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Lourdes University opened the home portion of its 2014 schedule on Wednesday evening, as well as the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference slate with convincing 25-12, 25-16, 25-23 victory over Marygrove at Tam-o-Shanter.
 
"This was a good start to conference play with a quality team win," head coach Greg Reitz stated.  "We controlled our side of the net well and it was one of our better hitting matches of the year.  Our setters did a good job of distributing the ball."
 
Leading 9-7 in the opening set, Lourdes took control with a 13-3 run as the Gray Wolves hit .370 in the stanza.  Carolyn Manley (Holland, Ohio/Springfield H.S.) and Stephanie Richards (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg H.S.) each tallied four Lourdes' 14 kills in the set while the defense limited the Mustangs to just five kills.
 
Set two had a similar run for Lourdes as the hosts built a 2-0 lead in the match.  Holding a slim 9-8 edge, the Gray Wolves proceeded to score 11 of the next 15 points to take a 20-12 lead.  Lourdes tallied 15 more kills in the second set while holding Marygrove to a .000 hitting percentage for the second straight set.
 
The final set was much closer as Lourdes never led by more than five points the entire way.  The Gray Wolves opened with a 5-1 lead and never trailed the rest of the way.  Despite leading 21-16 late, Marygrove battled back and pulled within one, 24-23, before an Erin O'Neil (Midland, Mich./Dow H.S.) kill capped the match.
 
Richards and Katie McKenty (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame H.S.) led the Gray Wolves with nine kills each in the match.  McKenty moved into second place on Lourdes' all-time career kills list with 555, passing Brooke Hearn (2010-2011) on the all-time charts.  McKenty hit .471 on the evening.
 
Mallory Lenhart (Lambertville, Mich./Bedford H.S.) handed out a team-high 26 assists while Michi Jimenez (Vega Baja, P.R./Juan Quirindongo Morell H.S.) posted 14 digs in the victory.  Stef Comte (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame H.S.) was involved in four of the Gray Wolves' five blocks on the night.
 
As a team Lourdes hit .239 for the match and outdug the Mustangs 46-42.
 
Ashley Murphy hit .370 with a team-leading 10 kills for Marygrove (2-5, 0-1 WHAC) while Kara Kempinski recorded 14 digs.  The Mustangs hit just .067 as a team for the night.
 
Lourdes (4-5, 1-0) will step out of WHAC play on Saturday afternoon, traveling to Spring Arbor, Mich. to battle Spring Arbor in a rematch of last weekend's match at the Saint Xavier/Trinity Christian Crossover won by the Gray Wolves in three sets.  First serve is set for 1 p.m. at the Spring Arbor Fieldhouse.