MOBILE, Ala. – The Belhaven men's tennis team saw their season draw to a close in the second round of the NAIA national tournament—losing to Xavier (La.) 5-3 in a hotly-contested battle. Enrico Patriarca had a perfect day at third doubles and fifth singles, but the Blazers fell on the wrong side of the final scoreboard.

In their second matchup of the year, Belhaven was hoping for a different result this time around. The Gold Nuggets had taken a match 5-4 in New Orleans during the first portion of the season, but a couple of key personnel switches in the Blazer lineup was supposed to make the match closer.

The match was a see-saw battle again, but Xavier was able to come up with the clutch points in the end.

Belhaven dropped two of the three doubles matches as they were only able to wrangle a win at the third flight. Jefferson Nino David Mejia played a tight match at second doubles, but ultimately fell to Nikita Soifer and Viktor Svoboda 8-6 in a marathon.

Soifer completed a sweep over Nino with a 6-3, 6-3 victory at second singles to give Xavier their third point of the day and a commanding 3-1 lead. Loic Didavi also rolled to a 6-1, 6-2 win at first single to bring the team within one point of victory.

Belhaven battled back with wins at fifth and sixth singles to bring themselves back within a point, but they would need to win at the three and four spots to pull out the victory.

Svoboda would end the Blazers dreams of a comeback in the deciding match at fourth singles. Meija went back and forth with Svoboda, but the Xavier player came away with a gritty 6-4, 7-5 win to push the Gold Nuggets to the round of eight.

Xavier (La.) will play the third-ranked team Vanguard (Calif.) on Thursday morning. Belhaven ends their 2013 season at 16-5 and finished second in the Southern States Athletic Conference for the first time.

Singles

1. Loic Didavi (XU) def. Nikita Lisov (BU) 6-1, 6-2

2. Nikita Soifer (XU) def. Jefferson Nino (BU) 6-3, 6-3

3. Kyle Montrel (XU) vs. Daniel Prado (BU) unfinished

4. Viktor Svoboda (XU) def. David Mejia (BU) 6-4, 7-5

5. Enrico Patriarca (BU) def. Benjamin Brading (XU) 6-1, 6-3

6. Andres Yepez (BU) def. No player (XU), by default

Doubles

1. Loic Didavi/Kyle Montrel (XU) def. Nikita Lisov/Andres Yepez (BU) 8-2

2. Nikita Soifer/Viktor Svoboda (XU) def. Jefferson Nino/David Mejia (BU) 8-6

3. Daniel Prado/Enrico Patriarca (BU) def. No player/No player (XU), by default