KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Yellowjacket men's tennis team crept back over the .500 mark on the 2023-24 season, thanks to a convincing 8-1 win over Franciscan at the Oak Street Tennis Courts Thursday.
 
With the win the Yellowjackets now stand at 9-8 on the year with one day of play remaining in Florida.
 
In a rare flip, the teams played the singles matches first, and the 'Jackets had the victory for the day clinched before heading into doubles play. The clinching win was impressive, as Igor Guetten Chaves (Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil/Colégio Adventista), playing at No. 1 singles, gave the Yellowjackets an insurmountable 5-0 lead for the day with a 6-0, 6-0 whitewashing of Travis Mistry.
 
Mateo Abarca Pino (Riobamba, Ecuador/El Despertar) matched Guetten Chaves point-for-point, defeating Franciscan's David Bourdelais at No. 5 singles without losing a game.
 
The Yellowjackets won two of the three doubles matches Thursday. At No. 3 doubles, Cullen Brown (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) and Myles Dempsey gave the Yellowjackets a 7-0 lead, defeating Callahan Hecton and Aidan Palladino 8-3. Ren Kurachi (Yokohama, Japan/Yokosuka Gakuin) and Sharan Kanugovi (Bangalore, Karnataka/New Baldwin International School) earned a win at No. 1 doubles, defeating Mistry and Samuel Sabol 8-3.
 
Match Notes

• The only setback for the Yellowjackets Thursday came at No. 2 doubles, where Davide Pelletti (Prado, Brazil) and Abarca Pino lost an 8-6 decision.
• Five of the six matches in singles play were won by the Yellowjackets in straight sets.
• Abarca Pino's win at No. 5 singles was his first singles win of the season.
• Cullen Brown (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) improved to 4-1 on the year with a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles.
• The only singles match that didn't end in straight sets came at No. 2, where Yash Chhabra (Jaipur, Rajasthan/Sanskar School) needed the tiebreaker to et the win. After dropping the first set 4-6, Chhabra took the second 6-3 and then won the third set 1-0 (10-5).
• Jacob Zacharias (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) and Brandon Chu (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) earned their eighth and third wins in singles play for the year, respectively.

The Yellowjackets will close out their Florida swing with a pair of exhibition matches against upper division opponents Friday. They'll start the day with a match against NCAA Division II Rollins at 11 a.m. before taking on NCAA Division I Morgan State at 3 p.m.
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