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        NEW ORLEANS — Dedric Ray won in three sets on the sixth singles court Friday to clinch Xavier University of Louisiana's 4-2 men's tennis victory against Lewis-Clark State in the semifinals of an NAIA unaffiliated group tournament.
        The Gold Rush (16-6), seeded first in this event and ranked seventh in the NAIA, will play Our Lady of the Lake for the championship at 10 a.m. CDT Saturday at XULA Tennis Center. The winner will receive an automatic bid to NAIA nationals, which will begin May 16 in Mobile, Ala.
        OLLU, seeded second and ranked 24th, defeated third-seeded Texas A&M-Texarkana 4-1 in the other semifinal.
        Ray, whose nickname is Zack, won 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 against Maksim Matyrnyi and collected himself after losing his one-set lead.
        "I went to the bathroom. Got my act together," Ray said. "Came back (to the court), told myself I gotta do this for the team. And I did."
        The victory was Ray's fourth in seven singles decisions this semester. The sophomore from Oakland, Calif., is 2-2 in three-set matches.
        Lewis-Clark State (12-14) won the doubles point when Matyrnyi and Daniil Felker prevailed 7-6 (7-4) against Jacobi Bain and Nereo Suarez, who on Thursday climbed from third to second in the ITA NAIA national rankings. The match was a roller coaster — Matyrnyi and Felker led 5-2, trailed 6-5, then rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the tiebreaker.
        Then XULA rallied to advance without a victory from either of its top two singles players, Bain and Julius Hell. Mathieu Strauss beat Itaru Kikuchi 6-4, 6-4 at No. 4 to tie the match at 1. Suarez gave the Gold Rush the lead for good when he defeated Cade Edwards 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 at No. 3. Jered Wilson made it 3-1 when he beat Austin Swing 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 at No. 5 — Wilson trailed 5-4 in the first set — and after Hell lost 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to Declan Townsend at No. 2, Ray got his teammates to the finish line.
        OLLU and TAMUT endured a rain delay of nearly four hours in the first semifinal. The Saints (12-12) led 2-0 when the storm arrived, then got victories from Guido Picasso at No. 6 and Kyllian Savary at No. 1 to advance.