Box Score
Making its first appearance at the NAIA Men's Volleyball National Invitational presented by Tachikara, Lourdes University put up quite a battle in the first match of pool play on Thursday morning before falling to second-ranked Grand View 25-19, 25-18, 23-25, 25-19 at Wildcat Gymnasium on the campus of Johnson & Wales University in Denver, Colo.
 
"I was proud of our guys for pushing them to four sets," head coach Greg Reitz stated after the match.  "Winning a set today was definitely a positive."
 
The Vikings hit .252 for the match and tallied 46 kills while Lourdes hit just .117 with 34 kills.  The Gray Wolves did outblock Grand View 13-7, but was outdug 41-30 and had just one service ace compared to six for the Vikings.
 
The first half of the opening set was tight, with neither team leading by more than one until the set was tied at 14.  Grand View went on the first run of the day, scoring three straight points to start an 8-2 spurt which allowed them to seize control and win the first set.
 
Grand View (27-2) took the lead early in the second, scoring six of the first eight points.  Lourdes battled back to close to within two, 10-8, but the Vikings slowly pulled away, eventually leading by as many as eight points, 23-15.
 
Lourdes stayed alive with a win in the third set despite falling behind quickly 5-1.  The Gray Wolves tied the set six times without ever taking the lead.  Grand View appeared to be ready to close out the match after building a 21-18 lead, but four straight points by the Gray Wolves, the final a kill from Julian Rivera (Bayamon, P.R./Wesleyan Academy), put Lourdes on top 22-21.  The Gray Wolves traded side outs, creating a match point at 24-23 after a kill from Keanu Jacinto (Encinitas, Calif./La Costa Canyon H.S.).  Jo'Lon Clark (Compton, Calif./Long Beach Poly H.S.) recorded Lourdes lone ace of the day to close out the set.
 
The Vikings again took the early lead in set four, scoring the first three points.  Lourdes closed the gap midway through the set, but Grand View pulled away late to close out the first match of pool play.
 
Jacinto led Lourdes with eight kills while Clark, Brad Miller (Convoy, Ohio/Crestview H.S.), and Frank Craig (Jacksonville, Fla./Englewood H.S.) each added six kills.  Steve Barcus (Mount Vernon, Ohio/Mount Vernon H.S.) handed out 14 assists while CJ Rilveria (Kula, Hawaii/Kekaulike H.S.) had a team-high eight digs.  Rivera was in on six of Lourdes' 13 blocks for the day.
 
"I thought our outsides played pretty well today, despite being undersized," Reitz added.  "We just committed too many service errors, as well as attack errors."
 
Nikola Vukicevic led Grand View with 13 kills while hitting .571 for the match and Kyle Hanagami tallied 10 digs for the Vikings.  Both teams struggled at the service line, as Grand View committed 23 service errors and Lourdes had 22 of its own.
 
Lourdes (17-6) will return to the court on Friday morning, facing fourth-ranked Clarke in the final match of pool play, needing a victory to have a chance to advance to the semifinals.  The opening serve is slated for 12 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. local) in Denver.