MOBILE, Ala. – For the first time in program history, the Lindsey Wilson men's tennis team advanced to the NAIA National Championship Semifinals after upsetting No. 2-ranked Auburn Montgomery (Ala.) by a 5-3 margin in the quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon at the Mobile Tennis Center.

The No. 7-ranked Blue Raiders (17-3) had never made it past the quarterfinal round, reaching the final eight the previous four years, before finally securing a spot in the last four with the victory over the WarHawks (19-5).

Lindsey Wilson opened the scoring after Ignacio Huertas and Alonso Tellez took a convincing 8-2 victory over Santiago Veglia and Matias Destefanis at the No. 2 doubles flight. The Blue Raider duo of Javier Raya and Tomas Depiaggio battled back-and-forth at the No. 3 match with Luis Vivas and Francisco Mendieta, but after Lindsey Wilson led 4-3, the WarHawks closed out the match on a 5-0 run to level the score at 1-1.

The decisive doubles point then came down to the top flight where Denis Porcic and Raul Mendez battled Vincent Dubosclard and Birkir Gunnarsson in a tightly-contested match, but eventually the Blue Raiders prevailed with an 8-4 win to take the 2-1 lead into singles play.

Auburn-Montgomery quickly evened the score again after Vincent Dubosclard took down Huertas at the No. 4 position 6-3, 7-6 to make it 2-2.

The WarHawks then took their first lead of the day when Gunnarsson edged out Raya at No. 6 singles 6-3, 6-2 for the 3-2 match advantage.

Porcic tied things back up a short time later with his 6-3, 6-1 victory over Mendieta at the No. 1 singles match to make it 3-3.

Tellez, who had fought from way behind to force a tiebreaker and win his first set at No. 3 singles 7-6, then won 6-3 in his second set to put the Blue Raiders back in the lead 4-3.

It then came down to the No. 2 and No. 5 singles matches, both which were in the third sets.

Depiaggio won his opening set at No. 5, 6-4, but dropped his second set 2-6 to force a third set against Vivas. Mendez dropped his first set at No. 2, 5-7, but bounced back with a 6-2 win to force a third and decisive set.

Mendez led 2-0 in his third set before Depiaggio rallied and closed things out for the Blue Raiders.

Down 4-3 in the third set, Depiaggio won the next point and then broke Vivas' serve to make it a 5-4 advantage in the frame. The intense battle finally came to an end when Depiaggio delivered an ace that froze Vivas in his steps and gave the Blue Raiders the fifth and decisive point, sending them to their first-ever semifinal.

In the semifinal round, the Blue Raiders meet third-seeded Xavier (La.) at 1 p.m. CT on Friday at the Mobile Tennis Center.