After dropping the opening set on Wednesday evening, Lourdes battled back to post a narrow four-set victory over Indiana Tech 19-25, 25-17, 26-24, 30-28 at the Schaeffer Center Gymnasium in Fort Wayne, Ind.
 
Stef Comte (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame H.S.) registered a match-high 16 kills for the Gray Wolves while hitting .454, helping Lourdes to a .271 hitting night as a team.  With the win, Lourdes has assured itself of finishing above .500 for the 2014 campaign.
 
"We really had to battle tonight," head coach Greg Reitz stated.  "We serve pretty well, but when we gave up points we weren't passing at the level that I have come to expect from us."
 
On Senior Night in Fort Wayne, it was Indiana Tech that came flying out of the gates, racing out to an early 11-3 lead in the opening set.  Lourdes was never able to recover as the Warriors hit .393 with 17 kills to take the early advantage in the match.
 
Indiana Tech took a 5-1 lead in the second set as well before the Gray Wolves sprung to life.  Behind the serving of Carolyn Manley (Holland, Ohio/Springfield H.S.), Lexie Curtis (Toledo, Ohio/Bedford H.S.), and Michi Jimenez (Vega Baja, P.R./Juan Quirindongo Morrell H.S.), Lourdes went on an 11-3 run to take the lead for good while building a 16-8 lead.  The Gray Wolves hit .393 in the stanza with 16 kills and just two errors.
 
Lourdes jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the third behind the service of the same trio.  The Gray Wolves still maintained a nine-point lead, 18-9, before the Warriors fought back.  A 15-6 run allowed Indiana Tech to tie the set at 24, forcing extra points, before a kill from Comte and a Warrior error put the Gray Wolves on top 2-1 for the match.
 
The Warriors scored the first five points of the fourth set as the hosts tried to force a decisive fifth set.  Lourdes answered to take a 10-8 advantage before the set remained tight the rest of the way.  The Gray Wolves continued to lead until late in the stanza when Indiana Tech went on a 5-2 run to tie things at 23.  In a set with 10 ties and seven lead changes, the two sides proceeded into extra points before Lourdes scored three straight points, the final two coming on an ace by Jimenez and a kill from Stephanie Richards (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg H.S.).
 
"We won some long rallies which seemed to take the momentum away from them and took the crowd out of it," Reitz added.  "I thought we got smarter on the choices we made as the match went along and made some good adjustments."
 
Richards finished the night with a double-double, tallying 15 kills and 11 digs, while Manley added 10 kills.  Jimenez topped the defense with 19 digs while Mallory Lenhart (Lambertville, Mich./Bedford H.S.) handed out 43 assists.
 
Shanice Richards hit .385 with 14 kills to lead Indiana Tech (18-14, 9-11 WHAC) while Katelyn St Martin added 17 digs defensively.
 
Lourdes (18-14, 12-8) will close out the regular season on Saturday afternoon in Grand Rapids, Mich.  The Gray Wolves will face nationally-ranked Davenport at 11 a.m. before battling Aquinas at 2 p.m. at the DU Student Center on the Davenport campus.