MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Following Friday's win over Principia, the Yellowjacket men's tennis team entered Saturday just one step away from repeating as the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) tournament champions, and more importantly, making the program's second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament.
 
Standing in their way was Greenville University, the champions of the UMAC's new South Division.
 
It was a pair of No. 1 seeds doing battle for the 2023 UMAC crown, and when all was said and done, there would be no repeat champion.
 
Greenville took two of three matches in doubles play before pulling away in singles action to defeat the Yellowjackets 5-1 at the Baseline Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
 
The Panthers jumped out in front when their No. 3 doubles team of Jordi Matuhen and Tibaut Tignee made quick work of Mateo Abarca Pino (Riobamba, Ecuador/El Despertar) and Vitor Sakakibara (São Paulo, Brazil/Colégio Saber), 8-1. The Yellowjackets came back and tied the match 1-1 when the No. 2 doubles team of Jacob Zacharias (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) and Andre Luiz de Melo Guedes (Brasilia, Brazil/Centro de Ensino Médio Paulo Freire) defeated Clark Kent and Luke Motsinger 8-4.
 
Just as quickly as the Yellowjackets tied it, however, the Panthers untied it with a win at No. 1 doubles. The Yellowjacket top duo of Igor Guetten Chaves (Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil/Colégio Adventista) and Ren Kurachi (Yokohama, Japan/Yokosuka Gakuin) fell to the tandem of Andres Sanchez and Rafael Rodriguez, 8-3.
 
In singles play Greenville made it 3-1 when Sanchez defeated Guetten Chaves 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. A few minutes later Greenville extended the lead when Rodriguez defeated Kurachi at No. 2 singles, 6-1, 6-3. The Panthers got the clinch and ended the Yellowjacket run when Kent defeated Sakakibara 6-2, 6-4.
 
Luiz de Melo Guedes took the first set at No. 3 singles and was trailing in the second set 4-5 when the match was called. Zacharias was a set down at No. 5 singles, as well, when the match was called. Jace Gilbertson's (Menomonie, Wis./Menomonie Senior) match at No. 6 singles hadn't started when the victory was declared for Greenville.
 
The Yellowjackets now stand at 23-4 on the year and will now have to play the waiting game to see if they will receive an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament. Greenville, meanwhile, will advance as the recipient of the UMAC automatic qualifier.
 
The Yellowjackets will find out if they are in or out when the NCAA holds its men's tennis selection show Monday.