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Lourdes University tallied its school-record 20^th victory of the season on Saturday morning as the Gray Wolves swept Saint Xavier 26-24, 25-20, 25-14 in a Great Lakes Conference semifinal to advance to the title match at Presidents Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio.
 
The Gray Wolves, the tournament's top seed, hit .439 for the match, including .532 over the final two sets, to remain unbeaten against GLC foes this season.
 
"We got better and better throughout the match, especially defensively," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "We passed at a level where our middles were able to be extremely efficient."
 
In a tight opening set which saw 14 ties, Lourdes never took the lead until a kill by GLC Player of the Year Frank Craig (Jacksonville, Fla./Englewood H.S.) put the Gray Wolves in front 19-18.  The teams exchanged sideouts for the next nine points until a Lourdes attack error gave the Cougars a set point at 24-23.  Jo'Lon Clark (Compton, Calif./Long Beach Poly H.S.) tallied back-to-back kills before teaming with Jaryn Kuhaulua-Feiteira (Waihe'e, Hawaii/Maui H.S.) of a set-ending block.
 
"We started off a bit shaky, but really settled down and pushed to win the first set," Reitz added.  "We were able to fight off a set point and still win, and I think that was really big.  It went a long way to helping us the rest of the match."
 
Set two remained tight late, just as the first set was.  Tied at 16, Lourdes scored three unanswered points to take the lead for good.  The Gray Wolves finished off the set scoring five of the final seven points, hitting .542 with just three errors in the stanza.
 
Lourdes took control of the final set midway through.  The Gray Wolves trailed 11-10, and saw the set tied at 13 before CJ Rilveria (Kula, Hawaii/Kekaulike H.S.) and Eric Ubior (Guaynabo, P.R./Wesleyan Academy) served 12 of the match's final 13 points.  Five straight errors by Saint Xavier, including a match-winning block from Sean Labriola (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Connetquot H.S.) and Amaury Miranda (Naranjito, P.R./Luis Munoz Marin H.S.) concluded the contest.
 
Clark led the way offensively with 20 kills on 33 swings, hitting at a .485 clip for the Gray Wolves while Julian Rivera (Bayamon, P.R./Wesleyan Academy) and Craig added nine kills each.  Labriola hit .857 with six kills on seven swings.
 
"Jo'Lon had an incredible performance with 20 kills in a three-set match," Reitz added.  "Amaury did a great job of distributing the ball as well."
 
Miranda handed out 42 assists while Brad Miller (Convoy, Ohio/Crestview H.S.) tallied a match-high eight digs defensively for Lourdes.
 
Sean Barry led Saint Xavier (12-15) with 13 kills, hitting .462, while Sam Kull added 10 kills.  As a team the Cougars hit .238 for the match.
 
Lourdes (20-8), ranked sixth nationally, will return to the court Saturday evening looking to defend its tournament title from 2014.  The Gray Wolves will face the winner of the Robert Morris (Ill.)-Cardinal Stritch contest, beginning at 6 p.m.