The Blue Earth Area Buccaneer tennis team defeated the St. James Saints on Tuesday night in St. James in a close match, 4-3.

The win gave the Bucs second place in the South Central Conference with a 4-1 record. Overall, the Bucs ended their regular season with a 10-5 record.

BEA got wins from all four of their singles players, while St. James won the three doubles matches.

None of the singles matches were very close. Matthew Purvis led off the Bucs with a win at the No. 1 singles spot, defeating St. James’ Charlie Kolstad 6-3, 6-4.

At No. 2 singles, Riley Holmseth defeated Arturo Garcia 6-2, 6-0. Aaron Wilhelmi beat the Saint’s Matthew Lahti at No. 3 singles, 6-0, 6-3. Wade Wilhelmi also won easily at No. 4 singles, defeating Joel Carlson 6-1, 6-2.

Garrett Passer and Justin Duelge lost a long battle to James Rogers and Seth Jacoby at No. 1 doubles, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.

At No. 2 doubles, Hans Kittleson and Colan Surratt lost 6-2, 6-1 to Scott Mueller and Matt Tucholke. The Bucs No. 3 doubles team of Taylor Umland and Harry Cadilek lost to Matt Jurgens and Shane Olson 6-1, 6-2.

The Bucs now get ready for the Section Meet, which starts Monday of this week.

St. Peter 5, BEA 2

The Buccaneer tennis team found out why the St. Peter Saints have been hard to beat all year.

BEA fell to St. Peter 5-2 on the Bucs home courts last Monday night.

Coach Colby Swanson tried mixing up his players a bit to try and gain a few more winning matches. However, BEA only got wins from their No. 2 and 3 doubles teams.

Wade Wilhelmi and Justin Duelge defeated Mitch Johnson and Jordan Skrove 7-5, 6-4, at No. 2 doubles. Colan Surratt and Hans Kittleson also won at No. 3 doubles, 6-3, 7-5, over Trent Johnson and Matt Ludi.

At No. 1 singles, Matthew Purvis lost 6-4, 6-0 to Mitch Elofson. Riley Holmseth was defeated 6-1, 6-1 by Michael Huber. The Bucs No. 3 singles player, Taylor Umland, fell 6-0, 6-0 to Nathan Hubra. No. 4 singles Alex Cleppe also lost 6-0, 6-0 to Spencer Gault.

At No. 1 doubles, Aaron Wilhelmi and Garrett Passer lost 6-1, 7-6 (7-1) to Robb Hawkinson and Sam Moore.

The loss was the Bucs’ first in the South Central Conference, putting their record at 3-1, 9-5 overall.

The Bucs still have a chance at the conference championship, if they win over St. James and Waseca defeats St. Peter.

For more of this story, see this week’s Registor