobamba, Ecuador/El Despertar) and Vitor Sakakibara (São Paulo, Brazil/Colégio Saber) got this started, defeating Crown's Jackson McFaden and Gabe Rojas Gomez 8-1. Jacob Zacharias (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) and Jace Gilbertson (Menomonie, Wis./Menomonie Senior) followed suit with an 8-2 win at No. 1 doubles. The Yellowjackets completed the sweep with Miles Dempsey (Golden, Colo./Green Mountain) and Lorenzo Korehisa Silva (São Paolo, Brazil/Colegio Singular-Santo Andre) winning at No. 3 doubles, 8-3 over Coley Matthys and Brock Knick.
 
In singles play, Frederick Diehl (Minneapolis, Minn./Academy of Holy Angels) needed little time to defeat Gomez at No. 5 singles, 6-0, 6-1. The Yellowjackets clinched the win when Mateus Miranda Silvestre (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/Colegio Torricelli) swept McFaden without losing a game, 6-0, 6-0.
 
Sakakibara, playing at No. 1 singles, improved to 14-6 on the year with a 6-3, 6-1 win over David Comings. At No. 2 singles, Keisuke Sato (Fukushima, Japan/Fukushima) took care of Tim Jaeger in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. Benedek Kaibas (Salgótarján, Hungary/Mikszáth Kálmán Gimnázium) earned the win at No. 4 singles, winning 6-0, 6-1 over Knick.
 
Simon Potapov (Noginsk, Russia/Feniks Secondary General School) closed out the winning day for the Yellowjackets, picking up his second win of the year with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Matthys at No. 6 singles.
 
Next up for the Yellowjackets is a doubleheader Saturday. The Yellowjackets will take on Martin Luther at 11 a.m. and Bethany Lutheran at 4 p.m. Both matches will be played at the Swanson Tennis Center, on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College.