MOBILE, Ala. – The Lindsey Wilson women's tennis team took top-ranked Georgia Gwinnett to the brink, but the Blue Raiders eventually fell in a 5-4 thriller in the NAIA National Championship match on Saturday morning at the Mobile Tennis Center.

The third-seeded Blue Raiders (21-5) gave the Grizzlies (18-2) all they could handle in their first-ever appearance in the national championship final, but Georgia Gwinnett rallied from behind and took the lead when it mattered most, on the final point of the match.

After playing to a 3-3 tie through the three doubles matches and first three singles matches, the championship would be decided over the final three singles matches, all of which went to a third and decisive set.

Fiona Curty gave the Blue Raiders a 4-3 lead as she battled from a set down to come back and win in three at the No. 6 position over Helga Pinones 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, putting Lindsey Wilson within one point of the national title.

Alex Shchipakina was unable to close things out at No. 2 singles after capturing the opening set as Klara Dohnalova stormed back to take the final two frames and win 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to tie the overall match at 4-4. Shchipakina, who clinched the Blue Raiders a spot in the final late on Friday night with her exhausting tiebreaker win over Auburn-Montgomery (Ala.), just ran out of gas late against Dohnalova as the Grizzly player ended the third set on a 3-0 run.

The championship would then be decided at the No. 5 singles position where Natalia Kattah battled with Alyona Vasilyeva. Vasilyeva took the opening set 6-4, but Kattah answered with a 6-2 win in set two to force a decisive third set. Vasilyeva took control early as Kattah fell way behind to start the third set and was never able to claw back within reach. She slightly closed the gap to 5-3 after trailing 5-1, but Vasilyeva would shut the door with a 6-3 win and send the Grizzlies to their second women's tennis national championship in three years.

To start the day, the Blue Raiders took a 2-1 overall lead after winning two of the doubles matches.

Georgia Gwinnett's Valeria Podda, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after not dropping a single set during the championships, along with Sophie Fuller took down Henar Munoz and Kattah with an 8-2 win at the top doubles flight to give the Grizzlies the early 1-0 lead.

It would be the last time Georgia Gwinnett held the outright lead in the match as the Blue Raiders refused to back down against a team that had won their previous three matches at the national tournament by 5-0 margins.

Shchipakina and Maria Prados Cid leveled the overall score after winning the No. 3 doubles match over Dohnalova and Pinones by an 8-6 margin.

Jessica King and Curty then put the Blue Raiders ahead as they took down Chiara Di Salvo and Vasilyeva 8-5 at the second-seeded doubles match to make it a 2-1 Lindsey Wilson lead. King and Curty broke a 3-3 tie in the match as they closed things out on a 5-2 run to capture the go-ahead doubles point.

Georgia Gwinnett leveled the score by capturing the first singles point, a 6-2, 6-2 victory by Podda over Munoz to make it 2-2.

King then concluded her collegiate tennis career in style with a 6-3, 6-4, straight-sets win over Feller at the No. 3 position to put Lindsey Wilson back in front 3-2.

In a wild first set at the No. 4 singles match, Prados Cid and Salvo exchanged four-consecutive late service breaks to force a tiebreaker. Prados Cid broke to go up 5-4 in the first set, only to have Salvo break right back to tie the set at 5-5. Prados Cid broke again on the very next serve, only to have Salvo break right back once again and tie the set at 6-6, sending things to a tiebreaker. Once in the tiebreaker, Salvo was in complete control as she pulled away for the 7-6 opening-set win. She carried that momentum into the second set as she won 6-1 to level the overall match at 3-3.

The match became tied for the fourth time on the day at 4-4 before the Grizzlies finally held off the upset-minded Blue Raiders with the victory at No. 5 singles to end the tournament as champions. It is Lindsey Wilson's first loss to an NAIA institution this season.

Georgia Gwinnett went undefeated against NAIA competition during the year, and opponents never scored more than one point against the Grizzlies until the Blue Raiders took them for four.

The loss ends Lindsey Wilson's 2016 season with a 21-5 record.