Lourdes University Athletics

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Lourdes earned one of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference's two automatic bids to the NAIA National Championships on Friday, and in the process advanced to the championship of the WHAC tournament after sweeping Davenport 25-19, 25-21, 25-12 at the Ebeid Recreation Center.
 
The 10^th-ranked Gray Wolves (25-5) will face 20^th-ranked Cornerstone on Saturday for the tournament title, with both teams having already secured bids to the national tournament.
 
"It wasn't pretty, but it was the win we needed," head coach Greg Reitz said after the contest.  "We did what we needed to do to get the bid, now we want to win the tournament title at home in the rubber match against Cornerstone."
 
Lourdes started slowly in the opening set, but with the stanza tied at 13, scored five straight points to take control on the way to the early lead.  The second set was tight as well, and knotted at 20 before four straight points by the Gray Wolves, including a pair of kills from Genessee Tate (West Covina, Calif./West Covina H.S.) allowed Lourdes to take a 2-0 lead in the match.  In the third, Lourdes hit .314 as a team, and used runs of 5-0 and 8-2 to put the match out of reach.
 
"Everything started out shaky tonight, but we steadied out as the match went along which was good to see," Reitz added.
 
With the win, Lourdes remains undefeated in the Ebeid Rec Center, moving to 10-0 since the building opened in September.
 
Molly Shonk (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Hartley H.S.) registered her eighth straight double-double with 13 kills and 13 digs to lead Lourdes while Stephanie Ruffing (Columbus, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty H.S.) added nine kills.  Tate had seven kills and hit .438 while Meghan Birr (Muskegon, Mich./Mona Shores H.S.) handed out 33 assists.
 
Angelica Dippold (Louisville, Ky./Mercy Academy) had eight digs, but the Gray Wolves were outdug by the Panthers 52-48.
 
Charlie Smith led Davenport (16-16) with eight kills while Kasey Stehouwer had 20 digs defensively.
 
Lourdes and Cornerstone will meet for the tournament title at 1 p.m. on Saturday in the Ebeid Recreation Center.