Lourdes opened its 2016 men's volleyball season in convincing fashion on Wednesday evening, defeating Lawrence Tech 25-11, 25-17, 25-9 at the Ridler Fieldhouse in Southfield, Mich.
 
"This was a good start for us," head coach Greg Reitz said after the match.  "We played pretty clean for the first match, but we need to improve our service game.  We missed way too many tonight."
 
The Gray Wolves tallied 15 kills on just 19 swings in the opening set of the season, committing just one error in cruising to a set one win.  After hitting just .160 while making six attack errors in the second, Lourdes rebounded in the third to hit .455 to finish the match with just nine total miscues offensively.
 
Defensively, Lourdes, ranked seventh nationally, held Lawrence Tech to -.157 hitting for the match, including a clip of -.214 and -.200 in the first two sets respectively.  The Blue Devils, playing in their first match in program history, collected just 11 total kills on the night.
 
Zachary Hawkins (Dickinson, Texas/Dickinson H.S.) led the way for Lourdes with 10 kills and hit .571 while Ryan Maune (Washington, Mo./Saint Francis Borgia H.S.) and Garrett Jones (Las Vegas, Nev./Las Vegas H.S.) each added nine kills.  Ryan Ferkel (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly H.S.) handed out 28 assists in the match.
 
Haykel Chala led Lawrence Tech (0-1, 0-1 Mideast) with four kills.
 
Lourdes (1-0, 1-0) will return to action on Friday and Saturday as the Gray Wolves host the Lourdes Invitational at Tam-o-Shanter.  On Friday Lourdes will face Lawrence Tech in a rematch at 1 p.m. before battling ninth-ranked Clarke at 7 p.m.