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Lourdes trailed 16^th-ranked Madonna two sets to one and 21-19 in the fourth on Friday evening before rallying to upset the Crusaders 13-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 15-11 in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference semifinals, held at The Activities Center in Livonia, Mich.
 
With the victory, the Gray Wolves advance to Saturday's championship match against 18^th-ranked Cornerstone, looking for their third consecutive tournament title.  The win also secures an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship for the third consecutive season, and the fourth in program history.
 
"This is a huge win for our program, doing it on their home court," head coach Greg Reitz said after the match.  "We definitely didn't start playing sound volleyball, but we made some changes and adjusted."
 
Lourdes held a brief lead early in the first set 3-1 before the Crusaders took control.  With Madonna leading just 8-6, a 7-2 run pushed the advantage to five and another 5-1 spurt put the set out of reach as the hosts took the early lead in the match.
 
The Gray Wolves bounced back in set two, never trailing on the way to evening the match.  Three straight points started the stanza and 5-0 run keyed by three service aces from Jami Markus (Oregon, Ohio/Central Catholic H.S.) pushed the advantage to 13-7.  Lourdes extended the advantage to 19-11 before Madonna made a late rally, closing within three, 24-21, before the Gray Wolves closed the set.
 
In the third set, Madonna built an 11-7 lead before Lourdes fought back.  A Kristin Murrell (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic H.S.) pulled the Gray Wolves within one, 14-13, the Crusaders pushed the lead back to three.  Lourdes was again within one after a Madonna error, 21-20, but could not find the equalizer the rest of the set.
 
Madonna, the tournament's top seed and regular season champion, looked poised to close out the match in the fourth, building a 14-11 lead.  The Gray Wolves were resilient, recording three straight kills, tying the set at 14.  There would be five total ties in the set, and the Crusaders held a 21-19 lead before Lourdes scored the final six points to extend the match.  Madonna committed a service error and four straight attack errors began the run before kills from Murrell and Emily Arnold (Sylvania, Ohio/Southview H.S.) capped the set.
 
Madonna jumped out to a 6-3 lead in the decisive fifth set before the service of Riley Kelly (Whittier, Calif./Whittier H.S.) ran off five consecutive points to give Lourdes an 8-6 edge.  The Crusaders fought back, tying the stanza on a red card sanction which gave Madonna a point to tie the match at eight.  There would be ties at nine and 10 as well.  Tylar Roberson (Elkhart, Ind./Central H.S.) had three kills and the Gray Wolves took advantage of an attack error to build a 14-10 lead.  After a Madonna point, Roberson's match-high 23^rd-kill ended the match.
 
Roberson had 20 digs for a double-double while Murrell had 19 kills and 19 digs for one of her own.  Murrell hit .436 for the contest, while Arnold hit .500 with 13 kills.  Angelica Dippold (Louisville, Ky./Mercy Academy) had a match-high 22 digs for the Gray Wolves.  Markus handed out 62 assists in the win.
 
"Our offense got more efficient as the match went along and we had some huge defensive performances to extend rallies when we needed them and got some big kills to keep our servers on the line," Reitz added.
 
Karlie Kelly led Madonna (29-4) with 16 kills and 16 digs while Amanda Hawkins added 15 kills and hit .406.
 
Lourdes (21-10), the tournament's fourth seed, hit .244 for the match while the Crusaders swung at a .227 clip.  The Gray Wolves also held an 81-67 dig advantage.
 
The Gray Wolves will face Cornerstone in the WHAC tournament title match on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m. inside The Activities Center.