MOBILE, Ala. – The Lindsey Wilson men's tennis team gave all they had in the NAIA National Championship Quarterfinals, but a Blue Raider comeback was not meant to be as they fell 5-4 to Vanguard (Calif.) Thursday night at the Mobile Tennis Center.

Lindsey Wilson (17-3) fought for every point, but fatigue finally caught up to the Blue Raiders as they fell just short of reaching their first-ever national semifinals.

The men's tennis team trailed for the majority of the match before they were able to take a late 4-3 lead, but a pair of third-set losses including an injury withdraw allowed Vanguard (20-4) to take the 5-4 win.

In the doubles matches, the fifth-seeded Blue Raiders quickly found themselves trailing 2-0 after fourth-seeded Vanguard took the No. 3 and No. 1 positions.

Raul Mendez and Ignacio Huertas fell to Filip Burnac and Daymon Johnson 8-2 at the No. 3 doubles and Fabricio Morales and Francisco Charters fell to Roger Muri and Stefan Kilchhofer 8-6 at the No. 1 position.

Lindsey Wilson got on the scoreboard when Edberg Espinoza and Pablo Vilches defeated Miguel Saiz-Perez and Justin Seller 8-6 at the No. 2 position to claim the final doubles point.

Trailing 2-1 heading into singles play, Vilches defeated Burnac 6-2, 6-3, at the No. 5 position to tie the match. Vilches finished his 2014 season with a perfect 17-0 mark in singles competition.

Saiz-Perez defeated Mendez 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, at the No. 3 singles to give Vanguard back the lead, but Morales took down Muri, who ranks No. 6 in the NAIA, 6-4, 6-3, at the No. 2 singles to tie the match again at 3-3.

Lindsey Wilson took their first lead of the day when Huertas defeated Michael Rjazanov 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, at 4-3.

Vanguard responded with Johnson defeating Charters 6-2, 1-6, 7-5, at the No. 4 singles to bring the match all square again at 4-4.

At the No. 1 position, Espinoza won the first set 6-4 before falling 2-6 in the second set to Kilchhofer, forcing a third and decisive set for the match.

Espinoza jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but cramps and fatigue began to set in as the Blue Raiders were attempting to close out their second highly-contested match of the day.

Kilchhofer won four-straight points to take a 4-3 lead before Espinoza took the next point to tie the set 4-4. Kilchhofer would win the next point and go up 5-4 as Espinoza struggled to even walk, eventually being forced to withdraw due to injury allowing Vanguard to take the match 5-4.