Upcoming in Gray Wolves Volleyball: Lourdes is set for its first appearance ever in the NAIA Men's Volleyball National Invitational which begins on Thursday in Denver, Colo. The fifth-seeded Gray Wolves will meet #2 Grand View on Thursday morning to begin pool play before battling #4 Clarke on Friday morning. The top two teams in the pool will advance to Friday evening's semifinals.
Head Coach Greg Reitz: In his third season both on the Lourdes bench, and overall coaching men's volleyball,
Greg Reitz has a 48-26 (.649) record at the helm of the Gray Wolves. He was named to the Great Lakes Conference Coach of the Year this season and was also the MAMVIC East Coach of the Year in 2012. Reitz is the only head coach in Lourdes program's history.
Series Notes: Lourdes is 1-0 all-time against Grand View, having swept the Vikings on March 3, 2012 at the Fighting Bee Classic in Davenport, Iowa. The Gray Wolves are 1-4 all-time against Clarke, having fallen to the Crusaders earlier this season on Feb. 15 in three sets at the Stritch Wolves Invitational. Lourdes lone win against the Crusaders came in Dubuque, Iowa, 3-0, on Feb. 16, 2013. In pool B, Lourdes has never faced Concordia (Calif.) or Johnson & Wales. The Gray Wolves are 0-2 all-time against Park, dropping the most recent match in five sets on March 1, 2013 at the Fighting Bee Classic.
Wrapping Up GLC Tournament: Lourdes hit .261 on March 28 and defeated Robert Morris (Ill.) 25-18, 25-18, 18-25, 25-21 in the semifinals.
Jo'Lon Clark hit .303 with 16 kills while
Frank Craig added 12 kills. On March 29, Lourdes won a two-hour, 36-minute championship marathon match over Cardinal Stritch 25-22, 21-25, 17-25, 25-22, 20-18. Craig, the tournament Most Valuable Player, tallied 17 more kills and hit .270 while
Garrett Jones, who was also named to the All-Tournament Team, recorded 19 kills and 10 digs.
Scouting Grand View: The Vikings enter the national tournament having won nine straight matches, including two in the North Conference tournament. Grand View leads the country in hitting percentage at .311 and aces per set (1.96). Nikola Vukicevic is hitting a team-best .441 along with a team-high 68 blocks while Pedro Cardoso has recorded 258 kills (3.35/set) and leads the country with 64 aces. Kyle Hanagami is second in the nation with 10.41 assists per set (825 total) while Mitchell McPartland has a team-high 204 digs this year.
Scouting Clarke: The Crusaders had their four-match win streak snapped with a four-set loss to Saint Ambrose in the North Conference semifinals. Tyler Wills leads Clarke with 318 kills on the year and is hitting .314 while Matt DePauw has handed out 724 assists. Anson Lindsey leads the country averaging 1.48 blocks per set and has a total of 124 rejections. Kevin Murphy has tallied 246 digs to lead the Crusaders while Wills leads the team in service aces with 36.
Record Setting Year: Lourdes has set a new school record for wins in a season after posting its 17th triumph of the year in the Great Lakes Conference championship match. As a third year program this season, the Gray Wolves bettered the 2012 team's mark of 16-10 and the 2013 team's record of 15-11.
Clark Named Player and Newcomer of the Year: Jo'Lon Clark was named the Great Lakes Conference Player of the Year and the Newcomer of the Year after hitting a team-leading .269 while averaging 3.53 kills per set. The junior added 1.53 digs per set and ranks fifth nationally with 39 service aces.
Miller the Top Libero: Brad Miller earned Great Lakes Conference Libero of the Year accolades after tallying 237 digs on the season. The junior's 2.93 digs per set rank third nationally.
All-Conference Performers: Jo'Lon Clark earned First Team All-GLC honors while
Brad Miller,
Chris Lockwood, and
Frank Craig were each selected to the GLC Second Team. Lockwood leads the Gray Wolves in hitting (.310) and blocking (74, 0.93/set) while Craig tallied 219 kills (2.77/set) and had 63 blocks (0.81/set), ranking second on the team in both categories.
Facing Ranked Opponents: With both of Lourdes first two opponents at the national tournament being ranked in the top-four in country, the Gray Wolves will up the number of top-10 opponents they have faced this year to seven. Lourdes is currently 1-4 against ranked foes, having downed #10 Cardinal Stritch at home in three sets on Feb. 14. All-time Lourdes is 4-22 against top-10 foes.
Captains: Lourdes has announced tri-captains for the 2014 season. Serving in that role are juniors
Frank Craig,
Brad Miller, and
Jo'Lon Clark.
Winning with a Lower Percentage: Lourdes victory in the GLC championship against Cardinal Stritch marked the first time this season the Gray Wolves won a match when hitting a lower percentage than its opponents. Lourdes hit .194 in the five-set win while Cardinal Stritch swung at a .240 rate. The Gray Wolves outdug the Wolves though 62-49 and had 12 more kills (68-56).
This and That: Chris Lockwood is the lone senior on Lourdes roster ...
Garrett Jones is the only Gray Wolf to have played in all 82 regular season sets ... the Gray Wolves are completing a volleyball double as the women's team also earned a bid to the NAIA national championships this season.
