Lourdes needed less than an hour to advance to the Mideast Conference tournament championship match on Friday evening as the seventh-ranked Gray Wolves swept Lawrence Tech 25-12, 25-11, 25-10 at Springfield High School.
 
In a match that lasted just 56 minutes, Lourdes won its 10^th straight contest, all in straight sets, and will now face Siena Heights on Saturday for the league's automatic bid to the NAIA Invitational.
 
"We came in and played a clean match," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "We hit pretty efficiently, but now we need to be ready to compete tomorrow."
 
Lourdes hit .478 for the match with 41 kills while holding the Blue Devils to just 10 total kills, including just four through two sets, and a -.085 hitting percentage.  The Gray Wolves outdug Lawrence Tech (0-16) on the evening 31-16 and had 10 service aces, including seven by Evan Kinard (Las Vegas, Nev./Las Vegas H.S.), while not surrendering any defensively.
 
"Evan served really well from the baseline tonight," Reitz said.
 
The Gray Wolves trailed 9-7 in the opening set before Bryan Downs (Mount Vernon, Ohio/Mount Vernon H.S.) led a 9-0 run with his service, part of an 18-3 spurt to take the early lead in the match.  Lourdes raced out to an 8-1 lead in the second set behind Kinard's service, and never trailed while increasing the lead to 2-0.  Kinard started the third set scoring the first six points from the service line, as the Gray Wolves extended their school-record win streak.
 
Eric Ubior (Guaynabo, P.R./Wesleyan Academy) led Lourdes with 15 kills and hit .520 while Ryan Maune (Washington, Mo./Saint Francis Borgia H.S.) added nine kills on 11 swings while hitting .727 for the match.  Zachary Hawkins (Dickinson, Texas/Dickinson H.S.) tallied eight kills while hitting .429 and posted a team-high nine digs defensively.
 
Ryan Ferkel (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly H.S.) handed out 37 assists, and guided Lourdes to a .647 hitting percentage in the final stanza.
 
Lourdes (23-3) and Siena Heights (18-7) will meet at Springfield High School on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. for the tournament title.  The Saints defeated Cincinnati Christian (13-12) in four sets, 25-18, 25-20, 24-26, 25-18, in Friday's first semifinal.