MOBILE, Ala. – The Lindsey Wilson men's tennis team finally saw their season come to an end in the NAIA National Championship Semifinal Round as the Blue Raiders fell 5-3 to third-seeded Xavier (La.) on Friday evening at the Mobile Tennis Center.

Making the program's first-ever appearance in the national semifinals, the No. 7-ranked Blue Raiders (17-4) fell behind 2-1 to the Gold Rush (17-7) after doubles play, and despite battling back to tie the match multiple times in singles action, eventually fell 5-3.

Xavier, who was also making their first-ever appearance in the national semifinals, captured the opening point of the day after Tushar Mandlekar and Adam Albrecht defeated Javier Raya and Tomas Depiaggio 8-4 at the No. 3 doubles.

The Blue Raiders answered with a win at the No. 1 doubles position by Raul Mendez and Denis Porcic over Thomas Setodji and Kevin Chaouat in a back-and-forth 9-8 thriller. The Blue Raider duo trailed for the majority of the match including at 8-7 before rallying for the tiebreaker win to level the score at 1-1.

Moments later, the Gold Rush went ahead again as Kyle Montrel and Karan Salwan pulled away late from Alonso Tellez and Ignacio Huertas at the No. 2 doubles position to win 8-5 and take a 2-1 lead into singles play.

Huertas leveled the score again for the Blue Raiders in singles play as he made quick work of Chaouat at the No. 4 singles spot 6-1, 6-0 to tie the overall match at 2-2.

Depiaggio led early at the No. 5 singles position, but Mandlekar took the opening set 6-3 and then secured a perfect 6-0 second set to put Xavier back in front 3-2.

Seconds later, Porcic closed out his 6-2, 6-4 victory over Salwan at the No. 1 position to tie the match for the third time at 3-3.

At the No. 6 singles match, Raya dropped the first set 3-6 but answered with a 6-3 victory of his own in the second to force a decisive third set. At the same time, Mendez suffered a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Setodji at the No. 2 position to give Xavier a 4-3 lead, one point shy of clinching.

That clinching point came in the No. 4 singles match as Montrel edged Tellez 6-4, 6-3 to send Xavier to their first-ever national championship match in any sport. The Gold Rush faces two-time defending champion Georgia Gwinnett in the title match.

The loss ends Lindsey Wilson's 2016 season with a 17-4 record.