The Lourdes University men's volleyball team hosted the cougars of St. Xavier University on Friday night at the Sylvania Tam-O-Shanter in MAMVIC match-up. The Gray Wolves would win in four sets 3-1 to get their first victory.

The first set would be an even battle early on as both teams would exchange serves to 6-6 tie. The Gray Wolves would take their first two point lead at 10-8. The lead wouldn't last for long though as the Cougars would put together a mini run to even things up at 13 apiece. Lourdes would rebound from the run after a timeout and start to shine as they would put together a run of their own in building a 19-16. The Wolves would increase the lead at 23-18 and would win the set 25-19.

Lourdes would dominate with 13 kills to 7 for St. Xavier in the first set. St. Xavier would have 7 errors compared to 4 for Lourdes and Lourdes would finish the set with .409. Pierce Stewart would finish with 10 assists while Jeremy Wood and Frank Craig would each have four kills.

The Gray Wolves would fall behind 4-1 in the second set before rallying to a 4-4 tie.  The Cougars would quickly rebound though to build an 11-7 lead though. The set would get more difficult for Lourdes as missed chances would lead to a 20-15 lead for the Cougars.  Lourdes would fight back to a 22-20 deficit before tying things up at 24 apiece behind a quick rally. The set would fall the way of the Cougars though eventually 26-24.

Lourdes would start the third set strong as they would build a 4-1 lead before the Cougars would fight back to a 4-4 tie. The two teams would tie it back and forth at 5's, 6 and 7's before Lourdes would take a three point lead at 10-7. The Gray Wolves lead would grow to seven as the Gray Wolves would lead 15-8.  Lourdes would maintain the lead at bouncing back between five and six points before taking a 23-16 advantage in the set causing a St. Xavier timeout.  Lourdes would win the set 25-17 to take a two sets to one lead.

The Gray Wolves would lead in kills 17 to 9 in the third set with Nick DiMarco tally six of them. Errors would be down as St. Xavier would commit four to Lourdes two.
 
The fourth set would start out much the way the others had with the two teams exchanging points to three apiece before the Cougars would grab a 5-3 lead.  The Gray Wolves would amass an 11-6 advantage before St. Xavier would call a timeout to try and regroup. The lead would grow to six for the Gray Wolves at 15-9 before a service error would make it 15-10. The Cougars would be kind in committing a service error of their own to make 16-10. Lourdes would take advantage of a run to push the lead back to seven with a 20-13 lead.  The Gray Wolves would take the set 25-19.
 
“It's great to get our first win and really appreciated the level of enthusiasm from the crowd as they inspired the guys. I believe our execution was much better than our first matchup and we look forward to our next match” said Head Coach Greg Reitz.