Box Score Lourdes University's men's volleyball team came from behind to capture the Great Lakes Conference tournament championship on Saturday afternoon, defeating Cardinal Stritch 25-22, 21-25, 17-25, 25-22, 20-18 at the Student Health and Activities Center on the campus of Owens Community College in Perrysburg, Ohio.
 
The Gray Wolves, the tournament's second seed, set a new school record for victories in a season with their 17^th triumph, improving to 17-5 on the season, and in the process earned the league's automatic bid to the NAIA Men's Volleyball National Championship which will be held April 10-12 in Denver, Colo.
 
Lourdes overcame 22 blocks from Cardinal Stritch as well as a .240 hitting percentage by outdigging the Wolves 62-49 while tallying 68 kills to Cardinal Stritch's 56 on the afternoon.
 
Tournament Most Valuable Player Frank Craig (Jacksonville, Fla./Englewood H.S.) hit .270 while registering 17 kills for the Gray Wolves while fellow All-Tournament Team selection Garrett Jones (Las Vegas, Nev./Las Vegas H.S.) posted a match-high 19 kills and added 10 digs for the Gray Wolves.
 
Lourdes raced out to a 9-3 lead in the opening set behind three service aces from Julian Rivera (Bayamon, P.R./Wesleyan Academy).  The Wolves battled back, using an 11-5 spurt to take the lead 20-19, their first advantage of the day.  The Gray Wolves responded with six of the final eight points though to secure set one.
 
Cardinal Stritch (18-12) responded in set two hitting .345 as a team.  The Wolves took the early edge, 10-6, only to see Lourdes battle back to take a 16-15 lead of its own.  Cardinal Stritch scored the next four points, beginning with back-to-back kills from Patrick Lentz, to take the lead for good and even the match at one set a piece.
 
The third set was all Wolves.  With the stanza tied at three, Cardinal Stritch scored 15 of the next 18 points to bring the Wolves within one set of the tournament title.  The Wolves registered six blocks in the set and setter Collin Hartman had four dump kills.
 
The Gray Wolves fought off elimination in the fourth, hitting .286 of the set.  A pair of kills by Craig sandwiched around an ace from CJ Rilveria (Kula, Hawaii/Kekaulike H.S.) put Lourdes up 7-4 and the Gray Wolves slowly extended the lead from there.  Leading 21-14, Cardinal Stritch made a late run to pull within two, 22-20, but back-to-back kills from Jones and Keanu Jacinto (Encinitas, Calif./La Costa Canyon H.S.) closed out the set, forcing the fifth and deciding stanza.
 
The final set was an epic battle between the regular season champion Wolves and the would-be tournament champ, with 14 ties and five lead changes.  Lourdes took the first two-point lead at 5-3 following a Rilveria ace.  Four straight points by Cardinal Stritch off of the serve of Jimmy Torromeo put the Wolves on top 7-5.  It was Lourdes turn to battle back, tying the set at eight and again at nine.
 
Back-to-back attack errors by Lourdes allowed Cardinal Stritch to build a 12-9 lead before Lourdes scored three straight points of their own to tie the contest at 12.   Lourdes would go on to have three championship points while the Wolves had two of their own before the match was tied at 18.  Jones put down a kill to put the Gray Wolves up 19-18 and when the Cardinal Stritch attack sailed long, Lourdes had its first tournament title in school history.
 
Jacinto hit .444 for the match with 15 kills and nine digs while Jo'Lon Clark (Compton, Calif./Long Beach Poly H.S.) added 12 kills for Lourdes.  Bryan Downs (Mount Vernon, Ohio/Mount Vernon H.S.) handed out 30 assists and had 13 digs while Rilveria added 25 assists and 13 digs as both setters tallied double-doubles on the day.  Brad Miller (Convoy, Ohio/Crestview H.S.) registered a team-high 15 digs.
 
Torromeo led Cardinal Stritch with 19 kills and hit .375 while Noah Mader added 13 kills while hitting .360.  Hartman, who was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Mader, had eight kills, hitting .615, while adding 40 assists and eight digs.  Patrick Ronan led the defense with 16 digs while Mader was in on 13 blocks for the Wolves.