KANSAS CITY, Mo – The No. 20-ranked Midwestern State made a strong run at No. 5 Lynn (Fla.) in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Championships on Thursday, before falling 5-3.

MSU ended the season at 18-5, while Lynn advanced to the national semifinals with a 23-1 record.

The match was decided at number one singles, where LU's Lorenzo Cava, the ninth ranked singles player in Division II, defeated MSU's Brett Emerson in a grueling three-set match.

Cava beat the MSU junior 6-3 in the first set.  Then Emerson, ranked 26th in singles, answered with a 6-4 win in the second,

The battle continued into the third set, with both players on serve at 4-4.  Cava broke Emerson to take a 5-4 lead when the Mustang was called on a foot fault to double fault game point.  Cava held serve the next game to take the third set 6-4 and end the match.

It was just the third time in the dual season that Emerson had fallen.

MSU took an early 2-1 lead over Lynn after the doubles competition as Emerson and Zac Dillard defeated the top ranked doubles team in the country of Cava and Jan Macko 8-2.  The Mustangs also got a win in doubles from senior Jared King and freshman Stefan McKinney at number three who beat Regnier Azevedo and Raphael Koehle 8-6.

King won at number six singles by downing Tom Whittaker 6-3, 6-2.  Dillard was up on Azevedo 6-2, 4-6, 4-2 when his match was called.

The loss ended MSU's deepest run in the NCAA Tournament under coach Larry Wiggins.