Top-seeded Lourdes continued its perfect season on Friday evening, opening up Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament play with a 25-7, 25-19, 26-24 victory over Northwestern Ohio in the quarterfinals at Tam-o-Shanter.
 
The 18^th-ranked Gray Wolves improved to 29-0 on the season, and posted their 21^st sweep of the season.
 
"We started off well in set one, relaxed a bit in set two, and had to battle from behind in set three," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "We showed a lot of fight and really battled to score points late.  I thought our serve and pass got us in trouble at times, but when we needed it late, we served and passed well."
 
The WHAC regular season champs started quickly, scoring the first seven points of the match off of the serve of Lexie Curtis (Toledo, Ohio/Bedford H.S.).  The set steadied out in the middle, but with Lourdes leading 12-6, the Gray Wolves closed the set scoring 13 of the final 14 points behind the service of Stephanie Richards (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg H.S.) and Michi Jimenez (Vega Baja, P.R./Juan Quirindongo Morell H.S.).
 
Lourdes hit .480 with 13 kills and just one error in the opening set while the Racers committed 10 attack errors versus just six kills for a -.121 attack percentage.  Stephanie Ruffing (Columbus, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty H.S.) led the way in the first set with six kills for the Gray Wolves.
 
The Gray Wolves against raced out to a quick lead in the second set, holding a 7-1 advantage, before Northwestern Ohio scored five straight points to pull within one.  Lourdes extended the lead back to four, but UNOH kept fighting back, closing to within 19-18.  Lourdes would not relinquish the lead though, scoring six of the final seven points to build a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The two schools were nearly even offensively in the second, with UNOH, the tournament's eighth seed, swinging at a .200 clip while Lourdes hit .231 in the set. 
 
Lourdes led 4-1 early in the second set before three attack errors by the Gray Wolves allowed Northwestern Ohio to score six straight points and take a 7-4 lead, the first advantage the Racers held in a set all night.  The Racers led by as many as five, 15-10, before the Gray Wolves slowly clawed back.  Back-to-back kills by Ruffing and Molly Shonk (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Hartley H.S.) made it 19-18 before the Racers scored a pair of points to rebuild the three-point edge.  Lourdes continued to push, tying the set at 23 on a block by Stef Comte (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame H.S.), one of three solo rejections by her on the night.  With the set tied at 24, Comte and Shonk tallied back-to-back kills to close the match.
 
Shonk led Lourdes with 12 kills, and hit .370 on the night while Ruffing added 11 kills.  Comte was efficient with her 12 swings, registering eight kills without an error for a .667 hitting percentage while finishing with four total blocks..
 
Jimenez led all players with 10 digs while Meghan Birr (Muskegon, Mich./Mona Shores H.S.) handed out 30 assists.   
 
Nora Fa'atiga led Northwestern Ohio (15-24) with nine kills and nine digs while Cierra Anderson also had nine digs.  Katie Elson handed out 24 assists for the Racers.
 
Lourdes finished the match hitting .290 with 44 kills, and outblocked the Racers 9-5.  The Gray Wolves were outdug 43-42 by the Racers, the first time an opponent had accomplished the feat this season.
 
Lourdes advances to Saturday's second semifinal match, where the Gray Wolves will face fifth-seeded Indiana Tech.  The Warriors swept Siena Heights in three sets on Friday.  First serve is set for 12:30 p.m. at Tam-o-Shanter.
 
The first semifinal will match Madonna, a 3-1 victor over Aquinas, and Cornerstone, a 3-0 winner over Davenport.  The championship match is slated for Saturday evening at 6 p.m.