RAPID CITY - Sioux Falls O'Gorman advanced in eight of nine flights to take a slim 18-point lead over Rapid City Stevens heading into today's final day of the South Dakota state boys tennis tournament.

Two-time champion Stevens has four players in the singles semifinals and finalists in two of the three doubles flights.

"If we don't take care of business tomorrow, it's not going to matter," said Raider coach Jason Olson. "I wanted seven in the finals and we've got six, and O'Gorman's got eight."

The Raiders suffered a key third-round losses in Flight 5 and Flight 6 singles.

Stephen Tibbles bowed to Rapid City Central's Jonathan Ries in Flight 5, and Cody Eslinger fell to Jordan Zimmel of Lincoln in Flight 6.

Eslinger and Tibbles lost a hard-fought three-setter to Brett Lorenz and Mike Holkesvik of Aberdeen Central in Flight 3 doubles.

Olson said the Raiders must gain the finals in all four remaining singles flights and win championships in all six flights to keep the pressure on O'Gorman.

"What we do in the semifinals is going to be huge," Olson said.

Gib Moyle and J.J. Shultz came up big for Stevens in Flight 2 doubles, surviving two comeback bids from O'Gorman's Eliott Czarnecki and Kevin Rance to win a tense 5-7, 6-0 7-5 semifinal.

The O'Gorman duo erased big deficits in the first and third sets.

"At one point we told ourselves,'not one more point', and that's when we won the second set 6-0," said Shultz, "When they came back in the third set, we kept our heads and went after every ball."

"There was a lot of pressure and it all came down to who could handle it," added Moyle.

Shultz will square off again with Rance in a pivotal Flight 4 singles semifinal.

Rapid City Central lies third with 484 points, with two singles players and a doubles team still in the hunt.

Stevens' Billy Paluch struggled early against Tanner McCaskell of Huron, trailing 4-3 in the first set of their Flight 1 third-round match.

Paluch went on to win 6-4, 6-2.

"He served really well. I had trouble breaking him," Paluch said of McCaskell. "He played really well."

Cale Barber of Rapid City Central won a marathon third-round clash with Kyle Lambertz of Sioux Falls Roosevelt that lasted nearly two hours.

"He's a consistent player. I had to be more consistent to get the ball through. He's tough," he said.

Barber clinched the win with a powerful overhand blast that sent the ball over two fences.

"I guess I wanted that one pretty bad," he said

Other semifinal matches have Paluch meeting Jared Drenkow of Sioux Falls Washington and Barber playing Brad Entwistle of O'Gorman in Flight 1.

In Flight 2, Jack Hamburg of Stevens will face Evan Sims of Rapid City Central, with Mike Margolies of Aberdeen Central taking on Jameson Goetz of Sioux Falls O'Gorman.

Flight 3 will see Moyle play Derek White of Aberdeen Central, with Mitch Barr of Roosevelt meeting Czarnecki.

In Flight 4, Tom Tolman of Rapid City Central and Brandon Weeldreyer of Roosevelt are in the semifinals.

The Flight 5 semifinals have Jonathan Ries of Rapid City Central meeting Paul Fahrendorf of O'Gorman and Brett Lorenz of Aberdeen playing Isaac Krueger of Sioux Falls Lincoln.

In Flight 6, O'Gorman's Anthony Rauschenbach and Jordan Feige of Watertown will meet in one semifinal, with Austin Bierle of Aberdeen Roncalli and Jordan Zimmel of Sioux Falls Lincoln in the other semi.

The other doubles finals have Paluch and Hamburg playing Entwistle and Goetz in Flight 1 and O'Gorman's Paul Fahrendorf and Brian Billion vying with Lorenz and Holkesvik in Flight 3.